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Chapter 3: The Rhetorical Shaping of Gender:
Competing Images of Women
Multiple Choice
1.
What was/were the goal/s of the first wave of the women’s rights movement?
A.
Woman suffrage—the right to vote
B.
Women’s right to higher education
C.
Women’s right to work in the professions
D.
Women’s right to own property
E.
All of the above
2.
What types of strategies were used by the first wave of women’s rights activists in the
United States?
A.
Riots
B.
Nonviolent protests and hunger strikes
C.
Pamphlets
D.
Violent protests
E.
All of the above
3.
What factors led to the development of mainstream second-wave feminism?
A.
The discrimination women experienced in New Left politics
B.
The publication of Susan Faludi’s Backlash
C.
The public protest at which women burned their bras
D.
The publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique
E.
A desire to bring women’s moral perspectives to politics
4.
Women won the right to vote in 1920 in part because of the efforts of the members of the
movement, a group that asserted women’s moral superiority.
A.
Seneca Falls Convention
B.
Revalorists
C.
Cult of domesticity
D.
Women’s suffrage coalition
E.
National Organization for Women
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5.
A group of women engages in conscious-raising “rap” sessions. During the rap sessions,
women talk about personal experiences with sexism and how these are related to social and
political structures. Each woman has an equal opportunity to speak, so that no one person can
dominate the discussion. This group best represents which branch of feminism?
A.
Radical feminists
B.
Liberal feminists
C.
Womanists
D.
Separatists
E.
Revalorists
6.
This feminist movement believes the key to understanding gender and identity is best
understood by examining the intersection of key elements of identity like gender, race-ethnicity,
sexual orientation, and economic class. This best describes which branch of feminism?
A.
Lesbian feminism
B.
Revalorism
C.
Womanism
D.
Radical feminism
E.
Mainstream third-wave feminism
7.
What form of contemporary feminism focuses on the needs and experiences of
younger black women?
A.
Power feminism
B.
Mainstream third-wave feminism
C.
Riot Grrrl
D.
Transfeminism
E.
Hip-hop feminism
8.
Which wave of feminism focuses on intersectionality, coalitions and alliances, everyday
resistance, media savvy, consumerism, and individualism?
A.
Third wave
B.
Second wave
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C.
First wave
D.
Power feminism
E.
None of these
9.
Which feminist group emphasizes that all oppressions—including those to nonhuman
living things—are linked and that to eliminate oppression of women we must also
eliminate oppression of animals and the environment?
A.
Revalorists
B.
Ecofeminists
C.
Lesbian feminists
D.
Womanists
E.
Separatists
10.
Transfeminism believes that ______ are social constructs.
A.
gender identity and individual expression
B.
labels and gender
C.
sex and individual expression
D.
gender and gender identity
E.
gender and sex
11.
There is a common set of beliefs that all feminists share.
12.
Women burned their bras to protest the Miss America pageant in 1968.
13.
Womanists address issues that affect working and lower-class women.
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14.
Multiracial feminists argue that gender cannot be understood separate from other issues
including race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and so forth.
15.
Revalorists choose to leave mainstream society and form separate communities that value
women and are in harmony with nature.
16.
Radical feminists were the first to declare that “the personal is political.”
17.
Artists like Beyonce and Erykah Badu express hip-hop feminism in music by challenging
gender norms and misogyny.
18.
Liberal feminist ideology claims that women and men are alike in all important respects and
so should have equal rights.
19.
Power feminism claims that women identifying as victims so frequently is part of the reason
women are disadvantaged.
20.
Intersectionality, the recognition that women differ in many ways including race, class,
sexual orientation, body shape and size, and (dis)ability, is a hallmark of first-wave
feminism.
21.
Young feminists used social media like Twitter and Facebook to force the Susan G.
Komen foundation to reverse its decision to defund Planned Parenthood in 2012.
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22.
Liberal feminism
23.
Cultural feminism
24.
Power feminism
25.
Mainstream third-wave feminism
26.
Radical feminism
27.
Transfeminism
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ANS: Transfeminism was created by trans and gender nonconforming women for women
of the LGBTQ community. This form of feminism goes beyond the steps of second-wave
feminism that defined gender as a social construct and claimed sex is also a social construct
by pointing out expectations of looks, behavior, and feelings are arbitrary. Transfeminists
have three primary beliefs: (1) People have the right to define and express their own
identities; (2) people have the right to expect society to respect the identities they claim and
express; (3) and people have the right to bodily autonomy without fear of discrimination or
violations from anyone, including religious, political, or medical authorities.
Essays
1.
Explain the unique contributions of the women’s rights movement and the cult of
domesticity movement to first-wave feminism.
2.
Compare and contrast third-wave feminism and multiracial feminism. In your essay,
note similarities as well as differences between the two movements’ values, goals,
principles, and demographics of membership.
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3.
Some third-wave feminists embrace sexiness and femininity as part of being
empowered. What is your position on this issue? Defend your stance.
4.
Some second-wave feminists have criticized the younger generation of third-wave
feminists for being too focused on consumerism and lacking a clear central message. Based
on the characteristics of the movement described in your textbook, do you think these
criticisms are valid? Why or why not? What are the differing motivations behind the two
waves that could account for this criticism?
5.
Describe separatism and why it is limited in its power as a feminist movement.
6.
Topic or question should be generated by a student. See pages 8 to 10 of this manual for
details on this activity.
7.
Topic or question should come from class business. See pages 8 to 10 of this manual for
details on this activity.
JUDGMENT CALL 5 SHOULD PRO-CHOICE FEMINISTS EXPAND THEIR FOCUS
BEYOND ABORTION AND TOWARD REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS?
A woman’s right to safe and legal abortion has been a central issue in feminism since
the start of the second wave—in fact, the phrase “pro–choice” came out of some second-wave
feminists’ efforts to legalize abortion.
Today, many mainstream feminist organizations, including the National Organization
for Women (NOW) and the Feminist Majority Foundation, advocate for abortion rights.
However, not all feminists are comfortable with the focus on abortion rights or the phrase
“pro–choice.” Not surprisingly, both the term and the focus are unwelcome to feminists who
identify as “pro–life.”
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Many feminists who are women of color also oppose to the focus and term, although
for different reasons. They argue that the focus on abortion and the use of the term choice
reflect the experiences of white, upper-middle-class women to the exclusion of women of
color and poor women. Choice is possible only if a woman has access to abortion services,
which can be expensive and unobtainable if an abortion provider is not located nearby.
Similarly, feminists who are women of color point out that during the second wave, many
women of color were fighting against coercive policies and practices, such as forced
sterilization, that precluded some poor women and women of color from having children.
Although forced sterilization is no longer practiced, women of color point to contemporary
practices that continue to prohibit some women from bearing children, including welfare
policies that impose “family caps,” a lack of access to prenatal care, expensive health
insurance, and a lack of access to reproductive services in women’s native languages.
As such, some women of color organizations, such as Sistersong Women of Color
Reproductive Justice Collective, urge feminists to abandon the term choice as well as the
focus on abortion rights and to focus instead on ensuring that all women have access to health
and social services that will enable them to make real decisions about their reproductive lives.
Instead of choice, they suggest feminists utilize terms such as reproductive justice,
reproductive freedom, and reproductive rights. Indeed, they suggest that such terms and such
a focus may even bring pro-life feminists into the fold because abortion will no longer be the
central issue.
What do you think of the suggestion that feminist organizations turn their attention
away from abortion rights and toward reproductive justice?
Why do you think feminist organizations have been so focused on abortion
rights?
Do you think that the term choice obscures attention to issues and concerns
of women who are not white and middle-class? Why or why not?
What are the possible benefits and pitfalls associated with turning away
from a focus on abortion rights and toward a focus on reproductive justice?
Do you think that a turn toward reproductive justice and related terms will
bring pro-life feminists into the fold? Why or why not?
References
Hayden, S. (2009). Revitalizing the debate between <life> and <choice>: The 2004
march for women’s lives. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 6, 111–131.
Palczewski, C. H. (2010). Reproductive freedom: Transforming the discourse of choice.
In Sara Hayden & D. Lynn O’Brien Hallstein (Eds.), Contemplating maternity in an era of
choice: Explorations into discourses of reproduction. Lanham, MD: Lexington.
Silliman, J., Fried, M. G., Ross, L., & Gutiérrez, E. R. (Eds.) (2004). Undivided
rights: Women of color organize for reproductive justice. Cambridge: South End Press.