The Gaga Wave

Halberstam talks about the shortcomings of feminist Susan Faludi during her speech at a panel discussion and brings up an important point: Faludi’s theory feminism was out of date and restricted. Faludi’s conception of feminism did not include any mention of queer challenges and Halberstam points out that she makes no distinction between class or race. Faludi’s restricted and incomplete view of feminism contributes to the oppression of a majority of the people in our society. However, this being said I don’t think it is progressive for feminism communities to condemn feminist theories if they do not agree. While I think it is important that Halberstam brings attention to the shortcomings in Faludi’s feminist theory, I also believe that Halberstam’s criticism is not always constructive. In order to be successful as a movement, all feminist communities and theorists have to come together and acknowledge each other’s differences, not force one regime of feminist theory and deem it as the correct theory.

I have read parts from Faludi’s renowned book “Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women” and agree with Halberstam that her view of feminism is outdated and does not relate to the majority of people, but mostly, a white, middle-upper class crowd. This can be one of the most tragic shortcomings in feminist theory. These shortcomings are the same ones that Dean Spade emphasizes in his video, “Impossibility Now”. However, who is Faludi to teach about the struggles and demands for women of color and the transgender communities, when she herself is a heterosexual white woman. It is the inability to acknowledge and accept change to feminist thought and theory that makes Faludi argument of feminism outdated and un-relatable. Trans politics, as described in Spade’s video states that it is, “a resistance against violent gender norms.” What is an important distinction to make is that this definition is inclusive to everyone and does not make a certain group of people outsiders.

Many of the “What if questions” that Halberstam brings up are questions that we too have explored as a class. Halberstam’s question, “What if we gendered people according to their behavior?”, stood out to me the most because it reminds me of “what if” questions that I have asked myself. Some of these questions being: what if we did not need to segregate and categorize each other based on gender or sex? And what if we simply existed without assigning and labeling people to either or categories. It is hard to imagine what the world would be like if gender was not assigned based on sex, but it is also an exhilarating idea. A quote from Halberstam’s book that most clearly indicates what his desires are from gaga Feminism is the “withering away of old social models of desire, gender, and sexuality, and as a channel for potent new forms of relation, intimacy, technology, and embodiment.”

- Jane B