So I am planning on leading a women's issues discussion group at my college next semester. Last semester we had a small pilot group going but this summer I have to really nail some things down.

The main idea of my group is that every week we read some chapters from books (that I will assign) and then come in and discuss them in relation to American society, that of our college, our relationships, our lives and ourselves. The goal is to "decolonize our minds" and wake up from patriarchy (empowerment!), while creating a sisterhood of women (in whatever way) of all races (our school is somewhat socially segregated.) So it's about learning, growing, and making friends. And then we also might have a few days of-- how can we bring this knowledge to our wider community? type events.

Please help if you have any ideas about the following:

1. Group Name:
The Personal is Political (PIP)
Erasing Divisions in Female Youth (EDIFY) though we aren't really youth!!
Building Sisterhood Through Learning (BSTL)
??? other ideas?

2. universal "women's issues" topics that we can connect to our daily lives
pressure/desire to wear makeup, highheels, shave etc
portrayal of women in the media
...?

I also don't think I want it to be explicitly feminist (ie. have the word feminist in the title) because I am hoping to convert some people backhandedly (is that wrong?) I mean, the class itself will be, but I don't think I want it in the name overtly.

3. I am white, cis, straight... black studies minor.  and I want this class to include the intersection between race and gender. The pilot group we had was made up of one other white-straight-cis, black-bi-genderqueer, mexicana-straight-cis, and chinese-straight-cis, and they were all good friends. I'm a little uneasy presenting material that focuses on other races being white. Sort of like the "man leading a women's group" issue. But I do NOT want to ignore it as a large part of this group for me is about creating a sisterhood across races (and a lot of groups on campus either have to be designated for minorities, or it ends up being all white.) How do I say this in the beginning to the group? that I am assigning the reading material but I don't think I'm an expert obviously, nor do I want to put pressure on minorities and have them be tokenized. (I'm also self-conscious of how I am coming off in this post about this issue!) Basically, how do I get our group to discuss these things without crossing lines I shouldn't?

4. I'm also compiling a resource list of good blogs, books, magazines, movies, websites, organizations etc for people in the class. so if you have any... let em roll :)

Thanks!

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3 Comments

May 21, 2009 4:04 PM

[0+]  SociologicalMe said:

Ok, I'll try this again- my last comment didn't go through for some reason.

1. I have no idea, sorry.
2. Follow the news for current events to spark discussions. Ask the group members for anonymous suggestions. Go to feminism 101 sites for ideas. Check out feminism 101 books for ideas.
3. Invite guest speakers of all types so that your voice isn't always the loudest. Or take turns developing topics and running sessions with other group members.
4. This is so broad that I could answer in book-length. You can search feministing archives for lists of favorite feminist books and websites, or check the blogrolls.

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May 21, 2009 4:12 PM

[0+]  SociologicalMe said:

Oops, forgot part of #3. I would suggest that you state at the first meeting that one of the goals is to be intersectional, and that you acknowledge where you have privilege and are determined to work to form coalitions across race (and class, and sexuality, I hope!). Set up guidelines for speaking in the group- talk especially about how to disagree without being disrespectful, how to acknowledge a grievance against oneself, apologize, and learn from it, how to think about your own privilege. Then you'll have to really listen to what the rest of the group says, and carefully moderate discussions that begin to step on people's toes. You would probably want to have an entire session on different kinds of privilege, so you can talk about how it manifests (interrupting, dismissing claims made by minority groups, etc). Have rules, spell out the consequences of violating those rules, and follow through. You can start with the classic "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" article if that helps.

good luck!

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May 23, 2009 3:16 PM

[0+]  beckeck06 said:

thank you :) always very helpful!

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