CleoSombra
(?)Community Member
- Posted: Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:40:37 +0000
Women's History Month (WHM) takes place in March in the United States. The purpose of WHM is to not only to celebrate the contributions of women, but to raise awareness of the existence of women as meaningful influential figures in society in history, politics, science, and art.
The purpose of this thread is also to serve as a platform to discuss women's history and feminism (women's issues and women's rights). The goal of this thread is not only to increase awareness about women's contributions in history and the struggles they've faced, but to increase understanding of current issues women face and debunk some of the prevalent myths relating to feminism.
The purpose of this thread is also to serve as a platform to discuss women's history and feminism (women's issues and women's rights). The goal of this thread is not only to increase awareness about women's contributions in history and the struggles they've faced, but to increase understanding of current issues women face and debunk some of the prevalent myths relating to feminism.
WHY DO WE NEED WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH?
As with Black History Month, the question is often raised why we have special months for selective groups of people. We have a Black History Month - so where is White History Month? We have Gay Pride parades, so why aren't there Straight Pride parades? Isn't giving selective attention to certain groups of people counterproductive?
I sincerely wish that we didn't need a Black History Month or a Women's History Month. I sincerely wish that schools, the media, politics, and other platforms for the exchange of knowledge and discourse imparted on people solid knowledge of the contributions and existence of Black, female, gay, lesbian, Muslim, Latin, Asian contributors of our world.
But as of right now, they don't.
We can sit and wish for how things were or we can take action in bringing what is ignored into the spotlight. People use the lack of women and black people in history, science, and art textbooks as evidence for their intellectual and creative inferiority. See Linda Nochlin's article Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? for an understanding of the absence of women from the elite and world-renowned collection of artists. Discourse in the media and politics makes it seem like homosexuality is a relatively new thing - the idea that homosexuality is a choice is perpetuated by the idea that it was next to nonexistent prior to 100 years ago (with the exception of barely understood ancient history).
Dedicated months are not meant to be a slot for obligatory or token coverage of marginalized groups. Rather, they're meant to be steroid shots to inject into the culture large doses of knowledge and history that they're completely unaware of due to lack of coverage elsewhere. As this knowledge becomes spread out, integrated, and appreciated in the conscious of the culture, it will hopefully find its way into school curriculum, media, and political discourse.