tittle@ics.UCI.EDU (Cindy Tittle Moore) (06/26/91)
Alright, I thought I'd get the ball rolling on this. The purpose of
this thread is to come up with definitions of various feminist terms.
I envision this list as providing a basic list of terms that we can
assume anyone posting here is familiar with (this will become a
monthly posting, something we should have gotten together a while
ago).
I'm going to list a number of terms and descriptions below and I'd
like all of you to send in via email your suggestions. I will
incorporate them and post them again. After a few rounds of this,
when the document is more fully fleshed out, we'll hold a general
discussion on the group to refine and finish it off. I expect this
process to take a while, especially since it is now summer and some of
soc.feminism's readers are out of school or on vacation.
This is a preliminary outline. Please mail in comments, additions,
corrections, suggestions, and so on to feminism-request@ncar.ucar.edu
or to me.
Thank you,
--Cindy Tittle Moore
------------------
There are a variety of movements in feminism; calling one's self a
feminist can mean a variety of things.
Policies of
Radical Feminism:
Feministas:
This is my term. I use it to refer to the "bogeyman" feminist
that everyone is afraid of. It is nothing more than a stereotype;
but I have found it useful to isolate the really extreme features
of feminism when talking with people who assume that
feminist == feminista.
Separatists:
Popularly depicted as Lesbians, these are the feminists who advocate
separation from men; sometimes total, sometimes partial. Women who
organize women-only events are often unfairly dubbed separatist.
Male Feminists:
There is a lot of debate over whether or not men can be feminists.
Female feminists are more or less evenly split over this, some
arguing that there is nothing to prevent men from being feminists,
and others arguing that you have to know what it is like to be a
woman to be a feminist. This category is not to be confused with
parallel men's movements (which don't really have a name; I'm sure
they're not called "masculinists") which fight against the oppressions
that men have (which is a whole 'nother subject of debate).
Men's Movements:
Eco-Feminism:
Moderate Feminism:
Liberal Feminism:
Conservative Feminism:
Libertarian Feminism:
[Other categories? Both formal and informal are welcome.]
A short history of Feminism:
Differences in Feminism from different countries:
Important figures in Feminism:
Feminist organizations:
The League of Women Voters
NOW
[others?]
Related organizations:
Planned Parenthood
[others? by "related," I mean organizations that are not
specifically feminist, but enjoy widespread feminist support]
General information about soc.feminism:
History of this group
This group was formed in late 1989. There was quite a bit of debate
over the subject matter of the group, who would be allowed to post,
who would moderate, and what the name of the group would be. There
was a large contingent of people who were afraid that the purpose
of soc.feminism would be to provide a women-only feminist-supportive
environment, and they ensured that the charter of soc.feminism would
allow pro-feminist and anti-feminist views. In the end, four moderators
were selected to moderate the group. As for the name of the group,
it was nearly named talk.feminism, but soc.feminism won out. The
decision was somewhat political, as it was felt that more sites
carried soc. groups than talk. groups.
It turns out that the subject matter of the group has evolved
toward a basic assumption of the validity of feminism, i.e., that
women deserve a basic equality with men, with the disagreement
focused on how to best achieve that, or the prices we pay for a
certain route. It has not been a battleground over whether or not
women should be considered equal with men, and it is not likely to
become one. Women and men both of diverse views have always been
welcome to post.
The original proposer of soc.feminism was Patricia Roberts,
who collected the votes, worked with Greg Woods to set up a program
allowing multiple moderators (we were the first multiply moderated
group; I don't know if we are still the only one or not), and chose
the initial moderators.
The four original moderators of soc.feminism were Cindy
Tittle Moore, Miriam H. Nadel, Jean Marie Diaz and Valerie Maslak.
Valerie dropped out about a year later when faced with increasing
net-connection trouble. The other three remain as moderators.
Book Reviews
Book reviews are periodically posted to soc.feminism by Cindy.
Other reviews are more than welcome. Cindy collects all the book
reviews that appear on soc.feminism and is happy to make them
available via email.
Digest
There is a digest version of soc.feminism available. Write to
feminism@ncar.ucar.edu for details. It is mailed out about once
a week or so depending on volume and consists of what has been
posted (no editing).
Submission and request addresses
To submit an article to soc.feminism, post as you normally do for
other, non-moderated groups. This should work for most people.
If you have trouble with this, then mail the article to
feminism@ncar.ucar.edu. This will treat it exactly as any other
article posted to soc.feminism (in fact, this is the address that
your newsreader should email the intercepted article to).
If you have questions about the group, you can send your
questions to feminism-request@ncar.ucar.edu. This address will
forward your mail to all active moderators (moderators take
vacations, too). Please do not send email specifically to any one
moderator unless you have been requested to do so. Feminism-request
is the moderators' feedback mechanism; drop a note anytime you
have something to say about how soc.feminism is run.
General Guidelines for submission
Articles must be relevant to soc.feminism. They may not contain
ad-hominem attacks or flames. The topic of abortion is generally
discouraged even though it is of relevance to feminism.
Editorial Policy
If the moderator who receives your article thinks that it is
generally OK if it is somewhat edited will mail your article
back with comments. At this point, you can change it and send
it back directly to that moderator. If you feel that changes
are unreasonable, you can appeal to the feminism-request address.
Articles that are rejected receive a "reject notice"; again if
you think it was unfounded, drop a note to feminism-request.
If you sent an article and it has not appeared nor have you received
email about it, you may wish to enquire via feminism-request.
Do keep in mind, though, that articles may sit for a while,
moderators do not necessarily check their mail over the weekends,
and that site connectivity may mean that your site will not
receive your article from the moderator's site within the time you
expect. However, email is not perfect and has been known to send
mail into giant black holes, so bear with us.
Minor modifications may be made to articles that have lines
that are too long (they are reformatted to be shorter), or have
their attributions mixed up. Moderators will occasionally inject
their comments, usually to the effect of advising people where
followups are going to, warning of topic drift, or some other
explanatory note. Any further modifications are always after
consultation with the original author as described in the previous
paragraph.
--------------
"The last thing feminism is about is exclusion. Feminists can be
defined as those women and men who recognize that the earth doesn't
revolve around anybody's son---or around any one group."
-- Regina Barreca, _They Used to Call Me Snow White...But I Drifted_alansz@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU (Alan Schwartz) (06/27/91)
I am currently engaged in funded research on (among other things)
the application of cognitive linguistics to the concept "feminism"
and the categorie of "feminisms", many of which have been noted
in the Terminologies and Policies posting. Early results indicate
that "feminism" may be an essentially contested concept (see Gallie,
"Essentially Contested Concepts", 1957) which varies with speakers'
belief systems. In non-linguistese, it may not be amenable to a single
(paragraph style) definition.
I would be happy to post/mail any results on how the category is
structured cognitively, etc. Tell me if you want it.
----
Alan Schwartz | Disclaimer: I represent no one
alansz@cogsci.berkeley.edu |
UC Berkeley | "Life is what happens to you while
Cognitive Science/Women's Studies| you're busy making other plans"
| - J. Lennon