bell hooks is for everyone

I have recently finished bell hooks' Feminism is for Everybody and am currently finishing Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. This is by no means a complete review, as there is much to be gained from a second or even a third reading, but these are just some thoughts on these books.

Feminism is for Everybody is an excellent Feminism 101 book. It is written in high-school level prose with minimal academic jargon. The books is divided into short chapters, each focusing on a different feminist issue eg. race and gender, feminist parenting, or ending violence. The book itself is only about 120 pages long, so it is an easy read for anyone on a long commute or after work. I found this book very engaging to read, and easy to understand. It affirms hooks' own principle of making feminist materials accessible to non-academics, which she discusses in Feminist Theory from Margin to Center.

Feminist Theory from Margin to Center is a more challenging read. It contains more theory than Feminism is for Everybody, and is written at a college level. It contains many of the same ideas as Feminism is for Everybody, but they are considerably more fleshed out. It also contains strong, thoughtful critiques of the mainstream feminist movement. This book was written in 1984, while Feminism is for Everybody was written in 2000. Nevertheless, the critiques in this book still stand, and white middle-class feminists could always benefit from a critique and examination of their privilege. This book is an excellent text for those who want to expand upon their 101 learning.

My main issue with hooks' arguments is that she consistently uses the Marxist terminology of bourgeois (not so much the word proletarian) and advocates socialism, or something that looks very much like socialism, for a feminist economic system. This to me simplifies class hierarchy and struggle. There are more than two socio-economic classes, there are many. Furthermore, socialism as it has been executed worldwide has many flaws. Even in communist societies, there are class hierarchies and sexism. While I agree with hooks that feminist revolutionists need to find an alternative to capitalism (which is exploitative and often degrading), I don't think socialism is the answer. I will not attempt to posit a feminist economic system here because I am not educated enough in economics.

These books are also very Western or US-centric, so readers who are looking for a discussion of global feminism may want to look elsewhere.

I highly recommend these books to anyone who is a budding feminist, is interested in feminism, or is looking to deepen their understanding of feminism.

Follow-Up to my Target/Best Buy Post

I want to address some concerns that I have had and that other people have pointed out after my last post. First, I am not solely focused on a single issue. I simply happen to express my views about LGBTQ stuff more than others, partly because LGBTQ issues have long been ignored. However, it now seems other issues are being ignored. I can't say I support one thing about Tom Emmer, after looking at his platform (which I read over before contacting anyone or posting about his anti-LGBTQ views). I also, to use a cliché, jumped on the bandwagon of criticizing Best Buy and Target.

I read an enlightening post from the Bilerico Project today, which I encourage you to read if you have time.
To highlight some of the key points, Tom Emmer wants to cut several departments, including the Department of Human Rights, and subsidies for peoples' homes (i.e. programs that help people find places to live). After those cuts, Emmer would be able to afford giving big businesses tax cuts.
And, all in all, this is supposed to create jobs. Hah!

So, Emmer is bad for everyone except the big businesses. Now that corporations are considered people (more so than before) and their political contributions are speech (therefore protected under the first amendment), things like this are bound to happen again. Big corporations will continue to donate to candidates that will help their profits the most, which is generally republicans who are generally less on the side of equality and fairness.

I have known that big corporations have many issues. But, I have continued to give them business (with exceptions--I have not spent money at Wal Mart in years, for example). From this point forward, I will minimize the money I spend at large businesses and try my best only to support businesses that have my interests in mind.

Anti-Racist Thought Bubble: Kids and Costumes

A post on anti-racism remains incomplete if I do not mention that it is the 14th Amendment's birthday today! Happy birthday, #14!

I work as a substitute teacher at a large day-care center near my university. This day-care center is one of the best in the area and I love working there. Yesterday, something happened that caught my attention, but I was surprised that no other caregivers noticed.

The children were having their faces painted in the afternoon by one of the afternoon TAs. I was attending to other things, so I only saw them after their faces were all painted. One boy, age 4, was going around telling the parents as he arrived that he was an "Indian Tiger". He has a Latina mother, but he appears white. His face was painted in white, orange, yellow, green, and black stripes. Other kids were also tigers with traditional orange and black stripes. The parents were all saying things like, "Yeah!" or "Cool." Some of the other children started repeating this: "He's an Indian tiger." Each time, the parents provided some kind of non-committal positive response.

My initial response was, "Oh no, we have inadvertently taught this child that a racial identity is something you can put on and take off!" After speaking with my friend who is Native American last night, and my co-teachers this morning, I have a few more thoughts in my head:

1) Indian tigers are a real animal. They are tigers that live in India. It is possible that this is what the child was thinking of.

2) The TA who painted the faces does not have a higher education. It is possible that she projected her stereotype onto this child.

3) The child may not be old enough to understand how dressing up as someone of another race or ethnicity is racist.

So what to do?

The other teachers and I came up with the following ideas:

1) Ask the children to clarify their pretend play. Are they only being animals, or are they actually pretending to be Native Americans?If the former, focus on the animal aspect of the play to keep it neutral. If the latter, explain that we don't play that in this classroom.

2) Make Native American people concrete instead of abstract by doing a project about them, e.g. building canoes out of paper and learning about how they were made in real life (this was my friend's suggestion).

I'm still worried about the possibility of a child dressing up as an Indian come Halloween, but I figure that bridge can be crossed when we come to it. The classroom is very diverse for a small town (about half the children are non-white), and there have been no or very few racialized incidents as far as I know. My biggest concern is that as a (white) educator in a white supremacist society, how I can convey anti-racist thought/education to the children without appearing PC or hoity-toity. Most of the other staff are from white working-class backgrounds, and I do not want to alienate them. I am still going to try my best to stay true to my anti-oppression politics in the classroom while teaching and caring for these kids to the best of my ability, because I really love them all, and I want their minds and bodies to be free.

Responses to my Boycott of Target and Best Buy

This week I discovered that Target donated $150,000 ($50,000 in-kind donations) and Best Buy donated $100,000 to the Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, through the Minnesota Forward PAC. Emmer is a staunchly anti-LGBTQ, anti-choice, pro-Arizona-style immigration bill, pro-gun, pro-small-government candidate. He has received the most flack for his anti-LGBTQ stances on a variety of issues.

I refuse to spend money that contributes to anti-LGBTQ candidates any longer (this is my largest issue, however I have been branching out), and I have shopped at Best But and Target rather frequently, so I sent emails to both Target and Best Buy letting them know about my boycott.

Target sent me a generic response that they sent most people who expressed similar concerns. See http://www.towleroad.com/2010/07/emmer.html#comments for that response.

I sent Best Buy a more thoughtful response, and in fact received two thoughtful answers from two different people in the company. While these were not enough to make me break my boycott (and indeed one made me angry), I appreciate the responses and I think I will share them here.

To Best Buy, I sent the message:

Hello,

I recently was debating between buying an mp3 player at Target vs. Best Buy, and I chose Best Buy because of the excellent customer service I experienced. However, I now realize that I should not have gone to either. Today I read that Best Buy has donated $100,000 to Tom Emmer who is running for Governor of Minnesota. Tom Emmer is very anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) equality, and I care deeply about LGBTQ issues. Therefore, I no longer plan to shop at Best Buy, or any store that contributes to such anti-LGBTQ politicians' campaigns.

When I emailed Target, I received a mass-produced response stating that they only consider their "retail and business objectives" when contributing to a candidate. Frankly, especially as an anti-capitalist individual, I find that a ridiculous way to conduct politics. I don't know if I will receive a mass-produced response from you, but I want to let you know that I don't care for similar defenses.

Trey

I first received this response from the Executive Resolution Specialist:

Hello Mr. XXXXXXXX,

Thank you for taking the time to contact the executive offices at Best Buy’s corporate headquarters. Your email has been forwarded to my attention to review and respond.

With global operations headquartered in MN, Best Buy has a strong interest and stake in the success of MN’s business climate. MN Forward is an important opportunity to support candidates with policies that will encourage job creation and economic growth as the state and nation work to foster an economic recovery.

Best Buy does not support candidates or campaigns based on party affiliation, but rather based on their support of issues important to the company and retail industry. Best Buy’s political activity policy and annual report is available on our Web site at www.bby.com

Does Best Buy Support Tom Emmer?
No – As a company we do not directly support any individual state candidates in these races.
We support MN Forward’s objective, which is to elect candidates from both parties who will put job creation and economic growth at the top of the legislative agenda.

Thank you again for contacting Best Buy to share your concerns. Your feedback will help us build a better customer experience for all our customers. We appreciate your patronage and hope you will let us know of any future questions.

The first thing I noticed about this email was that it addressed me as "Mr." The second was that it was from Best Buy.
So, I first chewed out the sender for assuming my gender. I also don't care for his defense, just as I said about Target's defense. Candidates are not, or should not be, elected for a single issue. I also find equality much more important than business. I realize that people need jobs, but there should be alternatives (e.g. green energy) and I think taxing people who can afford it and putting that money into programs to help people who need support is more effective than the arbitrary claim that "high taxes mean fewer jobs."

After sending my response, I noticed another email from Best Buy, this time from someone in Public Relations:

Hello.

Best Buy’s CEO, Brian Dunn, asked me to respond to your email. I hope I can give you some context as to why the decision to support MN Forward was made.

Best Buy’s political giving strategy – and its decision to support MN Forward - is based solely on the need to help elect candidates who will make jobs and economic issues a top priority this election. As a business in an industry highly sensitive to consumer uncertainty, unemployment and market instability, a successful economic recovery is critical.

We sincerely appreciate and understand the concerns raised regarding the governor’s race. The reality is candidates across the political spectrum have a lot of different positions on a lot of different issues – and Best Buy may not necessarily agree with all those positions - but from a jobs and economic perspective, Best Buy joined other MN businesses in supporting the objectives of MN Forward. Consistent with Best Buy values, we also believe our employees, shareholders and customers have a right to know how Best Buy engages politically which is why we informed employees of the contribution and publicly post our political policy and annual activity report on www.bby.com/advocacy.

Please know that Best Buy remains completely committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace in which employees are encouraged to bring their whole self to work. For the past six years Best Buy has received a perfect 100% rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index recognizing our commitment to GLBT workplace equality. In addition, Best Buy supports policies and organizations committed to diversity and has worked closely with Best Buy PRIDE (our GLBT employee network) to support issues including working with the Human Rights Campaign and other businesses in advocating for the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) .

And we always encourage our employees to make their voices heard on issues and decisions that are important to them and give them the tools to do so. They have multiple channels to express their points of view – in person, via social media, etc. – and the ability to join in our grassroots political action work.

I know you have a choice of where you can shop for consumer electronics and I am sorry that we may lose you as a customer because of this political contribution.

This email was much more friendly and sympathetic, but in the end will not make me shop at Best Buy in the near future.


My decision to only support stores that have my values in mind both in policies and in donations will probably force me to spend a bit more money on individual products and will certainly cost me in convenience. But, it will hopefully help me curb my consumerism and, hopefully, I will make an impact. If nothing else, I think sending the emails was a good move.

One of my few Posts about Marriage

The National Organization for Marriage is making rounds along the eastern United States trying to convince people that marriage is between one man and one woman (probably in that order of importance). So, I feel that I should say something about marriage equality.

Frankly, I dislike marriage. It has many of its roots in men owning women, there is often a [non-consensual or problematic] power imbalance, it promotes assimilation of the LGBTQ community, and, in its current mainstream U.S. form, it is not inclusive of polyamory. It also often has religious connections that make it a murky political issue.

But, I still support marriage equality. First, I believe in reclaiming things in a positive and progressive manor. I use and identify with the word “queer,” which even now is sometimes used in a degrading and derogatory way. Similarly, today marriage, for many people, is much different that it was at its roots. Civil marriage, meaning the marriage recognized by the federal government, has little to do with religion, though many people fail to realize that. Besides, the government should not be dealing with matters of religion, for that would be denying people with other views their freedom of religion. Finally, there are so many rights that LGBTQ couples deserve that the federal government only grants to married couples. I think many/most[/all?] of these rights should not be tied to marriage and some of them are perhaps unnecessary, but that is too many battles and too many bills/laws/orders to attempt to pass to be effective. Besides, many of the same people who argue against “gay marriage” also argue against “marriage-like rights.”

To sum up my views, if civil marriage is an option for heterosexual couples, it should be an option for all consenting couples. At the moment, I don’t see myself as taking that option. This is my view on many things. For example, I strongly oppose war. But, I realistically do not see the U.S. completely disbanding the military in the near future. So, since heterosexuals and cisgender individuals can be open about their sexuality and gender identity in the military, LGBTQ individuals should be able to do the same.

For me, both of these issues are less important that, for example, a fully-inclusive Employee Non-Discrimination Act, helping homeless LGBTQ youth, and addressing homophobia and transphobia in the police force. Unfortunately, most of the large organizations’ money and time seem to be going toward these things.

As always, feel free to express similar/differing opinions or to start a conversation about something I said. I like hearing other, respectfully stated ideas and I like to be well-informed on issues.

(Note: I realize I only mentioned assimilation. I may explore it further in the future.)

GenderQuery wants your Gender Queries!

Dear lovely readers,

The world of social justice can sometimes be a confusing one to navigate, and Trey and I want to help! As part of our new feature, "Gender Queries", we want to answer your questions! They don't have to be gender related, but they should pertain to social justice and/or feminism in some way. For a guideline on what might be an appropriate topic for a question, see "Who We Are/What We Stand For", or past entries. Send your queries to genderquerii@gmail.com
We look forward to hearing from you!

Regards,

Holly Tree and Trey

Why David Brooks is Wrong, Again

*TW for discussion of abuse*

Warning: This may degenerate into a rant.

Melissa and Eastsidekate have done an excellent job so far of lampooning the ridiculousness that is David Brooks' column in the New York Times. Rather than waiting for Liss to blast this latest one out of the water, I thought it would be much more fun to do it myself (I won't even address the comments on the column, since they too are [mostly] full of fail).

Brooks begins his column with the following statement:

Let us enter, you and I, into the moral universe of the modern narcissist.

Oh goody, I was in the mood for a good mansplaining tonight.

The narcissistic person is marked by a grandiose self-image, a constant need for admiration, and a general lack of empathy for others. He is the keeper of a sacred flame, which is the flame he holds to celebrate himself.

There used to be theories that deep down narcissists feel unworthy, but recent research doesn’t support this. Instead, it seems, the narcissist’s self-directed passion is deep and sincere.

Sure, I get that, if by "sacred flame" you mean white cismale heterosexual Christian privilege, and by "celebrate himself", you mean "go on bigoted tirades and beat your girlfriend". Furthermore, I don't think "self-directed passion" is exactly right, since Gibson has directed his passion at tons of marginalized peoples.

His self-love is his most precious possession. It is the holy center of all that is sacred and right. He is hypersensitive about anybody who might splatter or disregard his greatness. If someone treats him slightingly, he perceives that as a deliberate and heinous attack. If someone threatens his reputation, he regards this as an act of blasphemy. He feels justified in punishing the attacker for this moral outrage.

And because he plays by different rules, and because so much is at stake, he can be uninhibited in response. Everyone gets angry when they feel their self-worth is threatened, but for the narcissist, revenge is a holy cause and a moral obligation, demanding overwhelming force.

This is absurd. Absolutely absurd. Seriously, NYT, get it together. How on earth could Oksana, someone whom I had never heard of until this incident, seriously present any kind of threat to Gibson's body, work, talent, or reputation? Oh wait, she did that by REVEALING HIS ABUSE OF HER. And this, my friends, is a prime example of victim-blaming.

Mel Gibson seems to fit the narcissist model to an eerie degree. The recordings that purport to show him unloading on his ex-lover, Oksana Grigorieva, make for painful listening, and are only worthy of attention because these days it pays to be a student of excessive self-esteem, if only to understand the world around.

Narcissist model? Possibly, but only a psychologist or psychiatrist can make that diagnosis. Abuser model? Definitely. By explaining Gibson's behavior away with mental illness, Brooks is also absolving him of responsibility for his words and actions. He was not "unloading", he was verbally abusing his girlfriend. This is unacceptable.

The story line seems to be pretty simple. Gibson was the great Hollywood celebrity who left his wife to link with the beautiful young acolyte. Her beauty would not only reflect well on his virility, but he would also work to mold her, Pygmalion-like, into a pop star.

After a time, she apparently grew tired of being a supporting actor in the drama of his self-magnification and tried to go her own way. This act of separation was perceived as an assault on his status and thus a venal betrayal of the true faith.

How can anyone possibly know if this is true? In these two paragraphs, Brooks is sticking his head into the narcissism sand and ignoring the much more likely, much more common explanation: Gibson is an abuser.

It is fruitless to analyze her end of the phone conversations because she knows she is taping them. But the voice on the other end is primal and searing.

That man is like a boxer unleashing one verbal barrage after another. His breathing is heavy. His vocal muscles are clenched. His guttural sounds burst out like hammer blows.

He pummels her honor, her intelligence, her womanhood, her maternal skills and everything else. Imagine every crude and derogatory word you’ve ever heard. They come out in waves. He’s not really arguing with her, just trying to pulverize her into nothingness, like some corruption that has intertwined itself into his being and now must be expunged.

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...its verbal abuse. Period.

It is striking how morally righteous he is, without ever bothering to explain what exactly she has done wrong. It is striking how quickly he reverts to the vocabulary of purity and disgust. It is striking how much he believes he deserves. It is striking how much he seems to derive satisfaction from his own righteous indignation.

Rage was the original subject of Western literature. It was the opening theme of Homer’s “Iliad.” Back then, anger was perceived as a source of pleasure. “Sweeter wrath is by far than the honeycomb dripping with sweetener,” Homer declared. And the man on the other end of Grigorieva’s phone seems to derive some vengeful satisfaction from asserting his power and from purging his frustration — from the sheer act of domination.

She hasn't DONE anything wrong. That's why we call it abuse. Furthermore, the language of purity and disgust, the belief of deservingness, the righteous indignation, the assertion of power...these are symptoms of male privilege gone amok, not NPD.

And the sad fact is that Gibson is not alone. There can’t be many people at once who live in a celebrity environment so perfectly designed to inflate self-love. Even so, a surprising number of people share the trait. A study conducted at the National Institutes of Health suggested that 6.2 percent of Americans had suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, along with 9.4 percent of people in their 20s.

In their book, “The Narcissism Epidemic,” Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell cite data to suggest that at least since the 1970s, we have suffered from national self-esteem inflation. They cite my favorite piece of sociological data: In 1950, thousands of teenagers were asked if they considered themselves an “important person.” Twelve percent said yes. In the late 1980s, another few thousand were asked. This time, 80 percent of girls and 77 percent of boys said yes.

As I stated above, only a psychiatrist or psychologist is qualified to diagnose NPD. Brooks is neither of these, and so has no business lumping Gibson in with what are probably pretty legitimate statistics on the prevalence of NPD. Furthermore, diagnosing a psychiatric disorder involves much more than one symptom. NPD is not a trait, it is many traits. In addition, the research that shows that kids consider themselves to be important is a marker of improved self-esteem, not abuse in the way Gibson has perpetuated it.

That doesn’t make them narcissists in the Gibson mold, but it does suggest that we’ve entered an era where self-branding is on the ascent and the culture of self-effacement is on the decline.

Every week brings a new assignment in our study of self-love. And at the top of the heap, the Valentino of all self-lovers, there is the former Braveheart. If he really were that great, he’d have figured out that the lady probably owns a tape recorder.

Whew, I am exhausted. Brooks seems to think that Gibson's behavior is the result of too much love for himself. It's not. It's the result of a lifetime of privilege. Gibson is not ultra-confident, he simply views himself as better than women, gays, blacks, and Jews. I'm sure if we give him time, he'll reveal many more prejudices to us. It is his privilege that gives him the chutzpah (best word I could think of) to verbally and physically abuse the woman who is the mother of his child. Instead of excusing Gibson's behavior with fancy pseudo-diagnoses, I hope Brooks will have the wherewithall to step up and acknowledge the very real problem of abuse in the US and worldwide. I'll probably be waiting a long time.

*ETA* Brooks has been blasted.