THINKING ABOUT THE F-WORD

BY SAMMY FORD

J. Thomas Wright

Summer 2016

ENC3502- AM01
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Purpose and Importance 3

Literature Review 5

Theoretical Framework 8

Methodology 8

Timeline 12

Significance 12

Works Cited 14

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Purpose and Importance

When I was younger, I didnt want to be a feminist because of what I thought it meant. From my

understanding Id have to give up any aspirations to being married and having a family one day,

because associating with men was the opposite of what feminists did. As I grew older and

entered high school I became more aware that the little slice of the movement that I had known

up until that point was far from being all it stood for. Social media helped open up the door for

me, really. I saw the outrage sparked during red carpet season when actresses were looked at

more for their gowns than their performances. I saw one of my role models boldly proclaim

herself as feminist in front of the UN (Watson). And yet people still shamed each other for

declaring themselves as feminist, claiming them as man-haters.

As Ive grown more comfortable with my own identification as a feminist, Ive become

more attuned to feminist issues. Just a week before deciding a topic for this research proposal

someone who I was friends with on Facebook (and who graduated high school with me) posted

something from a page called Feminism is Evil and from another called Feminism is a mental

disorder. When I saw the posts on that page and how they reflected their own ideas of feminism,

I couldnt help but compare them to the ideologies reflected in pages like My Favorite F Word

is Feminism and Everyday Feminism. It amazed me that there could be such vastly different

views on feminism.

As Ive worked on this, relevant issues kept popping up. Brock Turner, who was

convicted on three counts of sexual assault against an unconscious woman at Stanford, was

sentenced to six months of county jail, causing an absolute uproar (Fantz). His victims chilling

letter only furthered the outrage, and highlighted the tendency for our society to blame the

victims of sexual assault (Baker). For months, the nation has also engaged intensely in the

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discourse surrounding North Carolinas controversial Bathroom Bill that forces transgender

people to use the bathroom corresponding with their biological sex and limits legislators from

expanding anti-discriminatory measures (M. Gordan et al). And then, of course, we have the

controversies of the wage-gap, paid parental leave after the birth of a child, the right to an

abortion, and international issues of unequal education opportunities for girls, and child brides.

So, feminism. What is it, really? Its evolved since the days of womens suffrage during

the early 20th century, expanding to be more inclusive and to fit the current days needs. Since

then, feminism has gone through a total of threeor, according to some research, fourwaves

of focus and change. Today, feminism is associated with the UNs HeForShe movement and

Girls Who Code. Arguably, it has done quite a bit of good in terms of gender equality, which is

the connecting thread that makes each wave overlap.

And yet, like was mentioned previously, theres still a lot of backlash and

misunderstandings surrounding feminism. In an age where, on Twitter, hashtags such as

#YesAllWomen trend, theres still a fight against the term. There have been times when I will

encounter feminist-bashing on social media on a daily basis. There is work to be done so that

gender equality is no longer an issue, but a given.

The purpose of this research is to identify the current opinions and level of support for

feminism by college students. Because of the large scope and many pockets of feminism, it is

important to discover what this generation believes the direction and purpose of todays

feminism is. There is no way to adjust feminist messages to be more effective without knowing

the composition of the audience.

Reaching this audience is also arguably more important than any other audience. College

students make up a huge proportion of the voting population, and without proper voice in

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democratic processes important measures to ensure gender equality will have a much harder time

being passed. It is also this generation where leaps in breaking down the gender binary are being

made. Not only that, but this generation has grown up with the influence of both second and

third-wave feminism, thus giving them a unique perspective on the matter. They could even have

the potential to give us some insight on this new fourth wave of feminism.

With this research, we can begin working on proper communication of feminism and

gender equality. After all, nothing can get done without a united front.

Literature Review

Before evaluating the current views and opinions of feminism, three waves of feminism that are

currently at play with each other need to be looked at. Second, third, and fourth wave feminism

are arguably all still incredibly relevant, and are the waves that are shaping much of todays

discourse on the matter of feminism. Not only that, but because of the imperfect nature of

describing feminism in waves, each one plays off of the other and overlaps in certain ways. By

looking at all of these waves, we get a firmer idea of different generational ideas of feminism and

how they could be affecting todays views.

Although not pertinent to the research, its important to acknowledge where feminism

began. First wave feminism was prominent in the mid-1800s to early 1900s as women fought

for womens right to vote in the United States, a privilege that was reserved for white males at

the time (DeFonza). In 1920 their fight was won when the 19th amendment was added to the

constitution, prohibiting the government from implementing gender-based restrictions on voting

(DeFonza). With that settled, it took several decades for feminism to really become a prominent

movement to rally behind again.

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 Originating in the 1960s, second wave feminism was characterized by consciousness

raising (CR), a form of structured discussion in which women connected their personal

experiences to larger structures of gender (Baxandall and L. Gordon 414). Women were

becoming more aware of how their everyday lives were influenced by this idea of the traditional

woman. Their response to this was a backlash against traditional gender roles, something that

was characterized in their protest of the 1968 Miss America pageant. Although it was a mash-up

of different groups protesting there, attracting the most media attention, was the Freedom Trash

Cana receptacle where women would toss items such as dish detergent, false eyelashes, wigs,

curlers, copies of magazines such as Ladies Home Journal and Playboy, high heels, and girdles

(The 1968 Protest). It was also during the reign of second wave of feminism that Roe v. Wade

was resolved in the Supreme Court and bans on abortions were declared unconstitutional. Title

IX was also enacted in 1972, prohibit[ing] discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally

funded education program or activity (United States of America).

Overall a lot of success came from this period of time, something that cannot be denied.

Many people characterize the second wave as being radical, wrought with polarizing attitudes. It

is from these thoughts that third-wave feminism was born in the 1990s. Third wave feminism

tends to be global, multi-cultural, and it shuns simple answers or artificial categories of identity,

gender, and sexuality differences are celebrated and recognized as dynamic, situation, and

provisional (Rampton). They reject the universalist claim that all women share a set of

common experiences, but they do not discount the concept of experience altogether and declare

that [t]here is no one way to be a woman (Snyder 194). They focus more on being inclusive,

and embracing their differences as women. According to Naomi Wolf, popular third-wave

feminist, it tends to be much more pluralistic about sexuality and personal expression and, you

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know, fashion choices and much less dogmatic. They feel entitled to interact with men as

equals, claim sexual pleasure as they desire it (heterosexual or otherwise), and actively play with

femininity and have a desire for girl power (Snyder 179).

The fourth wave is one whose existence is debated but is still nonetheless important to

attempt to understand. Since its origins are in this generation, it is possible that this research can

give us insight into this supposed new wave. As it is currently known, the fourth wave says that

[f]eminism no longer just refers to the struggles of women; it is a clarion call for gender equity

(Rampton). This is reflective of modern days breakdown of the gender binary, rally for

transgender rights, and movements such as the UNs HeForShe campaign. What also makes the

fourth wave stand out is its reliance upon the internet, which has created a call-out culture, in

which sexism or misogyny can be called out and challenged indicative of the continuing

influence of the third wave, with its focus on micropolitics and challenging sexism and misogyny

insofar as they appear in everyday rhetoric, advertising, film, television and literature, the media,

and so on (Munro). Although [s]ome people who wish to ride this new fourth wave have trouble

with the word feminism, the word is winning the day. The generation now coming of age sees that

we face serious problems because of the way society genders and is gendered, and we need a strong

in-your-face word to combat those problems (Rampton). Personally I am unsure whether this

generation is as accepting as Rampton assumes, which is another reason I feel this research is

necessary.

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Theoretical Framework

Much of the basis of this research relies on the aforementioned wave theories of feminism. The

idea that feminism is evolving and that previous waves could be affecting the perspectives on

todays feminism laid the foundation for this research.

Another concept that helped guide this research is the idea of resignification, which is the

rejection of a connotation by exposing how the meaning of the symbol is constructed

(Palczewski et al 49). In other words, its a way of identifying and reconstructing the

connotations of a symbol; in this case, feminism. Based on my own experiences with peoples

views on feminism, the results of the surveys may show that feminism must undergo

resignification so that people understand it in a more positive (and generally more accurate) way.

As previously stated, it tends to be associated with a man-hating ideology, or one that

wants to boost women above others rather than put all genders on an equal playing field. Thats

why resignification is such an important aspect to the development of this research: [w]ords

with an intense connotation, words many are loathe to utter, are words that demand resignifying

(Palczewski et al 49). Of course, if this is the case, then we have a much longer path in front of

us than this research can hope to help with; it can only change as the result of repeated usage in

contexts that infuse the term with new, positive connotations (Palczewski et al 49). This

research is hoping to identify whether this is in fact necessary, and if so in what ways.

Methodology

As a college student with relatively few connections, this research will be conducted here at the

University of Central Florida. In order to gather the viewpoints and opinions of the people,

questions will be given in the form of a survey. The questions will be as follows:

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 How old are you?
o 18-25
o 26-29
o 30+
What gender do you identify as?
o Man
o Woman
o Transgender man
o Transgender woman
o Other
What comes to mind when you hear the word feminism?
Rate your understanding of current feminist topics.
o Very Unsure, Unsure, Comfortable, Confident
o What do you believe is todays biggest feminist issue? (Be specific)
Do you identify as a feminist?
o Yes/No
o How comfortable are you identifying yourself as a feminist to others?
Very Uncomfortable, Uncomfortable, Comfortable, Very Comfortable
o Would you be more comfortable vocalizing your support for the feminist

movement if a word other than feminism was used to describe it?

Yes/No
If no, briefly describe why.
If yes, briefly describe in what ways.
Rate the significance of gender inequality in the US (zero being not a problem at all, ten

being a top-priority problem).

o 0-10

Realistically, surveyors would be stationed across the UCF campus trying to find willing

participants. Those who do not have the time to take the survey in that moment but are interested

will have the opportunity to provide their email so they complete at a more convenient time.

Before taking the survey, participants will be informed of the purpose of the research and be

allowed to ask any questions they may have about the research. Questions relating to the

questions will not be answered, to minimize the risk of influencing participants answers. They

may back out at any time.

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 Responses will be analyzed to find patterns. I plan on categorizing answers based on the

connotations of the words used in participants answers (positive, negative, and neutral). Theres

also a matter of frequency that Id like to keep track of with responses, to measure if there are

any answers that are consistently repeated across the board and if they have any correlation with

the gender of the participant. It will also be noted if answers correlate with any specific wave of

feminism.

Participants will not be asked to give their names for the sake of anonymity, and once

surveys are received and saved, the emails that they were sent through will be deleted. However,

there will be an option for people to put down their contact information if theyre interested in

participating in an interview. These will allow for answers to be explored more in-depth, and

allow for more fleshing out of the current attitudes towards feminism. The survey will serve as a

basis for the interview, with additional questions being asked for clarification. This does risk

only getting responses from those who feel strongly either way, but also gives us an opportunity

to evaluate not only their perceptions, but how those perceptions came to be and if they feel their

attitudes are shared by their peers. Their interviews will be kept anonymous, and the only

information that would be shared about them would be information already shared on the survey

(age and gender). Before anything was published or shared, they would receive a copy of the

research paper to ensure that their contributions were interpreted truthfully. Again, they are free

to back out at any time.

Unfortunately, because of the nature and scope of the experiment, the research done

might not necessarily be a wholly accurate representation of college students as a whole. After

all, there is no guarantee that we will get an equal number of voices from all parts of the gender

spectrum, and UCF is only one university out of many. This survey also will take participants to

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take a few minutes to fill out, which will make it lose its appeal to many people. Even if its

emailed to participants that say they are willing at the time, there is no guarantee that they will

actually respond to the email. Theres also no guarantee that I will get varied and holistic

responses from the interviews. Because of this, it is difficult to determine exactly how long it

will take to gather a sufficient number of responses. As its outlined I have allotted two months to

gather data, but more time may be needed, as Im hoping to get roughly 100 survey participants

and 10-15 interviews. Additional time will also be needed as I obtain permission from the

university to survey students. However, I do hope that despite these limitations, the results may

provide useful insight nonetheless, and perhaps spark some productive conversations.

Timeline

*times below are subject to adjustment as needed

August-September 2016: Obtain permissions from University to conduct research

October-November 2016: Collect survey results

November-December 2017: Analyze survey results

January-February 2017: Conduct interviews

February-March 2017: Transcribe and analyze interviews

April-May 2017: Hypothesize ways to resignify/reframe feminism and feminist issues

Significance

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There has been a wave of celebrities over the past few years that have declared themselves not

feminist, but supportive of equal rights or are rather humanists (Duca). Its a reflection of

trends that Ive noticed among my peers: people dont want to call themselves feminists because

of either a personal misunderstanding or a larger misunderstanding by others and a fear of being

judged. These results could help reveal whether its a general trend that people are in fact shying

away from the term. If this is the case, then feminists can put their efforts towards resignification

of the term. Furthermore, research could be done on the effect of keeping the word feminism

versus changing it.

These results will, ideally, just give feminists a better idea on how to frame their issues to

best fit their audience. I believe there is a huge misunderstanding happening right now between

feminists and everyone else, and I hope that these results will help provide some insight to my

generations mindset. From there, real conversations can begin happening, and clarifying

conversations can be made.

Feminism, to me, urges people to accept who they are, and not to let the expectations and

judgements of others to prevent us from being our true selves. It strives to bring everyone up to

an equal playing field so that they arent prohibited from living their fullest lives because of

gender, something they cant help. Feminism breeds acceptance, and in a world filled with

opposition and conflict, we need to start shifting our mentalities towards hearing out the other

side. Toward seeing each other as equals. To look past labels and for seeing each other as simply

people.

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 Works Cited

Baker, Katie J.M., and Anonymous. "Here's The Powerful Letter The Stanford Victim Read To Her

Attacker." BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed News, 3 June 2016. Web. 3 June 2016.

DeFonza, Raina. "First-wave Feminism." The Stockton Postcolonial Studies Project. Stockton College,

01 Nov. 2010. Web. 23 June 2016.

Duca, Lauren. "10 Celebrities Who Say They Aren't Feminists." The Huffington Post.

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 June 2016.

Fantz, Ashley. "Outrage over Six-month Sentence in Stanford Rape Case." CNN. Cable News Network,

7 June 2016. Web. 7 June 2016.

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Gordon, Linda. "Chapter 24: Second-wave Feminism." A Companion to American Women's History.

By Rosalyn Baxandall. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002. 414-20. Print.

Gordon, Michael, Mark S. Price, and Katie Peralta. "Understanding HB2: North Carolina's Newest

Law Solidifies State's Role in Defining Discrimination." Charlotteobserver. The Charlotte

Observer, 26 Mar. 2016. Web. 7 June 2016.

Munro, Ealasaid. "Feminism: A Fourth Wave?" The Political Studies Association. The Political Studies

Association, n.d. Web. 2 June 2016.

Palczewski, Catherine Helen, Richard Ice, and John Fritch. Rhetoric In Civic Life. State College,

PA: Strata Pub., 2012. Print.

Rampton, Martha. "Four Waves of Feminism." Pacific University. Pacific University Center For

Gender Equity, 25 Oct. 2015. Web. 27 May 2016.

Snyder, R. Claire. What Is Third-Wave Feminism? A New Directions Essay. Signs. 34.1 (2008): 175-

96. Web.

The 1968 Protest." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 5 June 2016.

United States of America. Department of Justice. Assistant Attorney General. U.S. Department of

Justice. N.p., 7 Aug. 2015. Web. 12 June 2016.

Watson, Emma. "Emma Watson: Gender Equality Is Your Issue Too." UN Women. United Nations, 20

Sept. 2014. Web. 2 June 2016.

Wolf, Naomi. "Naomi Wolf on Third Wave Feminism." Big Think. The Big Think, 16 Apr. 2009. Web.

7 June 2016.

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