"F Word" symposium opens

Discussion of feminist topics will take center stage on March 17 and 18 as the symposium “The F Word: Feminist Texts, Feminist Lives” comes to the College. The symposium, which hopes to rekindle interest in feminism by connecting it to many other disciplines and movements, is sponsored by the May Belle Chellis Resource Center and Ross Commons.

“The goal is to open a discussion about how people are writing and talking about feminism,” said Karin Hanta, director of the Chellis House.

The symposium, added Laurie Essig, assistant professor of sociology and women’s and gender studies, is to reveal the true nature of feminism in America.

“One of things we're trying to do is show that feminism is alive and well in the US — not dead or twisted into Sarah Palin's ‘mama grizzlies,’” Essig said.

The event is taking advantage of 2011 as the 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique to reassess the feminism in the 21st century. The book, which is credited with reigniting feminism in America, rejects the belief that women must all fit into the expected mold of feminine housewives and mothers.

The event is being made possible through an endowment funded by Middlebury graduate and former trustee Drue Gensler ’57.

The symposium will consist of two sessions. Each will include outside speakers who are champions of the feminist movement and will be held at the Donald E. Axinn ’51, Litt. D. ’89 Center for Literary and Cultural Studies at Starr Library.

The first session — held today, March 17 — will focus on the concept of feminism and different writings about feminism. Stephanie Coontz, professor of history and family studies at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., will launch the symposium at tonight at 7 p.m. in Axinn 229 with a lecture entitled “Looking Backward; Moving Forward: Fifty Years After The Feminine Mystique.”

Coontz’s talk will reflect on the discrimination that women faced in the 1960’s, will consider the strengths and weaknesses of Friedman’s The Feminine Mystique and explore how feminism takes on different shapes and forms across divisions of class and race in contemporary America.

The symposium will then shift the discussion to the interaction of the feminist movement and the internet. Samhita Mukhopadhyay, executive editor of feministing.org, will give a lecture entitled “(Web)Sites of Resistance: How Feminist Blogs Changed Feminism.” Her lecture will explore the work of feminists online.

On March 18, session two will focus on the fractures within feminism, exploring how feminism is complicated by race and class. The session will take place in Axinn 229 from three to five p.m.

The session will begin with a lecture by Krista Scott Dixon, the research director of the Healthy Food Bank and the editor-in-chief of Spezzatino magazine. Scott Dixon is a transgender feminist scholar and a bodybuilder, and has published extensively on issues in feminism and fitness.

Joining the second session of the symposium will be Kimberley Wallace-Sanders, associate professor in the Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts and Institute for Women’s Studies at Emory University. In 2002, Wallace-Sanders wrote “Skin Deep, Spirit Strong: Critical Essays on the Black Female body in American Culture,” and is now working on portraits of African American and Brazilian nannies from the 19th century.

As the feminism movement has gained momentum over the past 50 years, though, it has also acquired a certain stigma, and the symposium will seek to address that issue.

“There has been a backlash against feminism on campus,” said Hanta. She hopes that the student panel, “FU: Feminist University,” will get students to talk about the backlash and why it is happening. The discussion will take place Friday, March 18 at 12:15 in Axinn 229.

“We hope there will be a lot of engagement and a lot of people will [attend],” said Ellen Oxfeld, chair of the Chellis House and professor of anthropology.

“I don't expect the entire student body to show up and have their minds changed forever,” said Lark Mulligan ’11, a student organizer of the event.  “But I am hoping that this event will spark discussions of how feminism's entanglement with movements for racial liberation, disability rights, queer/transgender empowerment and immigrant rights make it a necessary part of contemporary activism and institutions.”