Are you a "professional feminist"?

[ajnabieh]

I'm looking for people who use feminist ideas and feminist theory in their professional lives to talk to my feminist theory class--people who work in an area that is directly related to gender, women's issues, social transformation, or the feminist movement, or people who use a feminist/queer ethical base to drive their work. (And I'm open to any kind of feminism or critical encounter with gender as a social category--in fact, I'd like to hear from people who do things that don't match up neatly to contemporary mainstream American feminism.) Doesn't matter if you're not US-based. If you think this is you, and you'd be willing to record a five minute video for my students about what you do and how it interfaces with feminism, let me know, via PM, email, or comment here--I'd love to bring your voice to my class!

(For the record: it's an intro level feminist political theory class; we've read bell hooks on the feminist movement, Susan Moller Okin on justice and families, Fatima Mernissi on the public/private divide and Muslim social order, Wendy Brown on freedom and post-modernity, and Michael Warner on queer opposition to "normality" and alternate ethical visions. Most students haven't taken previous course work in women's/gender studies, or in political theory.)

Comments

[azurelunatic]

I am an administrative assistant in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is about the opposite of what one thinks of when one thinks of feminism, which is why bringing a feminist perspective to the table is so critical. While my specific department actually seems to be majority-women-and-POC-and-some-are-both, one of the things I do in my day-to-day work is constantly run everything that passes me that is likely to encounter the outside world at any point through a mental "would this appear on a geekfeminism bingo card?" filter.

Any conference for which I order giveaway shirts is likely to have me asking whether ladies' sizes will be needed, and offering attendees a choice of both size and style (straight-cut vs. fitted) rather than assuming everybody will be male-bodied.

Male should not be the default in a database of folks we've interacted with as part of business. (The staff member I'm supporting on this has gone one further, and pointed out that there is no business need for us to record gender that he can see.)

My language in an email about parties whose roles are known but identities are unknown should not assume gender.

Et cetera.

[ajnabieh]

This is a brilliant comment. And now I'm thinking about having a SECOND day devoted to "Feminism isn't in my job description, but I PUT IT THERE." Would you mind if I read this to my class if we do so?

(Is the dept you're in support-oriented? Because the majority-female-and-poc thing in Silicon Valley sounds suspiciously like ~we let them be the help~, which is totally a dynamic I have seen elsewhere.)

[azurelunatic]

By all means go ahead!

It is not actually the support department, but it's a lot softer, and deals more with look-and-feel than the nuts and bolts.

I suspect part of it may in fact be the stereotype of Asians and Indians being hard-working and technically inclined.