What if?


I found chapter one of Halberstam’s book Gaga Feminism to be extremely thought-provoking. He discusses, in a broad and general summary, a new form of feminism coming in a timely form for post-capitalism. Gaga Feminism fixates on the idea of coming to consciousness as women but in unbecoming women in the wake of destabilizations of the gender system- brought out by the visibility of trans people, the economic collapse, and alternate family structures. 

I found it most interesting when she acknowledges how early on in life this hegemony begins. She pointed out how young our tendency to train children into gender automatons and thus trap them in our gender binary society. This made me think of my own childhood; When I was younger I was the definition of a tomboy. I played sports with all of the boys, forced my mother to buy my clothes from the boys department, and refused to take my hair out of a pony tail. As time as gone on I have changed a lot and rid myself of this “tomboy”style, but what makes me so curious is  wondering why I did? I wonder if I made the decision myself to become more girly, or if society led me to do so? Or was it my parents who didn’t like the path that they saw me heading towards? Halberstam also recognized the process of punishment that we put those through who do not conform to those social and gender associations and expectations. I have never thought about this before, but now that I have heard it I think that is an undeniable fact. 

Early on in chapter one, on page nine, he posed a large series of what if questions that I found to be very important. They pointed out faults in our society, while pushing readers to think about what would it be like if we didn’t have them. Most importantly summarized, by why are we like this, and what if we changed?

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 6, 2017 at 9:27 PM

    Similarly, I found it very compelling how Halberstam paid specific attention to the impact of the hegemonic system at an early age. I really resonated with your example, because the older you get, the more conditioned you are by society to fit a certain gender norm in order to be accepted. Sadly this is the case for many children, both boys and girls, and it perpetuates this hegemonic society, because little girls are forced to meet our warped (and sexist) definition of femininity, and men are pressured to adopt hyper-masculinity. I too have thought about the "what ifs", especially in terms of how parents choose to raise their children. But it isn't just the parent's influence that impacts these children, it's what they're being taught in school, with friends, and through the media. We have to change all of that if we want future generations to grow up unconfined to the patriarchies unrealistic and detrimental standards of who they should be.

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