In part one of her coverage of the "Feminism and Pop Culture" conference this past Friday, Cate Sevilla shares with us her disappointment that the "older feminists hate younger feminists" stereotypes seem to be true...
This past Friday, I attended the 20th annual FWSA conference, "Feminism and Pop Culture". Admittedly, this was my first feminism conference, and I didn't really know what to expect. I have heard lots of talk about how the older, "hardcore feminists" can be a bit judgmental of us third wavers, for many many reasons, (think lipstick, heels, and raunch culture) and I'm sad to report, the FWSA conference confirmed whatever rumours I had heard.
The first part of the conference, went pretty well - but I'm not sure if that was just due to my nauseating enthusiasm, or because compared to the last half of Friday's session, it was the lesser of two evils...
The conference consisted of various professors and PhD students presenting their feminist theory papers, and the first two presenters both taught at Australian universities. While one woman discussed outdoor advertising in Australia, (which seemed a bit irrelevant in Newcastle, England) the other spoke about how food in womens' magazine advertisements was usually represented as a cosmetic, and vice versa. It was an interesting presentation, as I had never really put much thought and analysis in to how and why hair dye colors are usually named things like "nutmeg" or "delicious brown sugar", but I didn't exactly feel like I learned anything new.
When discussing women in advertising at a feminism conference, I didn't really feel that it was necessary to discuss how women are objectified in advertising. Clearly, we've noticed and have analyzed it on numerous occasions and in numerous classes. However, worse than hearing the same argument and point being made again and again, was when one of the women announced that she thought the "This is What a Feminist Looks Like" t-shirt campaign wasn't "effective" because only "certain types" of women would wear that. Certain types meaning Ashley Judd or those who are young and what society says is "pretty".
That statement really pissed me off, as it came from a woman, and please forgive me for saying this, that looked like what people think a feminist looks like. There are feminist who have short hair and don't wear makeup; that's not a secret and that's where the stereotype came from. Let's be honest: a woman with clear characteristics of what a feminist is said to look like, wearing that specific shirt, wouldn't be effective, would it?
However, because there is that stereotype, women who are of color, who are young, or old, or have long hair, or look anything other than white, middle aged, or upper-middle class and are wearing a shirt that declares in big, bold letters THIS IS WHAT A FEMINIST LOOKS LIKE is pretty damn affective. There's a reason everyone paid attention to Ashley Judd when she wore that shirt, because to the rest of the world, she didn't look like a feminist.
This comment was made within the first hour of the conference, and it wasn't long after that, that statements like, "I find it very discouraging that my female students read magazines and go shoping after one of my women's studies classes" were made. In response to that "concern", a younger feminist in the room spoke up and said, "Well, that's what I do on my lunch breaks, as well..." but she seemed to go unheard.
Stop by Dollymix tomorrow for more of Cate's reactions to the FWSA's "Feminism and Pop Culture conference"...
Cate Sevilla is the editor of Dollymix.