I'm beginning my second year of college (and my first year at a new college as a transfer student) as a international relations and women's and gender studies double major. Immediately upon my entrance, I joined my college's NOW chapter (National Organization for Women) because it is the only feminist organization on campus. I will not deny that I really don't know too much about NOW other than its origins and its issues, and I wasn't aware of its criticisms until the Women's studies department at my school acted "unfriendly" towards a club member when she asked if the department would hand out flyers. I now realize that NOW is criticized for catering towards white, middle class females. The problem is that I do not want to be associated with an organization that focuses on white, middle class issues. And possibly a bigger problem is that I am a white, middle class women (and have grown up in a middle class neighborhood my entire life).
I'm not quite sure if I have a question, rather I'm looking for guidance. Should I stay with NOW and try and alter others' perception of our NOW chapter? Should I create my own campus group in order to avoid the stigma with NOW's exclusiveness? (This might be difficult seeing as I am a newbie and am holding a small officer position - and breaking out of that would cause some tension as if I am stealing their show). Are there any resources, books, etc. that you would recommend in order to broaden my perspective as a white, middle class female?
Thank you in advance for your help. I respect all feminist bloggers and am grateful for any advice/comments you have.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: My internal struggle with NOW.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/16536
How you choose to respond is a choice purely yours, but I would say if it were mine to make, I would at least attempt to see what NOW had to offer me. I will also say that for me, I find NOW frequently frustrating, because it regularly falls prey to a kind of insularity where it talks only to itself and its own internal concerns and does not wish to be self-aware or self-critical for the sake of needed growth.
If you intend to start your own group, then use the resources you have, find a faculty adviser, and network. Do not attempt to do everything by yourself. I tried that once, and you end up overextending yourself majorly.
I share with you a lot of the uneasy feelings about NOW. While I won't use this opportunity to attack it, I hope I can recommend a few alternative groups.
1) Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance - a part of the Feminist Majority Foundation, NOW's sister organization. FMF seems a lot more aware of a variety of struggles women face, and understands race and gender much better than NOW. Plus, its members tend to be younger and more understanding of the struggles of all women. You can get more information about them at www.feministcampus.org
Further, FMF holds yearly meetings for its college students and young feminists, and provides an opportunity to meet with other feminist students/activists and exchange ideas. In fact, a lot of the feminists I've met at these meetings have become good friends, and will be life-long allies in feminist activism.
They also have a wonderful staff of campus organizers who will always be there for you and help you create your organization.
2) Women's Studies Honor Society - or something similar. Especially with support from your WMST department, this will be great, because it brings together academia and activism. I have a few friends who started one on our campus, and if you'd like, I can contact them to see how you can go starting one.
3)
The column on the right side of this page has really fantastic links to various types of social justice/activism resources, mostly blogs. Definitely explore anti-racist, anti-ableist, LGBT, Sanctuarysphere (migrants), womanist, non-American, and all sorts of other not-just-feminist blogs. There are also a *lot* of links on this page that revolve around ways to break out of the "white liberal feminist" mindset.
As far as books go...most of my experience is in feminist and other forms of women's theologies, which is probably not what you are looking for. I might start with these two:
-Mercy Oduyoye, Daughters of Anowa: African Women and Patriarchy
-bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
Feministing had a thread on this topic awhile ago; you can plug the names of the books into Google, IOBA, or any other online bookstore and see what is (a) good (b) relevant.
I had a similar experience as board member for a major city chapter. They were definitely not conscious of their privilege or even considered the implications of having an all white board in a city that is diverse and has a huge segregation problem and issues with resources
I would definitely explore other resources.
I would also read This Bridge Called My Back.
Thank you all for your responses. They are REALLY helpful in deciding how to go forward.
And to Audentia-Thank you so much for posting that link to the top feminist books! I have now compiled a reading list for this year :)
and poison ivy as well-I will definitely check out that book
thank you!