By BETTY SMITH
TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS — It’s not popular to be a feminist these days.
The backlash in the 1980s and 1990s to the second wave of the feminist movement made many young women reluctant to use the “f” word. The equal rights amendment died a lingering death more than a quarter century ago.
On the average, women still earn less than men. But the feminist movement lives on, and the studies of some Northeastern State University students prove that.
Five of those students – including one male – will present papers resulting from their communications class on the rhetoric of feminism during the Women’s Caucus of the Central States Communications Association, beginning April 9 in Madison, Wis. A sixth student will participate in a panel on lesson planning.
Dr. Amy Aldridge Sanford, assistant professor of communication studies, said it’s the first time she has experienced this many students being accepted for a panel at a conference larger than the state level.
Five presentations come from a graduate- and senior-level seminar she taught last year on feminist rhetoric.
“When students take a seminar, I try to figure out a way to put the best papers on some sort of panel,” she said.
The papers that emerged from her feminist rhetoric class had topics ranging from pop culture to the classic American novel “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott.
Students accepted for the Central States conference are:
• Amber Cowan, “The Dove campaign for real beauty: A rhetorical analysis of an advertisement facing backlash.”
• Sarah Turner, “All slay and no play: How ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ fights for feminism.”
• Sarah Stanberry, “Little Women’s classic embracement of feminist liberties throughout time.”
• Abigail Littleton, “How the marginalized become scum within their own movement.”
• Kyle Rudick, “The sexist language in the TV series ‘Family Guy.’”
Lauren Duncan also will participate in a Great Ideas for Teaching panel, discussing the topic of ethical questions.
Rudick and Turner are seniors; the rest are graduate students.
“I really wanted to introduce them to the history of the women’s movement, which began with suffrage,” Sanford said.
Students studied writings from the second wave of feminism, which began in the 1960s with the publication of “The Feminine Mystique,” by Betty Friedan, and the emergence of such leaders as Gloria Steinem. Class material focused on readings, movies and TV shows.
“Most of them chose pop culture, TV artifacts,” Sanford said.
Stanberry selected perhaps the most classic topic, “Little Women, which she first read when she was about 10 years old.
“I had always loved the story,” she said. “Nobody had ever explained its feminism to me.”
She reread the book, but focused her paper on the 1994 film adaptation starring Susan Sarandon and Winona Rider.
Many readers of “Little Women” identify most closely with Jo, considered Alcott’s alter ego in the book.
“I think I more identified with Beth [the sister who died], but I liked Jo,” Stanberry said. “I really wish girls were taught how much feminism is in the book. When Alcott wrote it, she was a very liberal feminist, very radical. We were never taught in middle school that this book was her statement about the oppression of women.”
Stanberry thinks today’s feminism is “a little tired.
“I think a lot of people believe everything in feminism is over, that we got what we wanted,” she said.
However, women still have not achieved equality in wages.
“I think it needs a new wave, a new spark,” she said. “This class really brought it to light. We learned things in there that we had never been taught, very basic things we should always have been taught.”
Cowan chose for her campaign the Dove advertisements, which featured a variety of women clad in simple white underwear.
The women were different ages, sizes, races – far from the lanky size 2 models featured in almost all advertising we see. Some people criticized the ads precisely because of that.
“I’m really more in advertising and public reactions, and what’s in the media,” Cowan said. “It [Dove campaign] was the first thing that came to mind, and it really stood out.
“The advertisement in itself is really promoting feminism, in the sense of empowerment for women.”
She said the practice of showing a size 2 model in virtually every ad, when the average American woman wears a size 14, is a way of showing women are still oppressed and expected to conform to a certain standard.
“It was an obvious piece for me to choose,” she said.
Cowan is completing her studies with the help of a scholarship from the Tahlequah American Association of University Women. She, Stanberry and Turner presented their projects during the AAUW meeting earlier this month.
Turner is also a member of AAUW, and is pleased to have the opportunity, as an undergraduate, to present her studies at a regional conference. She is majoring in mass communications, with an emphasis on journalism.
“I am a fan of the TV show,” she said of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” “I always liked her because she was a strong female character. Writing a rhetorical criticism was something I had not done before, and it was a very daunting task.”
She has always enjoyed studying pop culture, and is interested in the state of feminism today.
“I think the fact that we have a woman running for president says we have come a long way. I realize we have a long way to go,” she said.
Turner sees feminism turning to more global concerns, with the treatment of women around the world becoming the next big challenge to feminists.
“I took a pop culture cartoon show, ‘Family Guy,’ and wrote a paper about the sexist language of a particular episode,” Rudick said. “It’s a show intended for young adults, age 18 to 24 or 30, mainly men. The humor is mainly geared for the college man. If you like that sort of humor, it’s pretty much up your alley. Otherwise, you may be offended.”
How does Rudick feel about being the lone male in a series of feminist presenters from NSU?
“I never really thought about it too much,” he said. “You don’t have to be a woman to care about feminism or about equality, so I really don’t consider myself a minority.”
Sanford said teaching the class on feminist rhetoric was a valuable experience, broadening her horizon as well as that of her students.
“At first, many of them were very resistant to calling themselves feminists. It’s been given a very negative connotation. I think all of them would call themselves feminists at this point,” she said.
One student who adamantly declared herself not a feminist at the beginning of the semester changed her mind before the course ended.
“I just wanted students to be able to figure it out for themselves,” Sanford said. “I’m not trying to convert students to my beliefs. I just wanted them to expand their minds and make their decisions for themselves.”
