Creative Defecation: Being a Shity Hybrid

This posting is more personal as opposed to being focused on the subject of this blog, but this thought process comes from my own feminist consciousness and my third-waver conflict.

I always seem to write only when I am upset, so that I live in a space between tears and stories. I had to leave home again to say hello to my empty apartment, but somehow it didn’t feel as terrible as it often does. The last day of my weekend’s home are often morose—my feeling nostalgic, guilty, lonely, but attempting to enjoy those moments despite the difficult navigation of my constant emotions. These are the moments where words hit me on the forehead like the edge of the kitchen table when you rise too quickly from picking up a stray grape. So today, after weeks of not writing a word, when I boarded the plane I pulled out my plain compact yellow office pad and started to write. I wrote about my grandfather’s secrets, my mother’s childhood, my conflicting life wishes, and then this of course. By the time I got off the plane I knew I could somehow face the week.

When I think of myself as a writer—if we can even venture to refer to me as a writer—I know I want to follow Judith Ortiz Cofer’s advice. I want to be Maria la Sabida—who I consider to be a wonderful representation of underground feminism as she works covertly within the system by using her intellect as opposed to full frontal force—but never seem to get there. I want writing to be my daily ritual. I want to be the Maria Sabida who demands time for her art, but instead I am embarrassed to realize that I seem to fit some antiquated stereotype of the emotional poet who only writes in moments of great sensibility. This practice of writing after tears generally makes me entertain terrible self-deprecating thoughts of how my writing will likely always be limited, as I seem to treat language as a moment of creative defecation in search of a comfortable release so I no longer feel clogged up with emotions.

I always imagined that writing would be my best feminist activism—that when my talents evolved I would be a feminist writer, or more specifically an underground feminist writer. But instead of constructing the wonderfully complex stories for girls that I dream of writing, I am composing bursts of my family tree—memories that are my own and some I’ve stolen. Instead of being Maria la Sabida or Maria la Loca, I am a hybrid of both. I eat the “sleep inducing figs” and the run through the motions of everyday life, but then with the right catalyst I become the woman who has “wedded the negative forces in her life that would keep her from fulfilling her mission and, furthermore, that she has made the negative forces work for her instead of against her” (Cofer).

I’m not sure what this means about me as a writer, all I know is that I wait patiently for the catalyst that will make me drop everything to write in the margins of my yellow work pad.

New Post: Underground Feminism and the "Disney Renaissance"

Underground Feminism and the "Disney Renaissance"

Hello Blog Universe,

I apologize for the two week delay in updating. I reached a mid-semester grading peak and seemingly had time for nothing else. I will try my best to make sure it never happens again. Since my last update, I have decided to change my posting format. While I like the organization of the topic based pages, I have decided to put all posts on the main blog page. I will continue to post on the pages, but the topic pages will be used for archival purposes. This will allow anyone that is new to the blog find readings based on areas of interest, but also allow regular readers to receive updates about postings and make comments.

This week’s blog posting is inspired by various conversations I had with fellow classmates in my Gender Theory course some years ago. We often discussed Disney films (ills and benefits). I know Disney princess films are generally disliked by the feminist community, and while I understand the feeling of contempt, I would like to explore how the representations of women in Disney films shift according to audience and politics of the time.

While many Disney films before the nineties are overtly sexist in nature (such as Sleeping Beauty and Snow White), a notable shift in the representation of women begins to occur in the late 1980’s. On the cusp of the girl power movement, Disney begins what some film producers and animators refer to as the “Disney Renaissance.” While this term is meant to merely show the string of successes with their films, I would like to consider how the films in this era produce images of underground feminism for young audiences. Influenced by third-wave feminist politics, these films challenge some of the same stereotypes and social norms that older Disney films perpetuate. In the next couple of weeks, I will write several postings on this topic focusing primarily on The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Mulan.

According to the documentary Treasures Untold, the Little Mermaid was the film to begin this age that spanned from 1989 to 1998. I myself was skeptical of Disney despite growing up watching many of the “renaissance” films. It wasn’t until a paper I wrote for the same gender theory course that I changed my mind. I explored adaptations of the mermaid tale only to discover that Disney’s version is the closest to a feminist retelling of tale in mainstream popular culture. An energetic non-conformist, the Little Mermaid has all the makings of a feminist. However, consistently Little Mermaid transforms into a subservient silent bride preferring the confines of domesticity. While various improvements have surfaced since Han Christian Anderson’s original version, none have empowered Ariel as much the Walt Disney film version. Believing that this could not be that case, I sought out alternative versions of the Little Mermaid and found Barbara Walker’s Feminist Fairy Tales. Yet, when reading Walker’s version, I found that the major misogynistic elements from Anderson’s tale prevailed.

Walker’s “littlest mermaid” begins the same way the others do, with an empowered and autonomous protagonist. The nameless mermaid begins as an eco-activist that uses coral to “cut open the nests to release the dolphins, turtles, and fish” (179) trapped in anglers’ nets. She plays outside with other species, rejecting the domestic activities of “pearl-stringing and coral carving” (179). Despite her love for activism, the littlest mermaid forgets her independent ways to pursue the “richly dressed” (180) human with the “handsomest face” (180). Walker replicates the marriage plot by creating a heroine that leaves her feminism behind in the pursuit of heteronormative domestic felicity. In fact, the unnamed princess undergoes “magical operations” (181) to fit the ideal human shape for her future husband.

This transformation, like the original tale, is so painful for the princess that she can barely walk. Despite all of the littlest mermaid’s sacrifices (plastic surgery, continual pain, leaving her family/friends, and ending her activism) the prince still initially rejects her for another woman. Instead of returning to her joyful former life, the nameless mermaid stays waiting for the prince’s love. The prince, aware that she has no intention of leaving, invokes his power of deception over the now silent and nameless littlest mermaid by lying to her and arranging a fake marriage. Only when rejected by his other fiancé does the prince truly marry the littlest mermaid and help heal her pain. The prince, unlike the mermaid, never makes any sacrifices for their love and never tells her the truth about their marriage. Walker maintains the misogynistic undertones of the “self-scarifying” (Borges 2) woman serving the patriarch as in the original tale. Walker also renders her heroine nameless and makes her choose between activism and domesticity while simultaneously forcing her to fit human beauty ideals for the sake of happiness.

Walker’s “feminist” retelling of the classical fairy tale only further pushes the Little Mermaid into a subordinate state in which happiness is dependent on heteronormative ideals. As of now, Disney’s adventurous Ariel is the closest we have to a feminist Little Mermaid. In the end, Ariel does not have to sacrifice her family or empowering voice for the love of a man. Ariel and Prince Eric are both willing to make sacrifices for their relationship, and Eric never lies or mistreats Ariel. Their marriage unites the earth and sea kingdoms for a sense of world peace and their “mixed” union enables an acceptance of the other. It is also important to note that Ariel, unlike the other versions of the love struck mermaid, has an interest in the human world before she even meets Eric. Ariel acts like an archeologist, collecting artifacts dispersed in the ocean so she can better understand the human world. In the lyrics of “Part of Your World,” Ariel describes how her collection of material objects means little to her in comparison to her aspirations of experiences another culture, “I've got gadgets and gizmos aplenty/I've got whozits and whatzits galore/You want thingamabobs? I got twenty/But who cares?/No big deal/I want more/I wanna be where the people are/I wanna see/Wanna see em dancing” (1989 film). As a result, while Eric seemingly precipitates her decision to go to Ursula, Ariel has a non-romantic personal interest in becoming human. Ariel persistently chooses her own path, whether it is her dream of exploring other cultures or her refusal to fit the social norms set by her father (singing with her sisters and marrying a merman). It is this animated film that first shows underground feminist themes in this film industry after decades of weak “damsels in distress” heroines. While feminist language is not present, Ariel’s adventurous personality, her rejection of restricting social norms, and her attempts to break down the stereotypes merpeople have of others shows the influence of feminism on this film industry. For my next posting, I will explore underground feminism in Disney’s retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

New posting under "A Path from Girlhood: How Underground Feminism Made You more Open to Feminism in the Future"

Check out my new posting about underground feminism in adolescent fantasy novel’s by Tamora Pierce under the " A Path from Girlhood: How Underground Feminism Made You More Open to Feminism in the Future " page at the right hand side of the blog. Enjoy and don't forget to submit your own ideas to undergroundfeminism@gmail.com!

New Post Under the "Where in the World is Underground Feminism Page"

Check out my new posting under the "Where in the World is Underground Feminism" page. I talk about Las Damas en Blanco, an activist group in Cuba. If you are interested in underground feminism, remember that you can submit your own responses to undergroundfeminism@gmail.com to be posted on the blog. Thank you for reading!

New Post Under the "Reading Response" Page

Check out my new posting about underground feminism in Hidier's novel born confused under the "Reading Response" page at the right hand side of the blog. Enjoy and don't forget to submit your own ideas to undergroundfeminism@gmail.com!

Getting to Know Underground Feminism: What is it About?

As a feminist activist and scholar for the last couple of years, I have been considering the dilemma of working as a feminist in communities that were either weary of the feminist label or were unaccepting of my women’s rights politics altogether. I first started to consider this while working with a girls leadership program at the University of Central Florida. The mentoring program is for seventh-grade girls who are chosen by their teachers and counselors for showing leadership potential. The curriculum centers around helping girls negotiate girlhood and to encourage them to take on active leadership roles. It facilitates this process by attempting to foster a non-socially aggressive environment with positive older role models that can give each little sister the support and resources to make positive changes in their local communities. While this program works on feminist principals and methodology, it does not use the feminist label out respect for the parents and community we work in.

The result from my experiences with this leadership program is what I have termed, with the help of my dear friend Meredith Tweed, underground feminism (for lack of a better term). This is a topic that I discuss in depth in my MA thesis project. In this work, I attempt challenge the belief within the feminist community that subtle activism is automatically weak or inconsequential. Underground feminism is a method of activism that works by conducting feminist activism without the use of the polarizing rhetoric. I begin by breaking down selected third-wave “how to” feminist texts by Jessica Valenti and Megan Seely that I argue perpetuate the problems of the second wave by maintaining strict definitions of feminist activism in which girls and women “are expected to get on the picket line and wave a one size-fits-all feminist flag that may not represent them” (7). It is the lack of a feminist model that recognized the labor of the no-label activist that led me to consider the inclusion of new methods. This is not to say that the methods of the second wave and third wave have not worked in past and cannot continue to work in some spaces. On the contrary, it is clear that the feminist movement has made many advances in women’s rights. However, as is the case with the UCF program, our current feminist models simply are not always conducive to getting the work done. This blog and the tenets of underground feminism are meant to be an extra tool. When denied access to communities unfamiliar with feminist politics, instead of trying to make our through by force, we can cleverly sneak by the barriers.

I understand that many feminists will find this problematic. Why should we have to give up using the label? While the repercussions of using feminist language are highly problematic, as a feminist community our focus here should be to cast a wider net in order to reach women and girls that may otherwise remain unfamiliar with feminist ideas. If we continue to value the issues of rhetoric over getting results, we will only succeed in keeping ourselves insular without any hope of the radical widespread change we hope to see in the world.

However, while underground feminism does operate under the principal of disidentification (a term I adapt in my thesis from Jose Munoz’s Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics) with the label, this is not to say that all activism can claim to be underground feminism. Being a woman does not automatically mean one is a feminist anymore than being a man means that you are automatically sexist. The activism must show a commitment to feminist ideals and to ending all forms of oppression. Underground feminism is NOT a denial of feminist theory or political goals. In fact, the defining of underground feminism in my thesis is developed through the amalgamation of various feminist theories by authors like Charlotte Bunch, Nieto Gomez, and bell hooks. The tenets of this methodology already exist within the movement. In fact, this is already a widely practiced form of activism. I am merely attempting to bring all of these various readings, methods, ideas, models, and experiences into one place everyone can access. While I ground my own work in literary studies, I hope that this blog will cast a wider net that will allow us as a feminist community to understand how we can use this method and how it is already being used daily. As a result, this blog will work on a submission basis from any interested author.

The blog is broken down in to various page topics explained below. If you have a submission for one of these sections please email me at undergroundfeminism@gmail.com . No sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, ageist, classist, or bigoted posts of any kind will be considered for the blog. The email should include your name, reason of interest or affiliation, and your writing sample. There is NO limit on the amount of submissions. Please send as many as you would like, but please show patience as I read through them. I will look over all samples for editing. If your post has no errors, I will post it on the blog within a week. Otherwise, I will email you back with suggestions for possible changes and post it to the blog once the sample has been edited and returned. Below is an explanation of each topic page:

Make it Your Own: What Methods Have Worked Best for You?

Now that we have named the process of underground feminism, have you ever done it and what tactics did you use? Have you ever discussed feminist ideas at work without using the term because it was not acceptable? Have you ever found yourself conducting feminism activism, but unable to use the word because of the regulations or standards? Tell us your strategy so we might all benefit from your experience.

A Path from Girlhood: How Underground Feminism Made You More Open to Feminism in the Future?

As a member of the feminist community over the years, I have found that many feminist activists can trace the influences of their childhood that made them more open to feminist ideas as adults. I myself remember thinking – “Oh so this is feminism? I already felt this way because of my mom.” So, while my mother never used the term feminism, I was able to recognize that the ideas and beliefs mirrored each other. This page then is about your first exposure to feminist ideas that did not include use of the label.

Covert Organizations: Examples of Underground Feminism in Your Community

Do you think you work for an organization that practices underground feminism? Tell us about it. If you cannot divulge the name of the organization for reasons of confidentiality, let me know and we can work on maintaining anonymity.

Media Awareness: Underground Feminism in Pop culture

Did you ever watch a film or read a comic book that you felt was feminist friendly even if it did not use feminist rhetoric explicitly? Submit a review and tell us how the piece adheres to underground feminism.

Personal Narrative: What You Do Daily to Practice Covert Activism

So you may not work for an organization where you use underground feminism, but maybe you use it in your personal life. Tell us your activist stories.

Reading Responses: Book Reviews and Analysis of Useful Texts for the Underground Feminist

If you read an essay, novel, article, or even another blog that may relate to underground feminism, let us know about it. This can be in the form of a review, short description, or analysis. However, please make sure that you give credit to the author and let us know how to gain access to the work.

Living in Doubt: Why We Still Need Feminism and How Underground Feminism Can Help

Some people still doubt that feminism is needed at all. Disagree? This is the page to tell us about it.

Where in the World is Underground Feminism: Discussing Global/Transnational Examples of Underground Feminism

On this page, we will have the opportunity to discuss examples of feminist activism abroad that may practice feminism without the label. Entries that demonize, other, or stereotype cultures or peoples will not be considered for the blog.


* Blog Design by Meredith Tweed