"When you expose a problem, you pose a problem": Naming, Reclaiming, & Living a Feminist Life

In Chapter 1 (“Feminism is sensational”) of Living a Feminist Life, Ahmed talks about problems with names (31) – “We encounter racism and sexism before we have the words that allow us to make sense of what we encounter. Words can then allow us to get closer to our experiences; words can allow us to comprehend what we experience after the event” (32). She further explains, “When we give problems their names, we can become a problem for those who do not want to talk about a problem even though they know there is a problem… We need to acquire words to describe what we come up against. Becoming feminist; finding the words” (34).

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Ted Talk “We Should all be Feminists” describes another problem with naming – the way she was called “feminist” as a term heavy with negative baggage. She goes on to describe experiences of everyday sexism and gender discrimination… “these are little things, but sometimes it's the little things that sting the most.” In the end, Adichie says, “I am a feminist. And when I looked up the word in the dictionary that day, this is what it said: "Feminist: a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes." My great grandmother, from the stories I've heard, was a feminist. She ran away from the house of the man she did not want to marry and ended up marrying the man of her choice. She refused, she protested, she spoke up whenever she felt she was being deprived of access, of land, that sort of thing. My great grandmother did not know that word "feminist," but it doesn't mean that she wasn't one. More of us should reclaim that word.”

In a similar vein, bell hooks, in the introduction to Feminism is for Everybody, describes how she “tend[s] to hear all about the evil of feminism and the bad feminists: how "they" hate men; how "they" want to go against nature and god; how "they" are all lesbians; how "they" are taking all the jobs and making the world hard for white men, who do not stand a chance” (vii). At the same time, bell hooks continues, “[w]hen I ask these same folks about the feminist books or magazines they read, when I ask them about the feminist talks they have heard, about the feminist activists they know, they respond by letting me know that everything they know about feminism has come into their lives thirdhand, that they really have not come close enough to feminist movement to know what really happens, what it's really about. Mostly they think feminism is a bunch of angry women who want to be like men. They do not even think about feminism as being about rights - about women gaining equal rights. When I talk about the feminism I know - up close and personal- they willingly listen, although when our conversations end, they are quick to tell me I am different, not like the "real" feminists who hate men, who are angry. I assure them I am as a real and as radical a feminist as one can be, and if they dare to come closer to feminism they will see it is not how they have imagined it” (vii-viii).

(i) For this part of the blog post, I want you to think about words, names, and problems like these in your own lives. These could be about power structures or identity markers like class, race, sex, gender, religion, etc. but could also go beyond these. Keeping in mind how “we become a problem when we describe a problem,” (Ahmed 39) think about what words have caused problems in your life? These could be at the family table, in school, at work, with friends, strangers, or any other scenarios. Then, think also about what words have become tools for you? Are these the same words that you used to describe problems? (Think about how, for Adichie, being called a feminist was once a problem when it was used as an insult, but it later became a powerful tool. Think also about words like "queer" that have been reclaimed and are now used as tools against those power structures). What words would you like to reclaim as a way of pushing back against narratives of (binary) gender and sexuality?

(ii) Adichie ends her Ted Talk by giving her own definition of feminism, as a way of reclaiming the word, and using the word as a tool against oppressive power structures. She says, “My own definition of feminist is: A feminist is a man or a woman who says ‘Yes, there's a problem with gender as it is today, and we must fix it. We must do better.’”

Similarly, in the intro to Feminism is for Everybody, bell hooks says “I have wanted them to have this simple definition to read again and again so they know: "Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression." I love this definition, which I first offered more than 10 years ago in my book Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. I love it because it so clearly states that the movement is not about being anti-male. It makes it clear that the problem is sexism. And that clarity helps us remember that all of us, female and male, have been socialized from birth on to accept sexist thought and action” (viii). This is a definition that Sara Ahmed also refers to in Living a Feminist Life. What is also important here is that bell hooks points out how “as a consequence [of this socialization], females can be just as sexist as men. And while that does not excuse or justify male domination, it does mean that it would be naive and wrong-minded for feminist thinkers to see the movement as simplistically being for women against men. To end patriarchy (another way of naming the institutionalized sexism) we need to be clear that we are all participants in perpetuating sexism until we change our minds and hearts, until we let go of sexist thought and action and replace it with feminist thought and action” (viii-ix)

Going beyond names, beyond gender binaries and sexual difference, but rather focusing on the larger systems/institutions we are socialized to be a part of since before we are even born, think about how we are all already implicated in a capitalist and patriarchal system. What definition would you, personally, propose for feminism that could clarify or attempt to reclaim what the movement is/should be about?

(iii) As a last step, think about how we might apply these ideas to Persepolis. What structures, problems, and grand narratives (of gender, history, politics, religion) are the characters coming up against? Recall how in Chapter 1 of Living a Feminist Life, Ahmed also describes feminism as a way of redescribing the world we are in – “we begin to identify how what happens to me, happens to others. We begin to identify patterns and irregularities” (27). What patterns/irregularities do we (and Marji) see in the Persepolis narrative so far that become problems that the characters have to keep coming up against?

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