Rachel Flinn

Professor Jen Byrd

WGST-2130-001

26 October 2017

Full Frontal Feminism: The Final Chapters

To finish up Full Frontal Feminism, Valenti dives into motherhood and expectations

placed on not only women, but on what it means to be feminine in our culture. Inherently, the

narrow definitions women are provided with are disparaging In other words, perpetuating such

expectations are meant to keep women down. By recognizing the implication of the expectations,

the effects of such underlying doctrines can be examined. With that understanding, one can

reflect on the examples provided by Valenti in their own life.

First and foremost is what Valenti calls forced motherhood. This boils down to the idea

that womanhood is not fulfilled until a child is born. As someone who can attest to not wanting

kids, and having known that the mommy route was not in the works for years, people are

constantly upset by these feelings. Women are expected to naturally want to be a mother, which

assumes that our bodies are not our own. If women do not abide by this, they are selfish or

perhaps just going through a phase. Causing insurmountable troubles for someone looking to

break away from our version of motherhood.

Even if one decides to become a mother, god forbid they breastfeed in public. Women are

expected to be perfect mothers, except when their baby is hungry in public. The main point being

that boobies are for boys, not babies (Valenti 167). If boobs are being used for something other

than objectification, society freaks out. Motherhood, along with femininity, are judged at every

corner, even when women do what is best for them (and consequently their children). Both of
these examples show how our culture belittles women and suggests unattainable goals for

motherhood. Not only does this make child rearing difficult, but it also makes women feel

undervalued by our culture as a whole. The overall point Valenti tries to make with all this

information is that change is not happening in our political system because folks just dont care.

Calling for readers to take action and reevaluate their own schemas against mothers and women.

Chapter 10 begins on the other end of the spectrum with masculinity. From a male

perspective, we were asked to watch the poem Ten Responses to the Phrase Man Up by

Guante. In his slam poetry, my favorite response of his is 9. Here he says:

I want to be free to express myself. Man up. I want to have meaningful,

emotional relationships with my brothers. Man up. I want to be weak

sometimes. Man up. I want to be strong in a way that isnt about physical

power or dominance. Man up. I want to talk to my son about something other

than sports. Man up. I want to be, who I am. Man up.

For me, this response is the basis for toxic masculinity. Our culture does not give men the

freedom to express feelings other than anger or discuss deeper topics than vapid things such as

sports. To tackle a simple phrase like man up, it would be hard for Guante to not talk about the

lack of nurture, respect, and care men are expected to have.

Not only did I find this poem powerful, but it was really nice to see a man acknowledge

the negative effects of sexism men deal with. It also ties into Valentis section called

Traditional Gender Roles on Crack. In this section, she brings to light extremely conservative

views on gender and how this negatively effects men. The take away, boys need their

masculine side praised and their feminine side squashed (Valenti 200). Which happens to

be the main point Guante is trying to make about masculinity in his poem.
 I believe that Guante would by far agree with the points Valenti attempts to make in this

chapter. However, I think the points could be delivered better, perhaps more in depth, from a

male-identified individual who experiences masculinity first hand. For the imposition of

masculinity to change, male-identified people must first elicit their experiences, giving new

meaning to what Valenti aimed to tackle in the first place.

Moving onto the next chapter, Beauty Cult. Discussing beauty standards is always

difficult for me because they are the hardest parts of patriarchy to shed. From a young age,

female-identified folks are expected to look and be a certain way. For me, it was wearing glasses.

Could I help that I had terrible eyesight? Of course not, but I was still made fun of for wearing

my huge frames as a kid. This was especially bad as I was placed in accelerated classes in

elementary and middle school. There is only one word people use to describe a smart girl who

looks like a stereotypical nerd, and that is ugly. Because of my insecurities, I often found it hard

to make friends. To stop feeling this way, I begged my mom to let me get contacts, and then I

stopped with my ugly duckling narrative.

Even women in power positions are made to feel ugly and objectified. The public

scrutiny is what makes it difficult for some women to become involved with politics and public

policy. Luckily, there are amazing women (and other politicians) who are striving for a better

world for women. While I do not keep up avidly with politics, my vote would have gone to

Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election. His progressive a platform is pro-woman in my opinion.

From his webpage on womens issues, which is extensive (!!!), his main points are to provide

equal pay, expand and protect repro rights, put supreme court justices willing to uphold Roe vs.

Wade in power, have quality childcare available to ALL Americans, increase minimum wage,

paid family leave, and that is not even the whole list. Another important platform of his is to
finally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Not only was he a presidential nominee, but he also

continues pushing his platform in Congress and calling out the Republican platform for not being

for all people.

Besides increasing the number of women at the polls, Valenti also brings up mandated

quotas in other countries. To me, this notion is not awful to think about. Think of how much

more inclusive and progressive our policies would look if our government reflected the

population of the country. Having a crowd of white, cis, heterosexual, rich men create policies

on issues they have no experience in inhibits the ability of our government to create laws to

benefit marginalized groups. Having quotas would possibly counteract the years of exclusive and

disparaging laws made by our government, and make us a place welcoming to all people.

To end this book, Valenti provides calls to action for feminists. While I love a lot of these

snippets, I will share a couple I especially like. The first can be found on page 246 under the Pop

Culture section. This bullet calls feminists to value themselves for what the media doesnt.

Whether that is your intelligence or your ability to play a kickass game of pool. Whatever it is, it

deserves to be celebrated. I love this call to action because I definitely have not heard it enough,

and I sure as hell wish someone would have told me to value myself when I was younger.

On a more serious note, my second top-fav call to action is on the next page, 247. Valenti

calls on us to volunteer at our local clinic, and help them raise money. Since our government

does not want to pay for the services provided by facilities like Planned Parenthood, it is our

responsibility that these services stay around. Behind the abortion faade presented by

conservative groups, clinics offer so many other valuable services. Life would be much different

if we did not have these clinics. To have comprehensive health care, we need to raise awareness

(and money!) for these services when our government fails us.
 Getting out there and becoming more involved socially, politically, and economically is

what feminists need to do to create change. From reading this book, I realized that I can help

progress our nation, even if it is just the act of volunteering or standing up for someone. Having

feminist values isnt hard, but sticking your neck out for all marginalized groups is. Valenti has

given numerous ways to get involved and make change happen. I am grateful for reading this

text and being able to incorporate her ideas into my daily practices.