The future of feminism
The future of feminism
Posted 00:46am (Mla time) Mar 13, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the March 13, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
NEW YORK--It was their turn to speak. In a panel discussion -- "Future perspectives on the promotion of gender equality: Through the eyes of young women and men" -- young adults from around the world, representing various constituencies, spoke on ways to bring the fruits of the gender revolution to work on changing the future of today's boys and girls.
In previous days, the delegates and observers to the UN "Beijing + 10 Review" meeting gnashed their teeth in frustration over unnecessary delays in just affirming and recommitting to the consensus achieved at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995. But the young people's plenary seemed more imbued with hope and optimism.
As one panel member, Thai college student Ingrid Tharasook, asserted: "It is a glorious thing to be young and feminist. In my right hand, I hold the bitter, almost stoic awareness of the gender inequality which most adults I know, numbed by years of sexist injustices, have come to terms with. But my left grasps a very firm grip of childhood naivet‚, the kind which believes with wholehearted genuineness that I can change the world. It is my left hand that speaks to you today."
But while Tharasook-who spoke of her experience as a child of diplomats, growing up in both the capitals of the most developed countries in the world and far-flung outposts in poor and developing nations-was filled with optimism and burning with fervor to carry the torch of feminism forward, other panel members chose to focus on areas where feminism's promise has yet to have an impact.
* * *
CATALINA Devandas Aguilar, a young lawyer from Costa Rica, spoke in behalf of young women with disability, who she says suffer from "systematic social exclusion." She chided the organizers for the absence of a ramp leading to the podium, of materials in Braille, and even of a sign language interpreter in consideration of disabled participants.
Young women with disabilities, she said, suffer from "double discrimination," from being disabled and being young.
"As girls with disabilities, we are seen as fragile and helpless, excluded from taking part in social and athletic activities," Devandas noted. In the same way that they have been "labeled" because of their physical disability, they are also overlooked as sexual beings in need of education and services. "We hardly have any sex education and are not warned about our risk of, for example, being infected with HIV."
But even as their sexuality is ignored, it is also tightly repressed. Devandas spoke of instances where young women with disabilities, especially those with learning disabilities, have been coerced into undergoing forced sterilization, on the mistaken notion that they have no capability to raise children or that they have a "duty" not to pass on their disabilities.
* * *
A "NEW" frontier in gender studies, that of "engaging with young men and boys," was discussed by Australian academic Michael Flood. "If we are to build gender-equality, we need to involve boys and men," he declared. In this area of gender studies, he said, "we already know what works and what does not."
Successful approaches, Flood said, need to be "comprehensive; intensive, that is, interactive and sustained; relevant to its audience; and imparting positive messages."
While there is need, said Flood, to "minimize the reaction of defensiveness" among the young men who are being asked to challenge the structures that have long worked in their favor, those working with them also need to "undermine the powerful constructs of masculinities and sexuality."
Among the most effective approaches, said the gender studies researcher, is working with peer group counselors, who can reach the young men and boys "where they are," on the streets, youth clubs, in schools and within gangs and other sub-cultures, and who also speak their language and share their experiences.
During the interventions, a delegate from Jamaica wanted to know from Flood what he would say to men who maintain that in "deconstructing masculinity," women really want "to turn men into wimps." What he would say, said Flood, would be that "the traditional men's role is no longer sustainable, that they are damaging and limiting for both women and men, and that it is men's interest to support the social changes that have been taking place in the last three decades."
* * *
THE OTHER speakers in the panel sought to point the way for the future of gender equality struggles.
Felicidad Martinez Solano, a member of an indigenous people in the Amazon area, spoke of the need to open discussion on the "system of social inequalities" that bedevils indigenous young women.
Edford Mutuma, from Zambia, declared that "culture and tradition should not be used to violate the rights of young women and men."
Frida Ohlsson, an officer of Sweden's Council of Young People, shared her experience in developing a research tool for measuring the inequalities between young men and women. The "tool" was quite simple, a way of tracking the participation of young men and women in group discussions. Using the statistics they gathered on how young men tended to dominate both the time and the flow of group discussions, said Ohlsson, their group was able to find an opening to a deeper discussion of how power is differently enjoyed and applied by young people of different genders.
Part of the "backlash" against feminism, it is said, is the indifference of young women and men to issues of equality, having taken for granted all the advantages they now enjoy. But if the words of the young panel speakers are anything to go by, the struggle for gender equality lives on, and it has found new soldiers with new weapons.
Posted 00:46am (Mla time) Mar 13, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the March 13, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
NEW YORK--It was their turn to speak. In a panel discussion -- "Future perspectives on the promotion of gender equality: Through the eyes of young women and men" -- young adults from around the world, representing various constituencies, spoke on ways to bring the fruits of the gender revolution to work on changing the future of today's boys and girls.
In previous days, the delegates and observers to the UN "Beijing + 10 Review" meeting gnashed their teeth in frustration over unnecessary delays in just affirming and recommitting to the consensus achieved at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995. But the young people's plenary seemed more imbued with hope and optimism.
As one panel member, Thai college student Ingrid Tharasook, asserted: "It is a glorious thing to be young and feminist. In my right hand, I hold the bitter, almost stoic awareness of the gender inequality which most adults I know, numbed by years of sexist injustices, have come to terms with. But my left grasps a very firm grip of childhood naivet‚, the kind which believes with wholehearted genuineness that I can change the world. It is my left hand that speaks to you today."
But while Tharasook-who spoke of her experience as a child of diplomats, growing up in both the capitals of the most developed countries in the world and far-flung outposts in poor and developing nations-was filled with optimism and burning with fervor to carry the torch of feminism forward, other panel members chose to focus on areas where feminism's promise has yet to have an impact.
* * *
CATALINA Devandas Aguilar, a young lawyer from Costa Rica, spoke in behalf of young women with disability, who she says suffer from "systematic social exclusion." She chided the organizers for the absence of a ramp leading to the podium, of materials in Braille, and even of a sign language interpreter in consideration of disabled participants.
Young women with disabilities, she said, suffer from "double discrimination," from being disabled and being young.
"As girls with disabilities, we are seen as fragile and helpless, excluded from taking part in social and athletic activities," Devandas noted. In the same way that they have been "labeled" because of their physical disability, they are also overlooked as sexual beings in need of education and services. "We hardly have any sex education and are not warned about our risk of, for example, being infected with HIV."
But even as their sexuality is ignored, it is also tightly repressed. Devandas spoke of instances where young women with disabilities, especially those with learning disabilities, have been coerced into undergoing forced sterilization, on the mistaken notion that they have no capability to raise children or that they have a "duty" not to pass on their disabilities.
* * *
A "NEW" frontier in gender studies, that of "engaging with young men and boys," was discussed by Australian academic Michael Flood. "If we are to build gender-equality, we need to involve boys and men," he declared. In this area of gender studies, he said, "we already know what works and what does not."
Successful approaches, Flood said, need to be "comprehensive; intensive, that is, interactive and sustained; relevant to its audience; and imparting positive messages."
While there is need, said Flood, to "minimize the reaction of defensiveness" among the young men who are being asked to challenge the structures that have long worked in their favor, those working with them also need to "undermine the powerful constructs of masculinities and sexuality."
Among the most effective approaches, said the gender studies researcher, is working with peer group counselors, who can reach the young men and boys "where they are," on the streets, youth clubs, in schools and within gangs and other sub-cultures, and who also speak their language and share their experiences.
During the interventions, a delegate from Jamaica wanted to know from Flood what he would say to men who maintain that in "deconstructing masculinity," women really want "to turn men into wimps." What he would say, said Flood, would be that "the traditional men's role is no longer sustainable, that they are damaging and limiting for both women and men, and that it is men's interest to support the social changes that have been taking place in the last three decades."
* * *
THE OTHER speakers in the panel sought to point the way for the future of gender equality struggles.
Felicidad Martinez Solano, a member of an indigenous people in the Amazon area, spoke of the need to open discussion on the "system of social inequalities" that bedevils indigenous young women.
Edford Mutuma, from Zambia, declared that "culture and tradition should not be used to violate the rights of young women and men."
Frida Ohlsson, an officer of Sweden's Council of Young People, shared her experience in developing a research tool for measuring the inequalities between young men and women. The "tool" was quite simple, a way of tracking the participation of young men and women in group discussions. Using the statistics they gathered on how young men tended to dominate both the time and the flow of group discussions, said Ohlsson, their group was able to find an opening to a deeper discussion of how power is differently enjoyed and applied by young people of different genders.
Part of the "backlash" against feminism, it is said, is the indifference of young women and men to issues of equality, having taken for granted all the advantages they now enjoy. But if the words of the young panel speakers are anything to go by, the struggle for gender equality lives on, and it has found new soldiers with new weapons.
posted by Dante at 12:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home