Campus Engagement

Nadean Richards

Ms Tweed

Intro to Women’s Studies

07 February 2012

Campus Engagement 1

The event I attended was called “Black women in feminism” and it was very interesting because the teacher talked about different challenges African American women had to overcome and different feminists that changed the movement.  Some names that were mentioned include Alice Walker, Bell Hooks, and Michelle Obama. Bell hooks talked about feminism in a pop culture way which made her books approachable for people to read.  One of the questions the teacher asked was “What steps can we take to educate people about black feminism?” .  I think we should start by putting information about black feminism in textbooks and having them accessible to everyone.  It all starts with education and unless students have access to the information they won’t know the facts. The three challenges that were discussed include proof that feminism is not just for white women, demand to share power with white women, and fight the hate towards men. People stereotype this movement because of what they have either seen or heard from someone else. Feminism is not just for white women and men can also be included in this change. We all need to work together in order to achieve one goal which equality for all sexes. Michelle Obama was called an angry black woman because she is an active member of feminism. This is morally wrong because this stereotype is not true and still manages to be in the media. Even though women have a right to be angry it does not mean that they are and it should not matter what their race is either.  We also talked about what people think is beautiful for a woman as in means of appearance, for example lightly colored skin, thin body, long hair, etc. I think the media has such a major role on how they think people should look and think, it seems like everyone is trying to look the same and seem normal. Being normal is very important to people because they don’t want t seem weird or different. Woman are pressured into looking beautiful everyday because of these assumptions and some women get called ugly or get told they look like a boy because they don’t have long hair. This needs to change because women are more than just an appearance to others; they have a voice as well. From this event I learned that feminism still has a long way to go in society and that women need to step up and voice their opinions.