CA372 Exam 2 Review Guide

Why does bell hooks say that feminism is for everybody?

hooks argues that patriarchy harms everyone — women, men, and children — by enforcing rigid hierarchies and roles. Feminism, as the movement to end sexist oppression, liberates all people from these systems. It is not anti-male but anti-sexism; dismantling patriarchy benefits society as a whole.

According to hooks, what is patriarchy?

Patriarchy is a political-social system insisting that males are inherently dominant and superior to everything deemed weak — especially females — and are entitled to rule over the weak. It is reproduced through socialization, not biology, meaning it is taught and maintained culturally.

Identify and explain the key areas of focus of second wave feminism.

Second wave feminism (roughly 1960s–1980s) focused on: (1) reproductive rights (contraception and abortion access); (2) workplace equality (equal pay, ending sex discrimination); (3) challenging sexual violence and domestic abuse; (4) consciousness-raising about personal/political connections; (5) legal reform such as the Equal Rights Amendment; and (6) questioning gender roles and sexuality.

Who was Sheri Finkbine, and what is her historical significance?

Sheri Finkbine was an Arizona TV host (Romper Room) who in 1962 sought an abortion after taking thalidomide — a drug known to cause severe fetal deformities. Denied in the US after her case became public, she traveled to Sweden. Her story brought national attention to the issue of therapeutic abortion and was an early catalyst for the abortion rights movement.

What does Bonnie Dow mean when she says that the reverse of the feminist slogan “the personal is political” has been used to discredit feminism?

Second-wave feminism used 'the personal is political' to reveal how private experiences (domestic violence, reproductive choices) reflect systemic political structures. The reversal — treating political issues as merely personal — dismisses feminist politics by framing women's concerns as individual, private matters rather than structural problems, thus depoliticizing feminist claims.

What is the thesis statement of Bonnie Dow’s Miss America essay?

Dow argues that media representations of the 1968 Miss America protest constructed feminism as anti-feminine and extremist (the 'bra burning' myth), and that this mediated image has been continuously mobilized since then to trivialize and delegitimize feminist activism.

Explain the link Ula Taylor sees between abolition and contemporary black feminisms. What is Taylor’s thesis statement?

Taylor traces a continuous genealogy linking Black women's abolitionist activism to contemporary Black feminisms. She argues that Black women have always fought intersecting oppressions of race, gender, and class, beginning with resistance to slavery. Her thesis: understanding this historical genealogy is essential to understanding Black feminism's theoretical commitments and political strategies today.

Why does Becky Thompson seek to recast second wave feminism’s chronology? What is Thompson’s thesis statement?

The dominant narrative of second wave feminism centers white, middle-class women's organizations (like NOW), erasing simultaneous feminist activism by women of color, lesbians, and working-class women. Thompson's thesis: multiracial feminism was not a later 'correction' but was happening throughout the second wave; the standard chronology misrepresents the diversity of the movement.

Campbell offers a generic lens through which to view movement discourse. After discussing the kinds of second wave discourses we have covered in this unit of the course, do you think they have shared substantive and stylistic elements? Can we develop a genre of second wave feminist rhetoric? What would its characteristics be/ why are there not shared characteristics?

Using genre criticism, second wave discourses share: (1) personal testimony as evidence; (2) consciousness-raising as both strategy and goal; (3) challenge to dominant patriarchal ideology; (4) invitations to self-reflection and identity transformation; (5) appeals to collective female experience. A genre of second wave feminist rhetoric would be defined by these elements, though diversity across race, class, and sexuality complicates any single genre.

Explain the characteristics of the rhetoric of women’s liberation as Campbell understands them.

Campbell identifies women's liberation rhetoric as: (1) using personal experience as evidence; (2) employing consciousness-raising to transform identity; (3) challenging the 'reality' constructed by patriarchy; (4) non-hierarchical in structure; (5) inviting self-revelation rather than didactic persuasion; (6) prioritizing lived experience over abstract expertise; (7) seeking to transform consciousness, not just advocate policy.

Who was Audre Lorde?

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) was a Black Caribbean-American poet, feminist, womanist, and civil rights activist. She identified as Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, and poet. Her major works include The Cancer Journals, Sister Outsider, and Zami. She theorized intersectionality and the uses of difference, insisting that difference should be a source of strength rather than division.

Explain Lorde’s famous quotation

“Your silence will not protect you.”: From 'The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,' Lorde argues that marginalized women often stay silent out of fear. But silence offers no real safety — we remain vulnerable whether we speak or not. Therefore we must transform silence into language and action: speaking out, even at risk, is self-affirming and politically necessary. Speaking is an act of survival and solidarity.

What are the characteristics of political feminine style as Dow and Tonn understand them?

Political feminine style is characterized by: (1) use of personal narrative and concrete examples; (2) inductive reasoning (specific to general); (3) audience-centered and relational appeals; (4) identification with rather than distancing from the audience; (5) focus on practical, everyday concerns; (6) non-adversarial tone; (7) emphasis on community and connection; (8) legitimizing personal experience as political evidence.

What is the difference between reproductive rights and reproductive justice?

Reproductive rights is a legal/liberal framework centered on the individual right not to have a child (access to contraception and abortion). Reproductive justice (coined by SisterSong collective) is broader: the right not to have a child, the right to have a child, and the right to parent in safe, supportive conditions. RJ centers women of color and addresses structural barriers — racism, poverty, immigration status — not just legal access.

How do Solinger and Ross understand reproductive justice?

Solinger and Ross understand reproductive justice as requiring full social justice — not just legal access to abortion but the material and social conditions necessary for meaningful reproductive autonomy. They argue RJ must address racism, poverty, disability, and immigration, centering those most marginalized by the mainstream reproductive rights movement.

Explain the notion of medical racism and relate it to second wave feminist movement.

Medical racism refers to the ways racial bias and systemic racism operate within medicine — leading to inferior care, coercive sterilization, and experimentation on minority patients. In the second wave, this meant Black, Indigenous, Puerto Rican, and poor women were disproportionately targeted for forced sterilization; their pain dismissed; their bodies used as research subjects. Medical racism exposed the limits of a white-centered reproductive rights framework.

What does Hazel Carby mean by “the politics of difference”?

Carby argues that white feminist theory universalizes white women's experiences while treating Black women as 'different' or 'other.' The politics of difference names the way feminism manages difference — sometimes acknowledging it, but often in ways that re-center whiteness. Carby calls for genuinely engaging the structural differences between women rather than treating diversity as an add-on to a fundamentally white feminist framework.

Explain the relationship between eugenic discourse and Black Nationalists responses to birth control in the second wave.

Given histories of forced sterilization targeting Black communities, some Black Nationalist groups (e.g., Nation of Islam) framed birth control as genocidal. This created tension with Black feminist activists who supported reproductive choice while opposing coercion. Eugenic discourse — controlling 'undesirable' populations — was embedded even in progressive reform (including Sanger's work), giving Black leaders reason to distrust birth control advocacy.

Who was Shirley Chisholm?

Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005) was the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress (1968) and the first Black candidate and first woman to seek a major party's presidential nomination (Democratic, 1972). A fierce advocate for women's rights, civil rights, and the poor, she supported abortion rights and famously declared she faced more discrimination as a woman than as a Black person in politics.

Who is Angela Davis?

Angela Davis (b. 1944) is a Black feminist scholar, activist, and professor. A Communist Party member and Black Panther affiliate, she was imprisoned in 1970–1972. Her book Women, Race & Class is foundational to intersectional feminist theory. She is known for her work on race, class, gender, and prison abolition, arguing that these oppressions are inseparable.

How do Davis and Chisholm hold contrasting views about abortion? How are their views similar?

Chisholm supported abortion as individual rights and women's autonomy — a liberal rights framework. Davis, from a socialist feminist perspective, situated abortion within a broader critique of racism and capitalism, warning that an abortion-only framework ignored forced sterilization targeting Black and poor women. Both opposed criminalizing abortion and affirmed women's right to reproductive choice, but Davis demanded structural critique that Chisholm's framework did not foreground.

What does it mean to say that race is a social construct?

Race is not a biological category but a socially invented one — created and maintained by societies to organize people hierarchically based on physical characteristics, primarily skin color. Racial categories change over time and across cultures, have no scientific basis as biological classifications, yet produce very real social, political, and economic consequences. Race is real in its effects, not its biology.

Explain dehumanization in the context of medical racism.

Dehumanization in medical racism refers to treating Black (and other minority) patients as less than fully human — as subjects for experimentation, data sources, or patients undeserving of equal pain care. Historical examples include J. Marion Sims's gynecological experiments on enslaved Black women without anesthesia, the Tuskegee syphilis study, and contemporary disparities where Black patients receive less pain management than white patients.

Define both positive and negative eugenics.

Negative eugenics - discouraging or preventing reproduction among those deemed 'unfit' (poor, disabled, people of color) through forced sterilization or coercive birth control. Positive eugenics - encouraging reproduction among those deemed 'fit' (white, educated, middle/upper class). Both were central to the early 20th-century eugenics movement and influenced public policy in the US.

Who was Margaret Sanger?

Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) was a birth control activist and founder of what became Planned Parenthood. She is celebrated for championing contraception access. She is also a deeply contested figure: she worked with eugenicists, promoted birth control in ways targeting poor and minority communities (the 'Negro Project'), and her motivations were not consistently egalitarian. Her legacy represents both feminist progress and eugenic harm.

What are the landmark 20th century reproductive rights SCOTUS decisions? List and explain them.

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) - right of married couples to use contraception based on constitutional privacy. Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) - extended contraception rights to unmarried persons. Roe v. Wade (1973) - constitutional right to abortion via the right to privacy; trimester framework. Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) - reaffirmed Roe but replaced trimesters with viability standard; allowed restrictions short of 'undue burden.' Dobbs v. Jackson (2022) - overturned Roe and Casey, returning abortion regulation to states.

What is implicit bias?

Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that influence decisions and actions without the individual's awareness. Unlike explicit bias, it operates automatically and can affect people who consciously hold egalitarian values. In medical racism contexts, implicit bias among healthcare providers leads to differential — often inferior — treatment of Black patients, affecting diagnoses, pain management, and quality of care.

How does can a rhetorical critic apply the elements of political feminine style to The Cancer Journals?

Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that influence decisions and actions without the individual's awareness. Unlike explicit bias, it operates automatically and can affect people who consciously hold egalitarian values. In medical racism contexts, implicit bias among healthcare providers leads to differential — often inferior — treatment of Black patients, affecting diagnoses, pain management, and quality of care.