image from the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival
http://www.michfest.com/General/general.htm

Women's Land

During this unit our class explored the women's lands of the UT Women's Resource Center, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, and the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. With these 'texts,' we continue to build our archive of tools with which to read texts in this class and spaces in the world today.
Considering our three texts from this unit, students came up with a list of terms and issues to think about when interacting with possible feminist spaces:
  • gender definitions: what defines gender? does the space consider there to be a difference between "women born women" and trans-women?
    ex: MWMF defines women as "womyn-born-womyn"
  • gendered work: does the space break from gender roles? who is doing particular kinds of work in the space?
    ex: at MWMF, in Herland, and at the UT WRC women do all of the work together

  • inclusion/exclusion: who is included or excluded from the space? is this based on gender, race, class?
    ex: MWMF excludes trans-women, Herland excludes women who vary from the standard they are trying to achieve

  • criteria for feminism: what is the space's definition of feminism? what issues does it not take a stand on?
    ex: the women of Herland come from a slaveholding society and this issue has not been addressed

  • goals: what issues does the space address? what problems is it trying to solve?
    ex: the UT Women's Resource Center addresses issues of sexual orientation, sexual assault and rape, and pregnancy and birth control

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