I enjoyed reading Enloe’s first chapter, “The Surprised Feminist”. I have never thought about the act of being surprised in that way and think that she makes some very valid points. I thought her most compelling point came on page 17 when she says, “That is, whenever one is surprised, one most likely can manage to squeeze the new development into a comfortable, worn conceptual shoe.” It is true that if we try hard enough, we can fit anything into a preexisting context/idea. We have the tendency to see things through the one lens that we know the best and have difficulty seeing things from another person’s point of view. As she mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, admitting surprise is somehow undermining one’s credibility. If you are able to fit the new idea/development into your nice, neat, preexisting framework/idea, you have no need to worry about your credibility. Regardless of how much we need to stretch it, we all have the tendency to do anything possible to make it so we are right. I think this is an interesting concept to think about. It not only relates to feminism, but everything in our society. It is something that I think our society needs to really think about and reflect on. I do not think that it will change anything because it is in our human nature to want to be right, but it is interesting nonetheless.
I also thought that the quote on pg 17 was perhaps the best point that Enloe made in these two chapters. Throughout this semester I feel as though there have been times when we have talked in circle trying to reach a familar place. Everyone wants to be able to compare a conflict or a solution to a precedent in order to see what the prior reprosussion are. I agree that it is human nature to want to be right, but I think that Enloe wants us to allow ourselves to feeling unconfortable. By not immediately saying I knew this would happen we are forced to examine what really were the roots of the problem and hopefully be able to move forward from there.
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