“FMLA is a progressive gender equality and human rights group that focuses on promoting equal treatment between men and women. We also strive to protect and promote women’s health options and choices, raise awareness about the problems of domestic violence and other types of violent crime, promote worker’s pay equity and rights, and strive to make the necessary statutory and constitutional amendments that will help us meet our goals of a more equal and less violent world. We're also the local chapter of Voices for Planned Parenthood.”
Equality is a long sought after ideal that seems unattainable, yet slowly we inch towards the finish line, recovering from our rough start with slavery, oppression of women, and murder of homosexuals. It is safe to say that the human race yearns for an end to discrimination and prejudice, whatever that may look like to different groups of people. For the most part, people just want to make the world a better place, a little brighter, a little happier.
The major strides made for human equality in the real world usually start with students. During segregation, students from colleges did a lot of work to achieve integration and voters’ rights. During the Vietnam War, students protested violence and called for peace. Colleges are often the cultivators for the seeds of social change.
Among these various seeds is the seed of feminism, and this seed takes root at East Tennessee State University as the Feminist Majority Leadership Association, or the FMLA (the mission statement for which is quoted at the top). This group has been functioning under the same leadership for three years, hosting events, providing feminist education, and attending protests. They come together every Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 in Rogers-Stout Hall on campus, ready to live up to their own expectations. How does this group function? What themes emerge upon attending meetings and participating in their activities? What does it mean to be a feminist in their culture and their group?
Methods
I studied the FMLA at ETSU by attending three meetings, conducting two interviews, and by attending a panel during Sex Week (the major undertaking of the group to bring sex education to ETSU). By taking field notes and through participant observation, there are four major themes worth discussion: diversity, the animation/geek culture and pop culture, consensus and dissention, and community.
Diversity
This is a broad topic and a tricky one to discuss. Diversity encompasses race, sexual orientation, and gender identification. None of these things are visible to the eye and it makes it difficult to observe in a group of people. However, there are both wide diversity and a lack of diversity within the group that is apparent.
One’s ethnic identity can not be determined through mere sight. Due to each individual’s personal identification, it is difficult and often inappropriate to assume one belongs to a certain culture based solely on the color of skin, hair, or eyes. However, this was a relevant theme to the FMLA. For three meetings, there was never anyone in the room I assumed to be anything but Caucasian. Of course, this is mere assumption, but from the evidence before my eyes, every person in the room had white skin and no ethnic identifiers to suggest another culture. For a group striving for total human equality, it was surprising to see a lack of cultural representation. I wanted to know more about the lack of racial diversity in the group and if it had always been this way, or if it had fluctuated over the years and what I was seeing was coincidence.
Throughout the meetings I attended, there was discussion of feminism and racism. A group member brought it to everyone’s attention that white women make less than white men, but black and Latino women make even less than white women. There was open discussion about racial relations and their part in the feminist movement, so the group was not against racial representation. In fact, during a discussion about Miley Cyrus and her feminist message, the group loosely supported her feminist views, but a member mentioned her appropriation of black culture and how problematic that was in conjunction with the feminist ideals she tried to portray. As far as discussion concerning racism and its relationship with feminism, there was nothing but open-mindedness and concern.
When I interviewed the faculty adviser for FMLA, Victoria John, I asked her about the diversity of FMLA and if she thought it could use improvement. She responded by saying FMLA is dedicated to human equality and they are not closed off to the wide differences in humans, but she feels the FMLA has not done well with pulling in non-white students. She believes the FMLA is overwhelmingly white because the East Tennessee area is overwhelmingly white. However, she feels this barrier could be overcome if the FMLA worked more closely with student organizations on campus that focus on serving non-white students. So while the absence of racial diversity is a theme within the FMLA, it is not due to an unconscious group racism or through racism of any kind; but in all probability simply location. As Hilary said, this could be remedied by working with other student organizations.
Just like with race, sexual orientation and gender identification are difficult to determine and not always appropriate to label; however, this is where the FMLA is incredibly rich and diverse. For example, there is a member identified as a bisexual male involved in a polyamorous relationship with a female. Not only that, but several members identify as lesbian, bisexual, or asexual. During group meetings, there have been several presentations that have topics of feminism, but also topics of sexual orientation and gender identification. Their meetings stay true to their dedication for true equality for they are accepting of all people and dissect everyone’s involvement with feminism and how it relates to their lifestyle.
As far as gender is concerned, it is too broad and subjective to put under the umbrella of diversity. Yes there are a few men that attend meetings and participate, but just because they look male doesn’t mean they identify as male. They can be genderqueer, gender non-conformity, or transgender and there is no way to tell without simply asking and asking can be ill received. Regardless of the members’ gender identifications, presentations and discussions are open to everyone and there is no open hostility towards the men’s involvement in the group. However, under the pop culture section there will be some discussion about the difference between male pop culture feminist icons and female pop culture feminist icons.
The group is diverse and open to its diversity. Based on their location, it will take a little more work to increase racial diversity, but they are true in their mission statement that they want not only gender equality, but equality in general.
Which Came First? The Geek or the Feminist?
A bias that afflicted me and most likely afflicts others is that feminist groups only talk about feminism when gathered together. However, a re-occurring and unexpected point of conversation was animation or elements of the geek culture. Even during meetings, a few people would be doodling, have notebooks open and working on small storyboards for their own cartoons, or discussing programs such as Photo Shop and other digital media programs. A couple of the members are even digital media majors and have art classes together.
Beyond the participation in animation, members also expressed enjoyment for cartoons like Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. This love for cartoons was related to the feminist actions of the animators for the shows. It was fascinating to see something regarded as feminist when it is often not the first idea that pops into one’s mind when discussing cartoon shows. Sometimes, there wasn’t a feminist connection, but members just liked mentioning their favorite shows to each other.
Another strong theme was the admiration of comic books and the comic book universe. Oftentimes there was deep knowledge of these fictional worlds expressed and dissected. The most interesting part about this was its connection to feminism not only in the comics themselves, but in the interactions of the comic book world. Not only would favorite characters be shared and talked about, but the strides heroes were making in feminism was always fun to talk about. Members informed one another about which female heroes were outselling the male heroes and which comics with female leads were taking a stand and making them more powerful and important and their story lines more developed and enriched.
Outside of the comics themselves lies a whole other connection to feminism. Members would share stories of sexist incidents that happened while they were attending Comic Cons or simply walking into a comic book store. The incidents ranged from being treated differently to being a victim of sexual harassment and their anger at being female and not having the ability to love this culture without opposition. Women are not accredited with knowledge of comic books because “they’re not supposed to” according to societal standards. This idea of being told what is masculine and feminine and the frustration towards it came out not only in presentations and discussions, but even more so when their fictional universes could represent the way they want the world to be.
Pop culture also made its way into the group. Every meeting I attended, someone mentioned Beyonce and her feminist message and music. One particular conversation was about pop culture feminist icons. Beyonce, Emma Watson, and the rapper Drake were celebrated and heavily discussed. The females more so than the males, though. They also debunked a lot of expectations that singers like Katy Perry and Madonna were feminist icons to be followed.
Something that I noticed with the knowledge of pop culture, however, was the almost worship and love for the female icons, but only a note of mention for the male icons. Icons such as Patrick Stewart, Daniel Radcliffe, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were mentioned, but mostly by the males of the group, at least those I assume were male. This can easily be explained by the feminist movement wanting to focus on what women are doing for gender equality, but it’s interesting to note that some of what these influential men are doing should be, yet were not recognized. It’s understandable that the group would not want the focus on men, but, for example, Patrick Stewart has done a lot of work with domestic violence having grown up in a domestically violent home himself. His speeches are moving and tear-jerking and he has contributed a lot to the end of domestic violence. While he is male, his achievements are note-worthy and very important to the movement.
The group is not overtly hostile to men and they accept their male members, but a glaring realization is that while it is a feminist group that should be led by women and the focus should be women, they are still in the fight for gender equality. There is a lot of information on the changing roles of the mother and the different expectations for femininity, but there is a lack of information about men and their changing roles. When it comes to pop culture, the men are often passed over or ignored. This isn’t such a problem until you consider the male audience in the group. While the men should be there to promote women’s rights, it still must be difficult to participate in a group that does not recognize the male efforts when you identify or are mistaken for being male.
One wouldn’t think that animation, comic books, or pop culture would bring a group of feminists together, but during my observations, I think it is safe to say that through these connections, the members found a stronger belief in feminism and they were united together more by things they love than by feminism by itself. They communicated their frustrations with gender inequality through fictional worlds and creative expression more than open discussion directly calling out the problem. They find power in connecting feminism and the work they do on campus to subjects and topics they love so dearly.
Community
Within the FMLA, there is a strong sense of community, friendship, and almost a family-like atmosphere. Every meeting begins with warm greetings filled with laughter, hugs, and inside jokes. Through watching their interactions, it is clear that not only do they come together as one big community through the FMLA, but they also have smaller groups outside of FMLA that are closely knit and make FMLA stronger when together.
There are several clusters of friends that function well together during meetings, but usually function on their own outside of meetings. A few of the members are roommates or romantically involved, providing a strong intimate bond the rest are not privy to. While they have this family like operation, it can be intimidating to outsiders. For example, at a few of the meetings, new people would be sitting in the desks waiting for the meeting to start, but they were not welcomed and warmly greeted like members greeted each other. While this is not a purposeful action that keeps newcomers out, it is still strange or difficult to find a comfortable entrance into this culture for most new members.
Even though I was a new member, my personal experience was a little different and very helpful and explanatory, sort of a bridge between the world of the new member and the regular member. Some of the people in the group are my friends in class and I have come to know them in different settings. From those friends I received the same warm and intimate welcome, but the group members that I had never met before did not greet me or welcome me. There is a myriad of factors involved into how and why this played out, but the result ends up being almost similar to a clique.
Victoria talked about this in her interview. One of the major improvements she wants to focus on is recruitment, to get more freshmen involved in the group. It gives them more time to build friends and community within the group as well as gain experience necessary for leadership roles in their junior and senior years. Incoming freshmen would also be an excellent addition to the group because they usually do not have strong connections outside of the organization and can be more welcoming to everyone they meet.
Closely knit is never a bad thing, but it can also be a little bit of a deterrent to introverts and can even possibly act as an obstacle when it comes to planning events with other organizations and focusing on a community with the college campus. Going back to racial diversity, a solution to the lack of non-white students could be working with student organizations that serve non-white students and that kind of involvement requires a community outside of the FMLA itself; it requires a campus community. As far as I know in my research, the smaller groups within the larger at FMLA are not involved in other organizations on campus. They know each other outside of FMLA because of class, romantic involvements, or roommate situations. This closeness that does not extend to other parts of campus can make it seem isolated.
Another goal with the recruitment could be to visit groups that do not have a lot of exposure to gender studies or feminist ideals and may not be aware of the organization. Before one meeting started, Victoria talked to quite a few of the group members about a paper assigned in her class as teacher to student. When asked in her interview, Victoria did confirm that she was academically involved with a lot of the group members. They were current students, previous students, or they had never signed up for her classes, but they went to her for academic advice or feminist scholarships. This source of community through academics is another theme that pulls everyone together, however the academic source is only one type of academics: women’s studies.
While the community is warm and inviting once immersed, gaining access or feeling completely comfortable in the group could be a challenge. Their sources of community do not cover the campus, nor is it expected to do so, however, their community ends up being mildly isolated. They are strong together which allows for them to host as many events as they do and to accomplish their goals, but this strength sets them apart from others and makes inviting new students more difficult. They are very involved with themselves in a sense.
Consensus and Dissention
A group has to be able to come to a general consensus when making decisions or operating, but consensus is taken to a whole new level in the FMLA. At every meeting during presentations, members of the group would nod along with the speaker. The nodding is incessant and sometimes the group is in sync while they nod along. Based on this body language, there seems to be no difference in opinion even though they are many different levels to feminism. How could a large group of people agree so wholeheartedly and completely on every subject? This made me want to know why they agreed so much and why no one ever voiced a different opinion on any topic mentioned during meetings.
My curiosity was satisfied in the second meeting I attended. While discussing the changing roles of women in the workplace, a group member spoke up with a difference of opinion. While the presenter and the group members went back and forth agreeing with each other, this group member had a different take on women in the workplace and spoke up about disagreement. Unfortunately, she was met with criticism, silence, and was completely shut down by the presenter. When it was clear that no one would support her or agree with her, the group member withdrew her opposition and the presenter and the rest of the group moved on as if nothing had occurred.
This incident made me think that perhaps the members have quite a wide variety of ideas about feminism and what it means for society, but they have learned especially with this example that it is pointless to speak up if their opinion lies outside the beliefs of the group. Then it made me wonder if the group beliefs were then actually “group beliefs,” but instead the beliefs of the executive board. Two out of the three meetings I attended had presentations on feminism presented by the executive board. The secretary presented the first time and the vice president the second time. Not only that, but the president usually dominates a lot of the conversation during group meetings. Of course the executive board should be expected to speak a lot during meetings, but it is possible that since they do the majority of the talking that the group succumbs to the beliefs of the executive board and does not feel comfortable expressing opposition to their ideas. After all, the executive board operates as an authority figure in the group, so it makes sense that the members “obey the authority.”
Conclusion
The FMLA is vital to campus life at ETSU. They provide education on equality and women’s rights through their meetings and events and that information is so valuable to a college campus. As stated before, college can be the cultivation of ideas and movements that affect society. They are strong in their beliefs and convictions and contribute to this cultivation so important to our world. They are diverse, united by their loves as well as feminism, are as close as a family, but they have their problems and drama as well, as in any gathering of humans would. They are strong and observing them has taught me a lot about people. It was profound to witness so many connections and how they interacted with one another. This project was a pleasure to conduct and the culture of the FMLA fascinating to observe.
Equality is a long sought after ideal that seems unattainable, yet slowly we inch towards the finish line, recovering from our rough start with slavery, oppression of women, and murder of homosexuals. It is safe to say that the human race yearns for an end to discrimination and prejudice, whatever that may look like to different groups of people. For the most part, people just want to make the world a better place, a little brighter, a little happier.
The major strides made for human equality in the real world usually start with students. During segregation, students from colleges did a lot of work to achieve integration and voters’ rights. During the Vietnam War, students protested violence and called for peace. Colleges are often the cultivators for the seeds of social change.
Among these various seeds is the seed of feminism, and this seed takes root at East Tennessee State University as the Feminist Majority Leadership Association, or the FMLA (the mission statement for which is quoted at the top). This group has been functioning under the same leadership for three years, hosting events, providing feminist education, and attending protests. They come together every Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 in Rogers-Stout Hall on campus, ready to live up to their own expectations. How does this group function? What themes emerge upon attending meetings and participating in their activities? What does it mean to be a feminist in their culture and their group?
Methods
I studied the FMLA at ETSU by attending three meetings, conducting two interviews, and by attending a panel during Sex Week (the major undertaking of the group to bring sex education to ETSU). By taking field notes and through participant observation, there are four major themes worth discussion: diversity, the animation/geek culture and pop culture, consensus and dissention, and community.
Diversity
This is a broad topic and a tricky one to discuss. Diversity encompasses race, sexual orientation, and gender identification. None of these things are visible to the eye and it makes it difficult to observe in a group of people. However, there are both wide diversity and a lack of diversity within the group that is apparent.
One’s ethnic identity can not be determined through mere sight. Due to each individual’s personal identification, it is difficult and often inappropriate to assume one belongs to a certain culture based solely on the color of skin, hair, or eyes. However, this was a relevant theme to the FMLA. For three meetings, there was never anyone in the room I assumed to be anything but Caucasian. Of course, this is mere assumption, but from the evidence before my eyes, every person in the room had white skin and no ethnic identifiers to suggest another culture. For a group striving for total human equality, it was surprising to see a lack of cultural representation. I wanted to know more about the lack of racial diversity in the group and if it had always been this way, or if it had fluctuated over the years and what I was seeing was coincidence.
Throughout the meetings I attended, there was discussion of feminism and racism. A group member brought it to everyone’s attention that white women make less than white men, but black and Latino women make even less than white women. There was open discussion about racial relations and their part in the feminist movement, so the group was not against racial representation. In fact, during a discussion about Miley Cyrus and her feminist message, the group loosely supported her feminist views, but a member mentioned her appropriation of black culture and how problematic that was in conjunction with the feminist ideals she tried to portray. As far as discussion concerning racism and its relationship with feminism, there was nothing but open-mindedness and concern.
When I interviewed the faculty adviser for FMLA, Victoria John, I asked her about the diversity of FMLA and if she thought it could use improvement. She responded by saying FMLA is dedicated to human equality and they are not closed off to the wide differences in humans, but she feels the FMLA has not done well with pulling in non-white students. She believes the FMLA is overwhelmingly white because the East Tennessee area is overwhelmingly white. However, she feels this barrier could be overcome if the FMLA worked more closely with student organizations on campus that focus on serving non-white students. So while the absence of racial diversity is a theme within the FMLA, it is not due to an unconscious group racism or through racism of any kind; but in all probability simply location. As Hilary said, this could be remedied by working with other student organizations.
Just like with race, sexual orientation and gender identification are difficult to determine and not always appropriate to label; however, this is where the FMLA is incredibly rich and diverse. For example, there is a member identified as a bisexual male involved in a polyamorous relationship with a female. Not only that, but several members identify as lesbian, bisexual, or asexual. During group meetings, there have been several presentations that have topics of feminism, but also topics of sexual orientation and gender identification. Their meetings stay true to their dedication for true equality for they are accepting of all people and dissect everyone’s involvement with feminism and how it relates to their lifestyle.
As far as gender is concerned, it is too broad and subjective to put under the umbrella of diversity. Yes there are a few men that attend meetings and participate, but just because they look male doesn’t mean they identify as male. They can be genderqueer, gender non-conformity, or transgender and there is no way to tell without simply asking and asking can be ill received. Regardless of the members’ gender identifications, presentations and discussions are open to everyone and there is no open hostility towards the men’s involvement in the group. However, under the pop culture section there will be some discussion about the difference between male pop culture feminist icons and female pop culture feminist icons.
The group is diverse and open to its diversity. Based on their location, it will take a little more work to increase racial diversity, but they are true in their mission statement that they want not only gender equality, but equality in general.
Which Came First? The Geek or the Feminist?
A bias that afflicted me and most likely afflicts others is that feminist groups only talk about feminism when gathered together. However, a re-occurring and unexpected point of conversation was animation or elements of the geek culture. Even during meetings, a few people would be doodling, have notebooks open and working on small storyboards for their own cartoons, or discussing programs such as Photo Shop and other digital media programs. A couple of the members are even digital media majors and have art classes together.
Beyond the participation in animation, members also expressed enjoyment for cartoons like Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. This love for cartoons was related to the feminist actions of the animators for the shows. It was fascinating to see something regarded as feminist when it is often not the first idea that pops into one’s mind when discussing cartoon shows. Sometimes, there wasn’t a feminist connection, but members just liked mentioning their favorite shows to each other.
Another strong theme was the admiration of comic books and the comic book universe. Oftentimes there was deep knowledge of these fictional worlds expressed and dissected. The most interesting part about this was its connection to feminism not only in the comics themselves, but in the interactions of the comic book world. Not only would favorite characters be shared and talked about, but the strides heroes were making in feminism was always fun to talk about. Members informed one another about which female heroes were outselling the male heroes and which comics with female leads were taking a stand and making them more powerful and important and their story lines more developed and enriched.
Outside of the comics themselves lies a whole other connection to feminism. Members would share stories of sexist incidents that happened while they were attending Comic Cons or simply walking into a comic book store. The incidents ranged from being treated differently to being a victim of sexual harassment and their anger at being female and not having the ability to love this culture without opposition. Women are not accredited with knowledge of comic books because “they’re not supposed to” according to societal standards. This idea of being told what is masculine and feminine and the frustration towards it came out not only in presentations and discussions, but even more so when their fictional universes could represent the way they want the world to be.
Pop culture also made its way into the group. Every meeting I attended, someone mentioned Beyonce and her feminist message and music. One particular conversation was about pop culture feminist icons. Beyonce, Emma Watson, and the rapper Drake were celebrated and heavily discussed. The females more so than the males, though. They also debunked a lot of expectations that singers like Katy Perry and Madonna were feminist icons to be followed.
Something that I noticed with the knowledge of pop culture, however, was the almost worship and love for the female icons, but only a note of mention for the male icons. Icons such as Patrick Stewart, Daniel Radcliffe, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were mentioned, but mostly by the males of the group, at least those I assume were male. This can easily be explained by the feminist movement wanting to focus on what women are doing for gender equality, but it’s interesting to note that some of what these influential men are doing should be, yet were not recognized. It’s understandable that the group would not want the focus on men, but, for example, Patrick Stewart has done a lot of work with domestic violence having grown up in a domestically violent home himself. His speeches are moving and tear-jerking and he has contributed a lot to the end of domestic violence. While he is male, his achievements are note-worthy and very important to the movement.
The group is not overtly hostile to men and they accept their male members, but a glaring realization is that while it is a feminist group that should be led by women and the focus should be women, they are still in the fight for gender equality. There is a lot of information on the changing roles of the mother and the different expectations for femininity, but there is a lack of information about men and their changing roles. When it comes to pop culture, the men are often passed over or ignored. This isn’t such a problem until you consider the male audience in the group. While the men should be there to promote women’s rights, it still must be difficult to participate in a group that does not recognize the male efforts when you identify or are mistaken for being male.
One wouldn’t think that animation, comic books, or pop culture would bring a group of feminists together, but during my observations, I think it is safe to say that through these connections, the members found a stronger belief in feminism and they were united together more by things they love than by feminism by itself. They communicated their frustrations with gender inequality through fictional worlds and creative expression more than open discussion directly calling out the problem. They find power in connecting feminism and the work they do on campus to subjects and topics they love so dearly.
Community
Within the FMLA, there is a strong sense of community, friendship, and almost a family-like atmosphere. Every meeting begins with warm greetings filled with laughter, hugs, and inside jokes. Through watching their interactions, it is clear that not only do they come together as one big community through the FMLA, but they also have smaller groups outside of FMLA that are closely knit and make FMLA stronger when together.
There are several clusters of friends that function well together during meetings, but usually function on their own outside of meetings. A few of the members are roommates or romantically involved, providing a strong intimate bond the rest are not privy to. While they have this family like operation, it can be intimidating to outsiders. For example, at a few of the meetings, new people would be sitting in the desks waiting for the meeting to start, but they were not welcomed and warmly greeted like members greeted each other. While this is not a purposeful action that keeps newcomers out, it is still strange or difficult to find a comfortable entrance into this culture for most new members.
Even though I was a new member, my personal experience was a little different and very helpful and explanatory, sort of a bridge between the world of the new member and the regular member. Some of the people in the group are my friends in class and I have come to know them in different settings. From those friends I received the same warm and intimate welcome, but the group members that I had never met before did not greet me or welcome me. There is a myriad of factors involved into how and why this played out, but the result ends up being almost similar to a clique.
Victoria talked about this in her interview. One of the major improvements she wants to focus on is recruitment, to get more freshmen involved in the group. It gives them more time to build friends and community within the group as well as gain experience necessary for leadership roles in their junior and senior years. Incoming freshmen would also be an excellent addition to the group because they usually do not have strong connections outside of the organization and can be more welcoming to everyone they meet.
Closely knit is never a bad thing, but it can also be a little bit of a deterrent to introverts and can even possibly act as an obstacle when it comes to planning events with other organizations and focusing on a community with the college campus. Going back to racial diversity, a solution to the lack of non-white students could be working with student organizations that serve non-white students and that kind of involvement requires a community outside of the FMLA itself; it requires a campus community. As far as I know in my research, the smaller groups within the larger at FMLA are not involved in other organizations on campus. They know each other outside of FMLA because of class, romantic involvements, or roommate situations. This closeness that does not extend to other parts of campus can make it seem isolated.
Another goal with the recruitment could be to visit groups that do not have a lot of exposure to gender studies or feminist ideals and may not be aware of the organization. Before one meeting started, Victoria talked to quite a few of the group members about a paper assigned in her class as teacher to student. When asked in her interview, Victoria did confirm that she was academically involved with a lot of the group members. They were current students, previous students, or they had never signed up for her classes, but they went to her for academic advice or feminist scholarships. This source of community through academics is another theme that pulls everyone together, however the academic source is only one type of academics: women’s studies.
While the community is warm and inviting once immersed, gaining access or feeling completely comfortable in the group could be a challenge. Their sources of community do not cover the campus, nor is it expected to do so, however, their community ends up being mildly isolated. They are strong together which allows for them to host as many events as they do and to accomplish their goals, but this strength sets them apart from others and makes inviting new students more difficult. They are very involved with themselves in a sense.
Consensus and Dissention
A group has to be able to come to a general consensus when making decisions or operating, but consensus is taken to a whole new level in the FMLA. At every meeting during presentations, members of the group would nod along with the speaker. The nodding is incessant and sometimes the group is in sync while they nod along. Based on this body language, there seems to be no difference in opinion even though they are many different levels to feminism. How could a large group of people agree so wholeheartedly and completely on every subject? This made me want to know why they agreed so much and why no one ever voiced a different opinion on any topic mentioned during meetings.
My curiosity was satisfied in the second meeting I attended. While discussing the changing roles of women in the workplace, a group member spoke up with a difference of opinion. While the presenter and the group members went back and forth agreeing with each other, this group member had a different take on women in the workplace and spoke up about disagreement. Unfortunately, she was met with criticism, silence, and was completely shut down by the presenter. When it was clear that no one would support her or agree with her, the group member withdrew her opposition and the presenter and the rest of the group moved on as if nothing had occurred.
This incident made me think that perhaps the members have quite a wide variety of ideas about feminism and what it means for society, but they have learned especially with this example that it is pointless to speak up if their opinion lies outside the beliefs of the group. Then it made me wonder if the group beliefs were then actually “group beliefs,” but instead the beliefs of the executive board. Two out of the three meetings I attended had presentations on feminism presented by the executive board. The secretary presented the first time and the vice president the second time. Not only that, but the president usually dominates a lot of the conversation during group meetings. Of course the executive board should be expected to speak a lot during meetings, but it is possible that since they do the majority of the talking that the group succumbs to the beliefs of the executive board and does not feel comfortable expressing opposition to their ideas. After all, the executive board operates as an authority figure in the group, so it makes sense that the members “obey the authority.”
Conclusion
The FMLA is vital to campus life at ETSU. They provide education on equality and women’s rights through their meetings and events and that information is so valuable to a college campus. As stated before, college can be the cultivation of ideas and movements that affect society. They are strong in their beliefs and convictions and contribute to this cultivation so important to our world. They are diverse, united by their loves as well as feminism, are as close as a family, but they have their problems and drama as well, as in any gathering of humans would. They are strong and observing them has taught me a lot about people. It was profound to witness so many connections and how they interacted with one another. This project was a pleasure to conduct and the culture of the FMLA fascinating to observe.