What is natural? In the short sections from The Curious Feminist, author Cynthia Enloe asks this very question. What is normal, natural, or necessary to occur? What is "traditional" and "historical?" Enloe challenges each of us to question the roles we play in society and how these roles are shaped by the very definitions of masculinity and femininity in our cultures today. By being lazy, we remain complacent and accept the norms imposed on us by the priviledged. However, if we begin to question through curiosity who shapes these roles and what implications they may have on our lives and others' around the world, we may be able to begin towards the difficult process of dismantling the oppressive patriarchal structures engrained around our world today.
These chapters seem to be extremely relevant for our class discussion to come full circle as we near the end of the semester. After reading countless works by feminists, each with a different view of the world and a different message to deliver, it seems unlikely that any of my classmates still view themselves and the world as the same as they did before entering the Women's Studies Center in August. Gaining an awareness of our distinct roles and how they have developed out of patriarchy, we must now all have a curiosity to investigate societal "norms," "traditional" roles, and "historical" structures. As a result, we may at some point be able to deconstruct those oppressive forces keeping women in a complacent position at the bottom.
I agree that Enloe challenges each of us in this book. She makes us rethink exactly what is stated above: what is normal? Is normal a homogeneous thing or is it different in each perspective? This is something that impacts our lives daily. Why do we stand by something "normal" if we believe it to be wrong in our eyes? It all ties into the system of patriarchy that we live in and how it shapes our beliefs. Hopefully we can deconstruct the "normal" into something that can benefit everyone and not just one dominant group.
ReplyDelete