25 - Women’s choice

[Shuangshuang K.]

We are lucky to live in this time, where women have already been awakened of their self-esteem and value; where women are requesting back their once-deprived rights and protecting themselves from unfair discrimination and infringement; where women are taking their responsibilities and exerting their influence in all walks of life; and where women are holding autonomy to make their professional and marital choice at their own will. All the above-mentioned revolutionary progress owes its realization to the effortful work of all the leading feminist pioneers and all the ordinary women; every announcement they made and every march they progressed has carried women’s empowerment a step forward.

I am a complete optimist, as you may notice when I was picturing women’s situations in contemporary era in the previous paragraph. Looking back into 1950s/1960s in America (the time Mona Lisa Smile pictures) and 1980s in China (social background of And the Spring comes), where traditionalists and feudalists still took majority and the value of “being a wife and mom is a role a woman’s born to fill” was still being gloried, I could still hear the voice of women’s awakening, through the choice they made about their own life.

Katherine made her choice not to plan her life around marriage, so she turned down Paul’s proposal which was conditioned with a compromise between marriage and profession. Joan made her choice not to go to Yale Law School but married Tommy; because she believed she would rather regret not having a family and raising her own children than not being a lawyer. Connie rushed into mens’ residence fearlessly and won her love back. Betty filed for a divorce, breaking the traditions she was nurtured and educated with, and announcing a new start of her life, a life without a forced Mona Lisa smile. Wang Cailing, unlike these beautiful, highly-educated Wellesley girls, was a plain village music teacher and had her beautiful voice as the only blessing. She rejected to marry “the rotten peach” man and kept chasing her opera dream no matter how reality teared her dreams part.

These women, with bold bravery, made their choice not according to any imposed will but rather to their true orientation. Even though Wang eventually turned to matrimonial service and adopted an orphan girl to fulfill the secular expectation, her decades-long pursuit of the opera dream is never downgraded. Even though Joan is competent enough to fit in one of the most gender-challenging (i.e. male-dominant) professions, her choice to start a family and raise children should never be disrespected. Even if we can’t see what future is awaiting Betty after her “rebellious” action, her choice to tear down her Mona Lisa mask should always be given an applause. What I believe is that the right to choose leads the way to women’s achievement and happiness, no matter in career, in marriage, or in a perfect balance between professional and marital commitments.

However, women’s liberal choice is still heavily impeded by traditional and feudal thoughts that haven't been eradicated in full. Worse than that, a new barrier stands in the way is put by some radical and deviated feminists. They standardize all women into one simplified liberal model and limit women’s fulfillment into one single choice: to earn much money and live independently without men. They downgrade men, demonize marriage and procreation, and even discriminate women who enjoy the “happily ever after” life with her loved one. I am not sure whether this happens global-wide or China-specific, where it is called Pastoral Feminism, but I am sure it is no less disastrous than any traditionalism or conservativeness.

But hope is, no matter what stood in the way, women started to choose their mayors and presidents hundreds of years ago; Decades ago, they chose to take off their basquine and bindings and wore on the wedding dress at their will. Women in our times, with so much power combined together, could break off one barrier after another to choose the world they want to live in.

[Kristina B.]

Hey Shuangshuang,

What struck me most about the essay is how quickly you jump to give your opinion, which is nice.
I might try to revise that first sentence, it takes up over half your paragraph.
While I read a lot of really cool points in your fifth paragraph, I am not certain as to how they connect to the two movies we watched.
That being said, I would love to hear more about what you think of pastoral feminism. I think that what we are seeing when you compare traditionalism to pastoral feminism is the extremes of two very different sides. Do you think there are less dramatic examples of either of these things in just ordinary people? If there are, should we try to combat those things? If so, how does one person go about that?

[Grace L.]

Hi Shuangshuang,
I really appreciate your feminist view of the movies. I like the concise but precise way you summarize the choices women made to be themselves. I’m also impressed by your strong interpretation of how these self-guided choices mean to women who are long-suppressed in a patriarchal society.
Maybe a brief introduction to the two movies can be included into your essay before your mention of the movie background and details so that it won’t read obtrusive.

[Shuangshuang K.]

Hi Kristina,
Thank you for your response and suggestion. I would try to trim the first paragraph to make it more concise.
As for your question about pastoral feminism, I would like to explain to you what it is and how it happened. Pastoral feminism is actually a hot-debated issue in recent China, especially in some internet communities for senior intellectuals, like "Zhihu"(知乎). It refers to a kind of feminism that is rather radical and subversive that was emerged and deeply rooted in China's economic development and ideology reform. As women in today's China are owning more autonomy about their professional and marital choices, as well as more opportunities to make their voices heard and their influence exerted, they are getting more independent and self-respected. But some women (not so many, but influential enough due to the fast-spread internet) are kind of walking to an extreme. As I've mentioned in my article, "they standardize all women into one simplified liberal model and limit women’s fulfillment into one single choice: to earn much money and live independently without men. They downgrade men, demonize marriage and procreation, and even discriminate women who enjoy the “happily ever after” life with her loved one". It's like they are trying to establish a society that women are dominant the way men were in the past. You know the power of ideology is silent but formidable and mighty. Many women in today's China are slightly or deeply influenced by this radical thought. For example, they turn indifferent to love and marriage and believe in "singlism"(single+ism); they are encouraged to buy many luxurious clothes and cosmetics to show they are independent and capable enough (many of these women are heavily indebted), etc.
The reason why I mentioned pastoral feminism in my article is that I think this is an important barrier in the way of women's empowerment in China. As you said, it's like the opposite extreme of traditionalism. Yes, it is. But it's infiltrating women's mind in China and worths pointing out when discussing women's empowerment in China.
Hope this explanation works and i'm looking forward to hearing from you again!

[Shuangshuang K.]

Hey Grace,
Thank you for your kind words and suggestions. I just saw your response to me in your article page. You mentioned that you decided to publish your movie reviews to some movie magazine so you described many detailed plots for the naïve audience. I treated this assignment merely for the activity so I assumed my audience were all familiar with the two movies. But you're also considerate since considering the reading experience, it might still be obtrusive to read without the movie descriptions. I would take your advise and try to make a revise.
Do you have any questions about the content? I'm looking forward to your reply!

[Kristina B.]

Hey Shuangshuang,
That is incredibly interesting! It proves to me at least that being on the extremes of either side (traditionalism or pastoral feminism) is not particularly healthy for anyone. It is an important thing to note when talking about women's empowerment because it is absolutely the extreme side of that particular issue. I find the fact that they use luxurious objects to identify themselves with this movement curious, why do you think they use this?
I used to attend an all-girls school, so this kind of subject was talked about a lot. People who identified themselves as feminists often felt like they needed to explain the difference between their form of feminism and the kind of extreme connotation that word carries, I expect this connotation stems from events you explained to me in your description of pastoral feminism.
Looking forward to hearing from you again!

[Shuangshuang K.]

Hi Kristina,
I am not sure I am totally clearly understand your question but I would try to explain.
As I've mentioned in my article, pastoral feminism is a "radical and deviated" form of feminism and it is not calling on the right things that would help progress womens' empowerment. Instead of calling on women to fight for career equality, it preaches earning money by taking advantage of men; instead of appealing for women's free choice in marriage, it simply demonizes marriage and procreation; instead of encouraging women to be self-confident, it appraises the importance of external, luxurious merchandize (cosmetics and clothes,etc) in building up women's confidence. These might be the connotations of this form of feminism. But just as I've said at first, it is a "deviated" form that barricades the progress of women's empowerment and needs a change.
Feel free to ask me if you still have any related questions.

[Shuangshuang K.]

Womens' choice
Revised

We are lucky to live in this time, where women have already been awakened of their self-esteem and value; where women are requesting back their once-deprived rights and autonomy of their own life, protecting themselves from discrimination and exerting their influence in all walks of life. All the above-mentioned revolutionary progress owes its realization to the effortful work of all the leading feminist pioneers and all the ordinary women; every announcement they made and every march they progressed has carried women’s empowerment a step forward.

I am a complete optimist, as you may notice when I was picturing women’s situations in contemporary era. Looking back into 1950s/1960s in America (the time Mona Lisa Smile pictures) and 1980s in China (social background of And the Spring comes), where traditionalists and feudalists still accounted for majority and the value of “being a wife and mom is a role a woman’s born to fill” was still being glorified, I could still hear the voice of women’s awakening, through the choice they made about their own life.

Katherine, a liberated and progressive professor teaching in a conservative girls’ school, made her choice not to plan her life around marriage thus she turned down her boyfriend’s proposal which was conditioned with a compromise between marriage and profession. Joan, the girl once with a lawyer dream, made her choice not to go to Yale Law School but married Tommy; because she believed she would rather regret not having a family and raising her own children than not being a lawyer. Connie, the girl who had often been looked down upon due to her less attractive appearance and figure, rushed into mens’ residence fearlessly and won her love back. Betty, the most conservative girl student, eventually filed for a divorce and broke the traditions she was nurtured in and educated with, announcing a new start of her life, a life without a forced Mona Lisa smile.Wang Cailing, unlike these beautiful, highly-educated Wellesley girls, was a plain village music teacher and had her beautiful voice as the only blessing. She rejected to marry “the rotten peach” man and kept chasing her opera dream no matter how reality tore her dreams apart.

These women, with bold bravery, made their choice not according to any imposed will but rather to their true orientation. Even though Wang eventually turned to matrimonial service and adopted an orphan girl to fulfill the secular expectation, her decades-long pursuit of the opera dream is never downgraded. Even though Joan is competent enough to fit in one of the most gender-challenging (i.e. male-dominant) professions, her choice to start a family and raise children should never be disrespected. Even if we can’t see what future is awaiting Betty after her “rebellious” action, her choice to tear down her Mona Lisa mask should always be given an applause. What I believe is that the right to choose leads the way to women’s achievement and happiness, no matter in career, in marriage, or in a perfect balance between professional and marital commitments.

However, women’s liberal choice is still heavily impeded by traditional and feudal thoughts that haven't been eradicated in full. Worse than that, a new barrier stands in the way is put by some radical and deviated feminists. They standardize all women into one simplified liberal model and limit women’s fulfillment into one single choice: to earn much money and live independently without men. They downgrade men, demonize marriage and procreation, and even discriminate women who enjoy the “happily ever after” life with her loved one. I am not sure whether this happens globally or China-specific, where it is called Pastoral Feminism, but I am sure it is no less disastrous than any traditionalism or conservativeness.

But hope is, no matter what stood in the way, women started to choose their mayors and presidents hundreds of years ago; Decades ago, they chose to take off their basquine and bindings and wore on the wedding dress at their will. Women in our times, with so much power bound together, could break off one barrier after another to choose the world they want to live in.

[Shuangshuang K.]

Reflections:

By the time when I received Mr.Wu’s email informing me of this border-crossing writing activity, I was actually suffering from reading a lengthy and obscure journal article (for presentation) and got quite annoyed and frustrated because of it. I could still remember how my alerting nerves and twisted guts reminded me of my nervousness and pressure about taking part in such a serious writing-related activity. But surprisingly, it turned out to be a happy, thought-provoking and meaningful journey. As the deadline of this activity is approaching, I would like to make some reflections here.

1) What were your expectations for the border-crossing activity? Are your expectations met? Why or why not?
Before the beginning of the border-crossing activity, I asked my roommate who had once participated in this activity, about how this thing worked and how she felt about it. Her answer was full of positive comments and she mentioned that she made friends with the girl who exchanged feedbacks with her and they still kept in touch. So I expected that, besides studying the linguistic and cultural differences manifested in different styles, organizations and conventions used in Chinese and American writings, I could also make friends with my foreign partner and possibly have further discussions with him/her in my future writing. The first expectation was met through the process of reading the articles of the American students and exchanging ideas with them. I found similarities and differences between Chinese and American writings in lexical choices, writing styles, idea presentations,etc, and had some delightful and enlightening discussions with my partners. The second expectation hasn’t yet realized. I suppose it’s probably because the activity changed the “one-on-one” communicative mode into “one-to-many”, in which a student exchanges comments with not only one foreign-counterpart but three. This change has provided us with more resources to study the linguistic and cultural differences, but may also lead to so-called “diffusion of responsibility” that declined the efficiency of communication. Anyway, though we didn’t exchange Facebook or WeChat for future contact, we had happy and enlightening communications throughout the process.

2) Please name three things that struck you most when you interacted with the peers, and explain why. (You may comment on the differences and/or similarities in lexical choice, writing style, idea presentation, rhetorical preference, cultural convention etc.)
As for the three things that struck me most during the interactions with the three peers, I would like to name a few things from the perspectives of writing style, idea presentation and rhetoric preference.
One of my group members, Grace L., wrote a formal and scholarly-like essay by introducing some theories and research evidences as well as many elaborate and logical analyses of the movie plots to support her arguments because she said she attempted to publish her essay in some movie magazine. I was really impressed by her attempt to make her writing product valuable and possibly exert some social impact because this thought had once popped out in my mind but eventually suppressed. I wonder if this suppression comes from the writing education/training I’ve received throughout my schooling, which never told me that my written product might be valuable and could possibly make some social impacts if I tried to work on it for communicative and social purposes rather than merely in-class activity.
Grace L. work also struck me by the two metaphors she used to depict the two main characters in Mona Lisa Smile and And the Spring comes, namely Sun and Moon respectively. I think the following statement she made in her article well summarized the main characteristics of the two leading characters in the movies: “I use metaphor “sun” to depict the persona of high agency, which has the power to transform and to effect changes, and “moon” to that of low self-esteem and agency, which is submissive to social norms and negative appraisals”.
Besides Grace L. article, I was also struck by topic and theme of Katherine.B’s writing. According to her statements, besides the distinct personal growth of Katherine and Wang Cailing, the main reason resulting in their different endings are factors like their different physical appearance and distinct social place of the origin. She pointed out that the camera shots, movie angles as well as character make-ups also purposefully emphasized the beauty of Katherine and crudeness of Wang Cailing. I was struck by the angle she viewed the success of Katherine and failure of Wang Cailing because according to my own writing experience, emphasizing “physical beauty” as a key factor deciding one’s success is kind of “politically/ideologically incorrect”. I admitted I totally agreed with her opinion but I was too conservative to take this stand. I thought my cultural background again played an essential role in de-orienting me from discussing the importance of physical beauty in deciding women’s success.

3) Did you incorporate what had been discussed into the revised draft? If so, please elaborate on how the discussion had led to the revisions you made. If not, please explain why.
I revised my draft according to my peers’ suggestions. Two of them gave me kind and helpful advises. Kristina suggested that the opening sentence of the first paragraph might be a bit lengthy and I tried to trim it into a more concise statement in my revised draft. She also proposed her confusion about the “pastoral feminism” I mentioned when I talked about the new barriers to women’s empowerment in China. She didn’t understand the purpose of mentioning this extreme side opposite to traditionalism because she thought it would not necessarily happen in the real life. I explained to her what is the so-called “pastoral feminism” in China and how it worked in affecting and even changing many women’s ideas about marriage and success. After some discussions on this issue, she understood and accepted this perspective so I retained the part of “pastoral feminism” in my revised draft. Grace suggested that though the audience in this activity were all familiar with the movie plots, it would still be better if I gave a brief introduction of the two movies since it might help this writing to be intelligible for a wider range of readers. I also took her advise in revising my article.

4) Do you think the activity is beneficial to you in terms of knowledge gains or skill enhancement? If so, please elaborate. If not, please explain why.
I think this activity is beneficial to me both in knowledge gains and skill enhancement.
When I was preparing for the writing and deciding on the topic and theme, I read some articles and research papers about the history of women’s empowerment and connotations of feminism. I accumulated much information and knowledge about this issue. During the activity, I had a further discussion with my peers about this issue and absorbed other new ideas from them.
Besides knowledge enhancement, I also learnt some writing skills from my group members. For example, Kristina’s work offered me a perfect example about how to reason my argument from the perspective of non-verbal strategies like camera shots, angles as well as characters’ makeups and features. Grace’s essay was so impressive since it was formal, logical and professional. I learnt from her and Kristina’s work about how a linear development works, which without any degree of digressiveness or extraneous materials. Though my writing doesn’t incline too much to Chinese inductive style, I hope I could use what I’ve learnt from this activity to compose more logical, clear-cut articles in my future writing.

7) Could you provide three adjectives to describe your feelings about the activity? Please explain your choice.
Enjoyable: What matters in writing is the process rather than merely the written product. And through this activity, I really enjoyed myself in the writing process, including preparation, planning, organization, writing, receiving feedback and revision. I enjoyed also reading and commenting my peers’ writings because it’s a process of learning from others as well as enlightening my own thoughts.
Anxious: No matter how much enjoyment the activity brings me, I still remember how I was anxious about writing the film review and replying to others’ comments.
Thought-provoking: I had a discussion with Kristina about women’s empowerment, especially on the specific issue of the role of physical beauty in women’s success. She introduced to me some interesting research about this topic and provoked me a lot in rethinking about this issue. I also had a talk about dream and reality with Ziang, H, discussing how to deal with the relationship between dreams and reality and to what extent a dream is unrealistic enough for one to give up.

8) Any additional comments, suggestions, and observations you would like to make to better help us assess your performance in this activity?
Since the purpose of the this boarder-crossing activity is for us to communicate with foreign counterparts through writing and study the rhetoric and cultural differences in Chinese and American writings, the assessment of our performance should take the writing process into account rather than merely the written products. If the full mark is 100 points, I think 30 out of 100 goes to the original and revised articles, 60 goes to the number and quality of our comments and discussions we had with our group members and the rest 10 goes to our reflections of this activity.