Worldwide Feminism

Yesterday a friend asked me if I’d like to attend a lecture with her on Feb. 28^th.  I hadn’t heard of the speaker so I took a minute to see who she was:

Sheryl WuDunn is a Chinese American business executive, author, lecturer, and the first Asian American to win a Pulitzer Prize.

She has an impressive resumé ranging from advisor with Goldman Sachs to business executive for The New York Times where she covered global energy, foreign technology and foreign industry.   

She graduated from Cornell University with a BA in European in history and then earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MPA from Princeton.  In 2011 she was listed by Newsweek as one of 150 Women Who Shake the World. 

What interests me most, however, is the work she and her husband are doing in the field of international feminism.  In 2009 she co-wrote a book with her husband titled Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.  The book looked so intriguing from the website that I ordered it.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to hearing about her personal story and the Half Sky Movement on the 28^th. 

Here is more information about her story and those of the women she highlights:

  http://www.halftheskymovement.org/get-involved  (The cause.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheryl_WuDunn  (Wikipedia article about Sheryl)

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sheryl_wudunn_our_century_s_greatest_injustice.html  (Ted talk by Sheryl)

Culture and Self-Identity

In our class discussion last Monday the question was asked, “How should a woman react when she discovers her male partner is involved with pornography?”  Class member responses paralleled the opinions of many others on this subject which seem to be centered around four different perspectives:

·      Pornography is another form of infidelity requiring swift action on the part of the female to rid herself of a person she can no longer trust.

·      Men struggle to control their sexual responses to physical stimuli because of the powerful effect of testosterone, “the poison in their veins.”  Women need to be understanding of the challenge men face in this regard and should consider their partner’s pornography use as simply a management tool.

·      Pornography use is a form of addiction and can be treated effectively with interventions such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.  The psychological reasons of why pornography is sought by males should be explored and understood.

·      Pornography in its ‘softer’ form is actually benign and can be a source of positive stimulation for both males and females.  Many couples enjoy watching pornography together.

A class member pointed out that around the turn of the century it was women who were considered to be biologically unable to control their sexual urges and men who were thought to be rational and emotionally superior.

To me it’s just more evidence that underscores the depth of our blindness to the cumulative effect of culture on our personal identity.

Knitting Needles and Tangled Thoughts

Yesterday in the library on campus I saw a young man sitting by himself in an upholstered chair knitting what looked like a scarf.  My immediate reaction was negative and judgmental with thoughts tumbling through my mind like “What’s he doing knitting!”

My next thought was more observational as I pondered the cultural conditioning and personal prejudice behind my knee-jerk response.

In an article I read recently the author challenged her readers to imagine a world where gender didn’t exist.  Not that there would be humans without biological distinctions relative to gender, but rather that the male/female designations would have no intrinsic meanings or cultural expectations attached to the words.  There would just be “people.”  Period.  No classification beyond that. 

It surprised me how difficult it was to create a mental picture of a gender-free society.  If gender provides the framework for our self-identity then who would we be without it?