| Complicating the tag
Those activists who insist on identifying as feminist in a hostile environment have to deal with more than just disagreement. If they want to have an impact in their activism, they also have to learn how to address misconceptions of what their feminism means. Jen Bumgarner speaks quickly, her enthusiasm overflows in a gentle southern accent. A graduate student in England researching American social policies on adoption and foster care, asserts, "I can’t imagine not describing myself as feminist at this point." She came to consciousness that "gender mattered" while growing up around strong women in the small town of Hickory, North Carolina. Her feminism has helped her to see the other ways in which oppression and prejudice work and has fueled her activism. But being feminist hasn’t always been easy. When Jen helped found Wake Forest University’s local chapter of the Clothesline Project, she saw the work as positive and non-threatening. The project draws together survivors of domestic and sexual abuse to create t-shirts portraying their feelings. The resulting art-work is "aired" on a clothesline in public spaces. The aim is to create a space for survivors’ healing while also drawing public attention to often hidden crimes. The furor caused on campus by the first Clothesline exhibit took Jen by surprise. Feeling that male friends had been identified as attackers in the artwork, two groups of men defaced and destroyed parts of the display. The negative response was shocking. Jen said, "We had these issues of peoples’…not only their personal expression being destroyed, but also… in a sense it was a revictimization of these women because it obviously infringed on their right to speak about their experiences...it eventually became very personal for me." That the vandalizers went almost unpunished and that the university was anxious for less public discussion about the matter left Jen with the sense that power structures remain unequally balanced along gendered lines. She laughs: "I hear a lot of people talking about things like ‘post-feminism’ which I really have failed to understand at this point. I don’t get it." Jen feels free to identify as feminist, shaping a personal ideology that respects difference within the movement but which reserves the right to disagree with its many branches. At Wake Forest, she worked to form ties with minority groups on campus like the Alliance for Racial and Cultural Harmony and the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered community, who haven’t always collaborated with feminists. Working with the League of Women in the Ukraine, the summer of ’97, she was surprised by women who defined feminism as the freedom to be traditionally feminine and wear makeup after years of Communist rule and who accused her of promoting Western Capitalism. There are intriguing echoes here of lipstick lesbians’ battles to be femme in the early 80’s. These challenges have strengthened the complexity of Jen’s own feminist identity. She finds, "It comes down to making connections with individual people and to figuring out what it takes to help them feel involved and…get over the fears or the anxieties or the questions that they may have." She relies on these personal interactions to combat the negative receptions overt feminists receive. However, she realizes there are limitations: "there are still levels of bias where gender and particularly where the term feminism comes up that you just cannot address, you can’t get around, and you’re going to be vilified because of what you’re doing in ways that are incredibly unfair, and there’s not a lot you can do about it." Undercover feminists: diplomacy in activism Complicating the tag |