we seem to live in a post-feminist movement.
whenever i ask my undergraduates what they think about feminism, they are hesitant to respond. after some prodding, they confess that feminists have a bad reputation. as man-haters. after some discussion, they will usually concede that feminists fight for women's equal rights.
perhaps three of every class of thirty would call themselves "feminists."
but then we talk about selena.
"how many of you guys have seen the movie, selena?"
they all raise their hands and the tone of the class changes. they all have something to say. how they love the movie. how they love selena.
"would you call selena a feminist?" i ask them.
unequivocal "yes."
"why?"
because she broke through an industry where there were only men. because she did what she wanted to do, the way she wanted to do it, even if she had to cross her dad. she was strong. independent. she even had her own fashion line!
"and you all admire selena... you think she's a feminist, but you wouldn't call *yourselves* feminists?"
they sense that i've tricked them by bringing a tejana feminist into our discussion.
she's different. yes, she demonstrated strong and independent characteristics. she was incredibly driven in terms of her career. she broke through gender barriers in her field of music. she broke gender barriers within her family by going against her father's will in terms of what she would wear on stage and who she would marry.
nevertheless, the movie portrays selena as down to earth, from a working class background, and incredibly family-oriented. she fell in love and married young. at least according to the movie, she had expressed the desire for a family of her own shortly before she was killed.
my students *relate* to selena because she was family-oriented and seemingly down to earth, just like they are. but they *love* selena because she was a feminist. her strength independence, and ambition impress and inspire my students, a generation of young women, who were perhaps only ten or eleven years old when selena was killed.
and even though my students won't admit it, their ardent selena admiration makes them feminists, too.
@>-->>---
8 comments:
I never really thought of it that way but you've got a point.
Gotta love a class that uses Selena as a teaching tool, great idea!
joel, your comment on my previous post inspired this one. glad you liked it. :)
Dis I inspire the post or the use of Selena in your class? Or both... I'd like to think I inspired it all so, in effect I taught your class, which I will be putting on my resume regardless of it's accuracy.
*did
I gotta tell you .. that is a sweet way of getting people to see that a feminist doesn't have to fit in with preconceived stereotypes
DC-
i love the thought of you teaching a class on chicana feminism. ;)
Cincy-
thanks. yes, we are man-haters and so much more! j/k ;)
I don't consider myself a feminist for the same reason I don't consider myself a liberal or progressive ... I no longer know what the terms mean. There are so many sub-categories, competing ideologies, first wave, second wave, etc, etc.
So usually I just say that I really like women, but for some reason this is never enough to be qualified as a feminist. :(
Cindylu,
Your URL memory is unbelievable.
Whoa. Cyndilu and Oso are making me remember, that I actually used to post stuff on my blog.
Yup. Selena is cool, pero le hacen much pedo. (I have her CDs!)
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