Mari Centeno
The Paw Print
Mariann Lumsargis’ recent piece about the dangers of feminism was interesting and well written. I hope that it will generate much needed discussion about contemporary gender equality. That said, it contained a number of issues that must be addressed. The first is her narrow and distorted use of the term “feminist” as if there were only one sort. There are just as many types of feminism as there are, say, denominations of Christianity. There are first-wave feminists, second-wave feminists, third-wave feminists, liberal feminists, radical feminists, socialist feminists, eco-feminists, Chicana feminists and even Muslim feminists, just as in Christianity there are Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Mormons, etc. The accusations Ms. Lumsargis launches against feminists are as absurd as the accusation that Christians applauded Hurricane Katrina as God’s way of punishing homosexuality. Someone who would make such an argument about Christianity either knows very little about the subject or has an axe to grind. The same can be said for Ms. Lumsargis’ allegations about feminism as the source of social ills. Indeed, millions of Christian feminists, who believe that women and men are created equally in God’s image, would be quick to point out the appalling errors in both of the above assertions.
The type of feminist that Ms. Lumsargis roughly describes falls into a category known as “second wave feminism” which is broad in itself. These feminists had their heyday in the 1970s. If I may be so bold, I would venture to guess that Ms. Lumsargis has no problem with the first wave feminists, whose struggle earned her the right to vote. If I may be bolder, I would point out that she makes some of the same arguments as many contemporary third wave feminists – that women should not strive to be like men, or think of being female as “bad.” For more on this topic, see Full Frontal Feminism, a new book by Jessica Valenti, author of the blog Feministing.com.
Lumsargis writes, “When modern ‘equality’ is reinforced to the extreme, another evil that both genders face is inequality of pay.” This statement makes little sense. How can there be “inequality of pay” if equality is actually being enforced? Lumsargis continues: “When an economy becomes stressed in a country that practices this inequality, the inevitable result is that the higher paid middle and working class men get laid off in favor of the cheaper labor of women. Many times this creates sweat shop conditions for women and resentment in desperate men who cannot find work.” The acrobatics of logic portrayed in this argument made me a bit dizzy. In fact, feminism fights for equal pay, and if equal pay were the rule, employers would have no economic reason to prefer women over men.
Sweatshops in less developed countries overwhelmingly recruit unskilled female labor, and pay them less than unskilled men, because they believe women are more submissive (thus, less likely to form unions), biologically pre-disposed to repetitive, tedious work, and “nimble-fingered,” which is useful for assembling small products like cell phones. Moreover, a significant number of sweatshop factories produce clothing, and everyone “knows” that sewing is women’s work. In sum, factories in Guatemala, or India, or Sri Lanka, are not hiring women out of some noble sense of gender-equality. They simply look to profit from women’s historical inequality, and, in the process, perpetuate said inequality. When managers routinely humiliate their female workers by making them show their sanitary napkins each month (to prove they are not pregnant), it’s a pretty good sign that the factories are less than intimidated by the feminist “bullies.”
My own research with sweatshop workers in Guatemala and other countries found that women there possess the same diversity of goals and desires regarding family, work, “liberation,” dignity, and rights as women in the U.S. Many rejected the term “feminist” because they, like Ms. Lumsargis, viewed feminists as man-hating chauvinists. Others thought of themselves as feminists, but feared the stigma; and others wore the badge of feminism with pride. Whatever they called themselves, they fought the reinforced inequality of their economic system. Ms. Lumsargis’ formula, that feminists (who fight for equal pay) = Sweatshops (that exploit unequal pay) just doesn’t add up.
The above is just one example of the backward reasoning that underlies Ms. Lumsargis’ entire piece. She would have us believe that feminists are to blame for everything from squirmy, psychologically-stunted boys to sweatshops. As a feminist, I really must applaud all of the men who have overcome terrible burdens I’ve forced upon them. Despite their oppression, they have managed to avoid a life of crime, graduate from school and still earn more than I do for the same work. Actually, if I were a man, I might be a bit insulted by the argument that I was an emotionally-challenged, Ritalin-taking victim, threatened by the mere idea of women’s equality.
Ms. Lumsargis is clearly intelligent and articulate, if misinformed about feminism. I invite her to continue this dialogue with me and other feminists of all stripes.
Heart of La Puente: The Need Unseen
Craig DenUyl
“That was my house growing up,” said my guide, M.B. “And that’s the park where they used to freeze to death in the winters,” she added pointing almost directly across the street. That day M.B. drove me all around her Colorado town, located just a short drive outside of the San Luis Valley. She gave me a personal tour of all of the less desirable parts of town which most tourists would never see. The people who used to die in the park next to M.B.’s house were, of course, the poor and homeless of the area. M.B. quickly grew tired of finding bodies in the parks of her lovely city and founded a homeless shelter to help her neighbors in need. That was why I had gone to visit her.
I am a community educator with La Puente, a non-profit organization serving the San Luis Valley by providing emergency food, shelter, and advocacy for the homeless and community members in need. It is my job to learn about poverty and homelessness in order to educate myself and others on how to overcome these issues. One of my first weeks on the job, I was sent on an uncommon tour of southwest Colorado: a tour of need, emergency services, and the issues of the less fortunate in our great state.
I began in the San Luis Valley itself examining migrant worker issues. With agriculture as the main industry of the Valley, each harvest thousands of workers find their way to the SLV in search of employment. I saw first-hand the unkempt, bleak, barrack-style housing available for many of the agricultural workers who harvest our food. Migrant housing is a challenge for most agricultural communities, and as a result La Puente sees the number of its guests sky-rocket each fall. Recently La Puente served over 140 people at one of its community meals. In a town of only about 8,000 people this amounts to just under 2% of the population eating in the homeless shelter or almost 1 in every 50 people in the city.
My tour continued out of the valley to a nearby homeless/domestic violence partnership shelter. I learned how domestic violence is a huge cause of homelessness, and that almost 20% of homeless individuals are survivors of such violence. The shelter director also told me how 60% of the homeless in Colorado are families and that 70% of able-bodied adults in her building were still employed, despite not even having their own house to sleep in. She told me a story of a family with young children who moved to the shelter after the roof of their house caved in. It took four months of working while residing at the shelter for the family to save enough money to fix their roof and return home.
My tour concluded the following day with M.B. at her shelter. Her town is not far from several American Indian reservations. While other wealthier cities are closer to some of the reservations, many of these towns are so unfriendly toward the native population that tribal members drive an additional 100 miles just to reach M.B.’s town in search of work. M.B. and I drove to the nearest reservation, and I learned that the unemployment rate there was nearly 43%, or more than four times the national average. The reservation also experienced extremely high rates of alcoholism, suicide, and other societal disorders resulting from a general lack of opportunity. Consequently, M.B.’s shelter was used heavily by the local Native American population.
All of these experiences were very surprising to me. I had come from a privileged childhood in a middle-class, Midwestern family. I had never known or worried about where migrant workers slept at night, what struggling families do when their house becomes uninhabitable, or how someone on a reservation might try to find a job. I had certainly never crossed my street to find frozen corpses in my neighborhood. But these things, I have learned, are the truth of our communities and of our nation. Those of us who are fortunate enough to afford and attend college usually have never used a food bank or stayed in a homeless shelter; however, this does not mean that there is no poverty. This simply means that we have separated ourselves from it and often have become blind to it.
On my tour I witnessed just how the less fortunate live right here in Colorado, and the experience has provoked me to want to know more and do more for those I saw in need. It has also given me the hope that my words can inspire the same compassion and action in you. If you would like to volunteer or to learn more about the issues in your community, please call La Puente at 719-587-3499. I have seen one woman, M.B., stand up and successfully fight to save the lives of the less fortunate in her community; just imagine what you can do for yours.
What’s Been Said…