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Today, you are going to join 3-4 people and watch/read the materials provided in this tab. Discuss your thoughts about each. Pick 1 or 2 major points your group brought up to share with the class.

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Drunk History: Gloria Steinem Goes Undercover at the Playboy Club

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Drunk History: Gloria Steinem Goes Undercover at the Playboy Club

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Drunk History - Gloria Steinem Goes Undercover at the Playboy Club

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5 Things to Know to Make Your Feminism Trans-Inclusive

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5 Things to Know to Make Your Feminism Trans-Inclusive

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In Collaboration With HRC's Transgender, Ally & Gender-Expansive Staff Resource Group and Women Identified Staff+ Resource Group

Most people understand feminism to simply mean, "the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes." However, that definition leaves out a lot of nuance about what effective and inclusive feminism actually entails. Simply put, trans exclusion makes feminism weaker for trans and cis women alike.

Here are some things you should know to make your feminism trans-inclusive:
1. Trans women are women.
When we say women, that word always includes trans women. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. A woman's gender identity is her innermost concept of being female. A trans woman's gender identity doesn't define or caveat her womanhood, it simply describes her journey to womanhood.

2. Transphobia is offensive and harmful.
Many policies that were created to target trans women and girls, from "bathroom bills'' to anti-trans sports legislation, are super invasive for everyone. Bathroom bills, bills that aim to ban trans people from using the restrooms of their gender, ask women - all women - to prove their femininity. In one example, a cis woman was harassed and told to leave a Walmart bathroom because she was confused for a trans woman. This policy is offensive and embarrassing to anyone, especially women who don't perform femininity in a "traditional" way. Anti-trans sports bills, bills that aim to bar trans women and girls from playing on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity, also ask all women to prove their womanhood. Many bills that have been heard across the country go above and beyond to be invasive and harmful, some even going so far as to force kids to turn in doctor's notes with proof of their genitalia.

At the end of the day, anti-feminist ideology wants to police women's bodies, and that includes trans women's bodies.

3. To be trans-inclusive is to be intersectional.
Intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a Black American lawyer, civil rights advocate and leading scholar of critical race theory, to capture the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism and classism) combine, overlap or intersect, especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups. It is also often used to refer to the ways in which we hold multiple intersecting identities at once (e.g., being a second-generation Nigerian-American, non-binary person).

Feminism must account for all the unique and specific ways women are marginalized. This includes race, gender, sexuality and more. Racism informs transphobia, which then informs sexism and so on and so forth.

It's important to point out the ways in which transphobic ideas are rooted in racism. If one does not fit the mold of "traditional femininity" (i.e. white, thin, etc.), one is other-ized and their womanhood is questioned. More often than not, the gender of women of color is delegitimized. This goes back centuries. You may remember learning about Sojourner Truth's now-infamous speech entitled, "Ain't I A Woman." Through this, she argues that she is treated less than because she is Black and the way she is treated specifically targets her womanhood.

Today, women of color in sports consistently have to prove their womanhood. Many elite athletes, like Dutee Chand and Caster Semenya, have been forced to provide evidence of their womanhood through invasively investigating their chromosomes and testosterone levels. This fight isn't just against transphobia - it's against racism, sexism and all the intersections.
4. Trans women are feminist leaders.
Black and Brown trans women are and have been the center of much of the social justice movement. Too often, the Black and Brown trans women who ignited today's LGBTQ+ equality movement and feminism have been overlooked and their stories have been erased. And in instances where Black and Brown trans women are talked about in the media, it's usually about their deaths or streams of misinformation that strip us of our dignity.

5. Centering the most marginalized is key.
In their seminal work on Black lesbian feminism, the Combahee River Collective stated, "If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression." Their analysis teaches us that centering the most marginalized voices is a necessary part of any liberatory work. Trans women, particularly Black and Indigenous trans women, are directly targeted by multiple systems of oppression that compound to create a culture of violence. In 2020, HRC tracked a record number of violent fatal incidents against transgender and gender non-conforming people - many of those being trans women of color. A total of 44 fatalities were tracked by HRC, marking 2020 as the most violent year on record since HRC began tracking these deaths in 2013.

We will not have equality until those most marginalized among us have equality. Ultimately, we can work to eliminate gender issues by listening to and fighting alongside trans women.

If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.

Combahee River Collective

Your feminism needs to be trans-inclusive, everywhere and every day. Feminism, when inclusive and intersectional, is good for everyone, including women, people of other marginalized genders and men. Feminism is good for everyone - and so, we should all be feminists.

As writer Aly E said, "Put simply: trans women ought to be included in the feminist coalition because we share some experiences of misogyny with cis women, because we share liberatory goals with feminism and because our exclusion makes feminism weaker."

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5 Things to Know to Make Your Feminism Trans-Inclusive

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When we say women, that word always includes trans women. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it.

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The Workplace, Redefined by Women of Color - TED Talk (just watch up until the 2:40 mark)

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The Workplace, Redefined by Women of Color - TED Talk (just watch up until the 2:40 mark)

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Deepa Purushothaman: The workplace, redefined by women of color | TED Talk

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Corporate inclusion visionary Deepa Purushothaman shares how women of color can advocate for themselves in workplace settings where they are undervalued, discriminated against and overlooked -- and how companies can foster working cultures that empower everyone to achieve success. (This conversation, hosted by TED current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, was part of an exclusive TED Membership event. Visit ted.com/membership to become a TED Member.)

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Today, you are going to choose a piece of art from the Brooklyn Museum to analyze. You're going to submit at least 200 words to canvas about what you notice, and why you think the artist has made certain choices. You can talk with the people around you about some ideas, but everyone will submit their own writing.

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There is a hierarchy in the arts: decorative art at the bottom, and the human form at the top. Because we are men.
-Le Corbusier and Amédée Ozenfant, 1918
Faith Ringgold (American, b. 1930). Mrs. Jones and Family, 1973. From Family of Woman Mask Series. Sewn fabric and embroidery. Collection of the artist. © Faith Ringgold
Throughout the history of art, decoration and domestic handicrafts have been regarded as women's work, and as such, not considered "high" or fine art. Quilting, embroidery, needlework, china painting, and sewing-none of these have been deemed worthy artistic equivalents to the grand mediums of painting and sculpture. The age-old aesthetic hierarchy that privileges certain forms of art over others based on gender associations has historically devalued "women's work" specifically because it was associated with the domestic and the "feminine." That hierarchy was radically challenged in the 1960s by Pop and feminist artists, alike (e.g., Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can series). In the wake of the Women's Liberation Movement, feminist artists in particular sought to resurrect women's craft and decorative art as a viable artistic means to express female experience, thereby pointing to its political and subversive potential.
Miriam Schapiro (American, 1923). Explode, 1972. Acrylic and collage on canvas. Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY. Gift of Lucille Bunin Askin, 81.38. © Miriam Schapiro
In the quest for a "female aesthetic" or artistic style specific to women, many 1970s feminist artists sought to elevate "women's craft" to the level of "high art," and away from its derogatory designation as "low art" or "kitsch." As Lucy Lippard explained in her 1973 essay, "Household Images in Art," previously women artists had avoided "'Female techniques' like sewing, weaving, knitting, ceramics, even the use of pastel colors (pink!) and delicate lines-all natural elements of artmaking," for fear of being labeled "feminine artists." The Women's Movement changed that, she argued, and gave women the confidence to begin "shedding their shackles, proudly untying the apron strings-and, in some cases, keeping the apron on, flaunting it, turning it into art." ⁶ For instance, Ringgold's handmade, narrative quilts celebrate an undervalued female creative production, just as her "Family of Woman" masks and figurines from 1970-portraits from her childhood of Mama Jones, Andrew, Barbara, and Faith-included costumes sewn by the artist's mother, who was a professional seamstress. Likewise with Miriam Schapiro's femmages, which she describes as "activities as they were practiced by women using traditional women's techniques to achieve their art." ⁷ Schapiro viewed her use of brightly colored, patterned fabric as a conscious feminist statement. As she wrote in 1977, "I wanted to validate the traditional activities of women, to connect myself to the unknown women artists who had made quilts, who had done the invisible 'women's work' of civilization. I wanted to acknowledge them, to honor them." ⁸ Schapiro's femmage, like Ringgold's narrative quilts, opened the path for the re-evaluation of anonymous art done by women.
Cover of the Exhibition Catalogue Womanhouse (showing Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro). Design by Sheila de Bretteville. (Valencia: Feminist Art Program, California Institute of the Arts, 1972). Photograph by Donald Woodman. Courtesy of Through the Flower archive
Womanhouse, 1971-72, the large-scale cooperative project executed as part of the Feminist Art Program at CalArts under the direction of Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, is another such example of feminist artists reclaiming the domestic and "women's work." It sought to challenge the traditional roles historically assigned to women in middle-class American society by exploring the subject of women's labor directly. It was within this inherently domestic environment, or "woman-house," that 21 women artists were granted space and a voice to present and perform work about stereotypically "feminine" tasks, including scrubbing floors, ironing sheets, cooking, sewing, crocheting, and knitting; cycles, such as menstruation; and forms, such as eggs, breasts, lipstick, and so forth. This landmark exhibition, through its reclamation and use of the domestic-private sphere, takes traditional female experiences as a subject with political and subversive implications.
Sandra Ogel (American). Ironing, 1972. From Womanhouse. Performance. Photograph courtesy of Through the Flower archive
The Dinner Party should be understood within this context. It is a multi-media work that consists of ceramics, china painting, sewing, needlework, embroidery, and other mediums traditionally associated with "women's work," and, as such, not generally considered "high art" by the art world. In an effort to celebrate undervalued female creative production, Chicago consciously sought to reclaim and commemorate those mediums traditionally considered "craft," as fine art ones equivalent to painting and sculpture. By creating a monumental work of art dedicated to anonymous art by women historically, Chicago thumbed her nose at those who dared to question its artistic value-or the labor involved in its production.

Around the same time that feminist artists were beginning to study mediums and materials associated with "women's work"-china painting, quilts, sewing, embroidery-they were also searching for a clearly readable means of expressing female subjectivity in abstract forms, which often resembled eggs, spheres, caves, or other round forms. This vaginal or "central core" imagery, as it came to be called, was another important development in 1970s feminist art, one that is integral to understanding The Dinner Party.
Notes 6. Lucy Lippard, From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women's Art (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1976), 57. 7. Melissa Mayer and Miriam Schapiro, "Waste Not, Want Not: An Inquiry into What Women Saved and Assembled," Heresies 4 (Winter 1978): 67. 8. Miriam Schapiro, "Notes from a Conversation on Art, Feminism, and Work," in Working It Out: 23 Women Writers, Artists, Scientists, and Scholars Talk About Their Lives and Work, ed. Sara Ruddick and Pamela Daniels (New York: Pantheon, 1977), 296.

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The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum is New York City's second largest in physical size and holds an art collection with roughly 1.5 million works.

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Today, you are going to select a piece of literature to read for the next 5 days. It is my goal for you to have your pieces finished by the Monday after this weekend (keep in mind that some works are longer that others, if you do not think you will be able to have a ~300 page book done by Monday, I suggest you pick one of the shorter ones). You will be completing your final projects over what you read. Your options are listed below:

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This book is about Edna Pontellier, a well-off Louisianan woman who longs to break free from societal constraints (303 pages).

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Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (2016)

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Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (2016)

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This book is about a woman named Keiko Furukura, a 36 year-old woman who has worked in the same convenience store since she was 18, and has little desire to leave (160 pages).

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Real Women Have Curves by Josephina Lopez (1990)

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Real Women Have Curves by Josephina Lopez (1990)

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Real Women Have Curves is a play about 5 Mexican women who have immigrated to Los Angeles, and are all working in the same sewing factory (~80 pages).

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Ain't I a Woman? by Sojourner Truth (delivered in 1851)

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Ain't I a Woman? by Sojourner Truth (delivered in 1851)

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Ain't I a Woman? is a speech written and derived by Sojourner Truth, an African American activist and abolitionist. You can access the speech and some background info using this link: https://www.nps.gov/articles/sojourner-truth.htm

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Today you will begin working on your final projects for this unit. Find those who read the same text with you, and you will all work on this as a group. Instructions are in the linked Google Slides.