The Women in Philosophy debate - How the Light Gets in

So last week, Bidisha published this on the Guardian's comment is free section.

There have been two responses from men involved with the How the Light Gets in Festival:

One from Julian Baggini, which claims that if you had more women on panels at the conference, you would just have more token women on the panels: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/25/women-outnumbered-by-men?showallcomments=true#comment-51

The other from Hilary Lawson, which claims that the object of the festival - to bring philosophy into the lives of everyday people - is more important than spending a bit more time encouraging women to participate: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/26/fighting-philosophy-gender-imbalance

The debates following both articles are really interesting - men expressing fear and resentment about feminists; women re-iterating the cultural conditions that work to subordinate women and exclude them. So who's right?

One of the issues that has yet to be raised was one brought up at the last SWIP (Society for Women in Philosophy) - UK conference I attended. Many women who do philosophy do it in departments other than philosophy departments. On the whole, in the UK, you will find that women make up about 10% of the philosophy departments. Why is this?

I think it's because in the UK, the philosophy that women do doesn't count as philosophy. If, for instance, Judith Butler were in this country, what analytical-based department would she be in? None. The only departments that consider continental philosophy to be philosophy are: Middlesex, Warwick, Dundee, (please do name others). Only in these would Butler's work be called philosophy. I think we'd find her, as I've found many female philosophers, in Modern Language Departments, in Art Departments, in Psychology departments.

So when the male organisers and the male advisors of this festival claim that only 20% of philosophers are women, I suspect they haven't in any way considered that what women do is often not called philosophy at all. As such, they've missed a chance to connect with the female philosophers in this country who are already bringing philosophy to the lives of everyday people in film departments, literature departments, language departments, even history and medicine-based departments. If you ask me, they've missed out on a valuable resource already doing the work that the festival aims to accomplish.

Token Women

There's a great article today in the Guardian about tokenism in the arts by Bidisha. Check it out here.

My general response to events that feature either no women on panels or only put one woman on the panel of 4 or 5 is that I just don't attend. I won't pay for events that are unconsciously (or consciously) sexist. Bidisha's article has inspired me to ask - what if we boycott an event in London this summer? Is it possible to put word out to the extent that on, say, the 3rd day of the How the Light Gets In festival, no women attend? Would anyone notice? Might make for an interesting experiment.

HowTheLightGetsIn festival

I suppose we should feel grateful for the 10 women participating in the 'philosophy sessions' at the 'How the Light Gets In' philosophy and music festival in Hay. I hope that the women invited are outspoken and confident as they are the minority in each session they've been asked to participate in. No 'philosophy session' in the line-up has more women on the panel than men. Surprising? no. Disappointing? yes.

Here the programem:

http://www.howthelightgetsin.org/tickets-and-programme-2/

Men's rights

From what I understand, the Superbowl was plagued with commercials aimed at supporting men in a time when emasculation has become rampant.  I haven't seen any of these and welcome links pointing to them!

One of my favourite responses to the argument that men are being emasculated by Feminism came from the Daily Show last week.  It had me snorting with laughter.  You won't be able to see it in the UK or Europe (though it was obviously broadcast here), but it's here for those of you elsewhere:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Male Inequality
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

About 30 years ago, French feminism predicted that if Feminism took an equality to approach to rectifying the unequal status of women in society, a war of the sexes would break out.  America seems to currently be proving the French right.  Have a look at this website:

http://manhood101.com/

Their mission statement is:

Manhood 101 is a completely FREE resource. We are a growing community of men dedicated to reestablishing male authority and defending the male identity against the emasculating culture of Feminism.

By teaching men how to improve their social skills, establish relationships, properly care for women and defend their masculine role in society, we hope to change men's lives around the world.

What is fascinating here is that they have picked up on something that has inevitably been a basic trend when humans come to live together in large cities: the feminization of culture.  The fact is that the larger our cities get, the closer we are forced to live together. This proximity requires traits that are seen as 'feminine' such as cooperation, intuition about others, respect of others, quietness, etc rather than  'masculine' traits such as loudness, selfishness, individuality, etc.  This basic trend is not the result of Feminism, but is in fact a necessary shift if we are to go on living together in closer and closer proximity. The closer we get, the more 'feminine' traits are valued.

I'm all for men getting in touch with their maleness.  I fully support them finding ways of being together in the world beyond the sporting, drinking events that they seem limited to.  In fact, I think it would be fascinating to hear about any original takes on maleness they come up with, for, I agree, it's a state-of-being that is very, very prescribed.

I hope that at some level these men recognise the irony of their meetings. Remember it was women who got together in 'consciousness raising groups' in the 70s in order to figure out what it meant to be a woman.  Feminism made that happen for those women in exactly the same way that Feminism is making it happen for these men now.  The only difference being that men are doing it to re-establish their authority over the other, over women, whereas women were looking for self-understanding.

The day that men realise their maleness is not threatened by the feminine, but is threatened by a certain way of thinking that defines maleness in opposition to femaleness, is the day we will begin to learn something more about the being that is male.  I look forward to it!