Greene: Interview Assignment

Transcending Barriers: An Exploration of Feminist Identity

While the concept of feminism is familiar to most, it evokes many connotations and transforms meaning across cultural and economic boundaries. Although the defining ideologies of feminism have changed, manifested now in a growing third wave sensibility that engenders the theorizing and collective action of new generations of women and men, the old problems that second wave feminism addressed remain relevant; as the third wave of feminist thought promotes a sex-positive world in which women and men of all races, ethnicities, class distinctions, and sexualities form the face of the movement, women are still battling sex-discrimination and harassment, a pervasive rape culture, and media objectification, issues made prominent by the second wavers. As third wave women and men are on the cusp of a society in which multiculturalism and diversity are valued more than ever, marginalized women of the second-wave still remember a time in which the homogeneity of even the most progressive movements limited the participation of lesbians, women of color, and poor women. Seemingly, we are at the juncture where these two worlds of feminist thought meet and blend, offering us a glimpse into a future that so many have worked for while urging us not to forget the past, the work that still needs to be done. For me, this realization was among one of the most illuminating insights I took away from an interview with my mom, JG. A middle-aged, working class white woman who grew up during the second wave of feminist thought, she represents to me the fusion of many different identities and perspectives, a woman who recognizes how her various social locations have impacted her experiences and embodies the philosophies of both “old” and “new” feminisms. I heard, reflected in her voice and her life, the culmination of what feminist theory means for individual women; above all, my interview with my mother illustrated for me the important ways in which intersecting identities, especially her gender and economic status, have mediated her perception of the world, resulting in a feminist identity that blends second and third wave discourse.

When we first sat down to talk, my mom and I were visibly nervous; I was worried she would feel awkward telling me about her life in such a scripted way, and she was afraid she would be unable to articulate the answers I needed. Viewing the interview as an assignment was an obstacle for us, so I first asked her just to talk; I gave her an outline of the questions I wanted to ask, then let her think about them for a few minutes before we got started. After we felt more at ease, I asked JG to give me her initial reactions to the words “feminist” and “feminism”--how she felt about them when she was young and what they meant to her now. She immediately responded that she “didn’t know,” that “you never really heard about it” when she was growing up. This struck me, especially since I have always considered my mom to identify with some aspects of the feminist viewpoint. Because of my mother‘s influence, I feel I grew up with a definite feminist sensibility, with the idea that my gender should never limit me.

To me, her response illustrated the peculiar nature of feminist thought, the contradictory notion that it’s everywhere and nowhere at once. Although the popular media and political establishment sometimes tend to negatively caricature feminists, or refuse to acknowledge them at all, the seeds of feminism have also become rooted in our daily lives; from Title-IX laws in schools that give girls and boys equal opportunity on the field or in the classroom to recent legislation that provides access to emergency contraception without a prescription, we are seeing concrete feminist victories after years of arduous struggle. While all aspects of feminist thought may not be popular or mainstream, and although she was never really exposed to feminism during the height of the second wave, the ideas that women are “just as good as men,” “emotion or anger shouldn’t always be blamed on a woman’s [menstrual] period,” and “women are pushed back, treated like second class citizens” have still become a part of my mom’s personal philosophy.

She wasn’t sure whether she even views these as ideas as specifically feminist, and would prefer everyone to think this way, not just those who identify with the feminist movement; several times throughout the interview, she expressed her desire that there was no need for a women’s movement, that she wished it could be about all people and not “just women.” She even feels that some feminists “ruin it” for women who make specific choices to be wives or mothers. In my view, this represents the current position of feminism, balanced delicately between a past in which women struggled just to break away from traditional roles, to have their voices heard and their thoughts represented in the mainstream, and a potential future in which all choices women make will be equally accepted by those who profess to be feminist.

I believe her observations represent one of the key issues of third wave feminist thought, exemplified by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards who, in the essay “Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future,” note that third wave feminists should “support one another in our efforts to gain the power to make our own choices” (628). Like revolutionary third wavers Baumgardner and Richards, JG would like to see feminist acts take place on the world stage, rather than on the margins of political thought. However, her perception of feminist goals is decidedly second wave, as indicated by her beliefs that women should be granted equal rights at home, school, and work, that sex discrimination and rape should be more frequently prosecuted, and that women’s biological differences should not be used against them, a sentiment reflected in the reproductive rights movements of the second wave.

Another aspect of third wave feminism I noticed throughout the interview was JG’s experience with identity politics. I posed several questions about identity, and her responses reflected her understanding that our identities intersect to limit or empower us in different ways. According to third wave author Audre Lorde, “as a tool of social control, women have been encouraged to recognize any one area of human difference as legitimate, those differences which exist between men and women” (458). Although Lorde’s essay, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” deals mostly with race politics, her argument is easily applied to the class hierarchy that exists in the United States, an issue that my mother faces on a daily basis. Because the second wave feminist model stressed homogeny, recognizing a common bond under sexist oppression that defined the struggle for all women, the experiences of women who didn’t identify as white, straight, and middle-class were sometimes ignored and trivialized. Lorde suggests that many women are taught to ignore aspects of themselves that deter from the goal of feminist solidarity, often at the expense of failing to actualize their full selves. Unlike many women borne of the second wave, JG resisted this model and refused to identify herself as “just a woman,” recognizing that her class position was as limiting, if not more oppressive, than her gender. Her employment experiences have made her acutely aware the discrimination that working class women face in a sexist, classist society.

JG’s first real job was in a hosiery mill at the age of 16 (she had to lie about her age in order to gain employment at the dangerous factory). Because her parents messy divorce had left her in a financially unstable position, my mom was forced by economic circumstance to live with friends and their families, drop out of school, and find work. Factory work was the only area in which she was qualified, so JG took a job working a machine that sewed the seams in pantyhose. She described the work as physically exhausting and infuriating, noting that the women were constantly deemed to know less than the few men on the job, who often had equal or less education. While the work was unpleasant, to say the least, she did find solace in meeting the first self-described feminists she’d ever known. Her co-worker, Pam, constantly challenged the male supervisors for their inappropriate treatment toward women workers, lobbied for workers rights, and fought to get the employees raises.

My mom also worked in several hotels as a custodian after the hosiery factory shut down; she remembers feeling like she was “pigeonholed” into certain jobs because of her gender, and although she once had dreams of finishing school, going to college, and maybe one day studying law, she knew that her economic position was holding her back. Most of the jobs she took, at the hosiery mill, as a custodian, and later at a shirt factory, were considered “women’s jobs,” and the working conditions were often dangerous and unsanitary. She even recalled the shirt factory having holes in the ceiling so large that birds could fly into the workroom and perch on the machines.

Eventually, JG married my father and soon became pregnant, giving birth to three children in all. She was able to leave factory work while we were young, and later worked only sporadically, but after my father suffered a massive heart attack, she was forced to work full-time yet again. This time, she found work at a carpet factory, packing large rugs for shipping. Calling this “man’s work,” she indicates that she took on the role that my father had traditionally embodied before he was unable to work, and that this was in many ways rewarding, although the job was physically and mentally taxing, leaving her with many long-term injuries. After my dad suffered a second heart attack and died in 1997, she stopped working for good, unable to handle the stress of losing her husband, becoming a single mother, and enduring such gruesome physical labor. After she left work, my family relied on Social Security to get by, and our yearly income fell well under the established “poverty line” for many years.

Because of her class position, JG noted that she has experienced first hand the stigma attached to poverty. She said that teachers and principals at our schools often looked down on her for our old car and clothes; she noted how hard it was to find someone who would rent a home to “a poor widow with three kids,” and she said that our landlord sometimes addresses her condescendingly because of her class and gender. According to JG, these identities have shaped her political and personal views, and she says that economics, health care, and women’s issues have always been the most important to her. To me, her insights on class and labor issues are some of the most striking aspects of her views on feminism, and she believes that feminism should not focus on just “women’s issues” but must encompass the exploration of class, as well as race, which she thinks “need to be addressed more now.” As a woman who lived during the second wave of feminism, many of my mom’s views are surprisingly third wave, indicating an acceptance of women’s choices, a desire for feminism to permeate our everyday lives, and a belief in the importance of intersecting identities and differences. However, as Amy Kesselman points out in her analysis of first and second wave feminisms, second wavers, similar to JG, were concerned with employment and working women’s rights (547). Additionally, the second wave view challenged the “relationship between the home and the family and the concepts of ‘femininity and masculinity’” (546), a struggle my mother was personally involved in as she fought to earn a living wage for our family.

When I first approached JG for this interview, I assumed that her experiences as a working class woman who grew up during the second wave of feminism would offer me new insights about women’s positions mediated through a second wave lens. However, the interview left me with so much more; I found that my mother embodies a blend of second and third wave sensibilities, reflected in her varied beliefs about feminist thought and action as well as her personal and political views. As the essay “Forty Years and Fighting” points out, current feminist discourse is “wedged between old definitions…that no longer work and new ones that have yet to be fully lived out” (158). Like my mother, new generations of feminists are reconciling old questions with contemporary approaches and answers, resulting in an exciting stage of feminist thought that is continuing conversations started by second wavers while positioning them in the context of current third wave discourse, blurring the lines that divide the waves of feminism, and uniting them across time, cultures, and individuals.