Also, another question: Is it better to use political conflict as a springboard if it gets your message "out there," or does it weaken your message because it had to come out of another, bigger movement (will your message pale in comparison or seem weaker because it couldn't have been independently fought for)?
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
On Sharoni's Article...
Sharoni's question, "Is political conflict a setback or a springboard for women's liberation?" really piqued my interest especially because I really didn't know the answer myself. Rosemary Ridd (quoted on page 177) made a good point that, "when a community is involved in open conflict... there is likely to be some fluidity in social ordering," which means that political conflict is a springboard, because it facilitates the blurring of the divide between genders; during political conflict, the focus is on the nation rather than gender. I loved the example of the women in west Belfast who organized their own alarm system and found this role reversal very empowering. However, I while I meditated for a while on whether or not I thought political conflict was a setback or springboard, I realized that I was utterly answer-less and completely disappointed. What Sharoni wrote, about women only beginning "with their attempts to protect their homes, families and communities rather than with a conscious attempt to move beyond the confines of the private sphere..." (180) struck me as unfair, but it seemed like it had some truth to it. So I suppose my question is, is it fair to say that women only become active in the public sphere in a subconscious attempt to protect the private sphere? Or perhaps it is best to, as Cynthia Enloe (quoted on p. 195) said, to "not look for clear authoritative answers" to a question as subjective as "what is feminism?"
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I feel that political conflict in a state is always an efficient means of integrating gender roles in a community in that the conflict does not affect only women or only men, but affects the entire group equally and therefore engenders a sense of equality amongst both genders if they are being equally oppressed, such as in the IRA and PLO movements.
ReplyDeleteIn response to using a larger political movement to spread the message of another political issue, I feel that this is always an acceptable means of communicating ideas and in no way does the larger political issue make the smaller seem diminutive, since the issues that initially start conflict often lead us to realize other, sometimes greater, points of interest within a conflict.