Feminism: Part 1

Another week has passed. Another crepe day has meandered its chocolatey way into history. The last of the clingy brown leaves have been pummeled out of the trees by chunks of ice which are still raining down out of a white South Hadley sky.

On mitten-inducing days like this, Mount Holyokers are rarely seen outside, and only the most attentive of peoplewatchers will spot one in an 8:35 class. Nevertheless, a motivated few existentialists were able to drag their cold, sleepy brains into Skinner 116 this morning to discuss the beginning of Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex."

Professor Wartenberg began the discussion by asking the feminists in the class to raise their hands. About half the ladies in the class nervously put their manicured mitts in the air, looked around quickly, then averted their eyes so as not to be called upon to respond to the inevitable "why?"

So Professor Wartenberg instead turned to the lowered-handed half, who talked about the negative implications of the word 'feminism.' Some people didn't want to identify themselves as feminists, because they didn't want people to think they hated men. Some had concluded that feminism was simply not relevant anymore, and several more just didn't like the idea of putting themselves in a box by identifying with a group; Hell is other people, after all, and no one wants to be stuck in a feminist Hell box.

It's all good and well to discuss problems with the implications of 'feminism,' but what about the alternative? What are the implications of 'not-feminism'? This is one of the questions we will address in "Feminism: Part 2," so stay tuned.