User:Teddy0129/The personal is political

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origin and meaning

The phrase "the personal is political" was popularized by second-wave feminism in the late 1960s and was also important in the civil rights movement, student movement, and Black Power movement. It underscored the connections between personal experience and larger social and political structures. In the context of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, it was a challenge to the nuclear family and family values. It forced popular social movements to challenge what was considered to be "political" and to reflect upon how lived experiences impact perception of reality. Issues that had previously been considered moral or trivial offenses in every day actions were being acknowledged as oppressive and structural norms.

The phrase originated during the Women's Liberation Movement. Women were belittled for wanting to bring their personal issues into the public arena. Men dismissed these issues as personal problems that should be solved in private, and by the individual.

The personal is political drew attention to this relationship, that hadn't been previously acknowledged. This emphasized that politics were in play even in the most personal circumstances and relationships.

art

The Personal Is Political: Feminist Art from the Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell Collection was an exhibit in Cincinnati that showed how feminist artists connect their daily lives to the politics around their bodies. These artists used their creative expression to reveal paradigms between the personal and political realms of their lives.

Martha Wilson is a New York artist whose work reveals how her identity as a woman has been shaped by forces around her, like power relationships, culture and predominantly gender. Her work in the Portrait Society in 2009 made use of self portraits to explore how the personal is political.

criticisms

criticisms

The phrase, "the Personal is Political" has given rise to cultural feminism, which many female activists see as a hinderance to political action and reform. It is argued that cultural feminism encourages activists to move away from politics and give in to traditional roles of the patriarchy.

The Personal is Political is flawed because women only want to politicize certain aspects of their personal lives. Women seek to politicize the aspects of their lives in which they are put down because of their gender. This idea fails to recognize the root of the problem, which is that women are seen as the 'second sex.'

impact on Black Feminism especially

The phrase has heavily figured in black feminism, such as "A Black Feminist Statement" by the Combahee River Collective, Audre Lorde's essay "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House", and the anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by Gloria E. Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga. More broadly, as Kimberlé Crenshaw observes: "This process of recognizing as social and systemic what was formerly perceived as isolated and individual has also characterized the identity politics of African Americans, other people of color, and gays and lesbians, among others." Black Feminists expanded the personal is political by dealing with the intersections of race, class and sex.

background

multiple meanings

This phrase has also been used to assert that women's personal issues need to be politicized in order for them to be emancipated from the patriarchy. However, completely politicizing private life has its downsides, including that people are no longer able to trust one another, with friends and family turning into people to be wary of.

Use of technology

Technology has broken down the distinction between what is private and public even further. Private items, like smartphones, become products of connectivity and public communication. This technology can be seen as oppressive or as an opportunity for women. Social media grants a larger amount of visibility to women's experiences which in turn can increase social surveillance, scrutiny and self-monitoring, and can be harmful.

At the same time, social media can act in a way that portrays women's bodies and appearance as signifiers of worth. Digital spaces like social media can give their user the ability to empower themself through the platform. These platforms are also useful in bringing awareness to important gendered issues, and communicating experiences to a larger audience.