For our parents' generation, feminism was still a fairly controversial thing, but what is it for us?
In a group of 20 girls studying French at A level, no one put their hand up when the teacher asked if any one of them considered themselves a feminist. I'm 100% sure that this is not because they don't value their rights as women, or because they don't believe themselves to be equal to men. The reason no one put their hand up is because of what people might think of them if they did. It's the image of feminism that has become warped. It seems as though, as women in Britain have gained more rights, the desire to push the matter of gender equality has lessened, when women had no rights, they wanted them all, now the generation that was born into a fairly gender equal society by worldwide standards just isn't that bothered. This exasperates me greatly and makes me wonder, did Emily Davison starve herself and endure numerous spells in prison so that a whole generation of young women could ignore feminism because they don't want anyone to get the idea that they are man-haters or lesbians? Because yes, 18 year-olds still believe that feminist=lesbian and that to be considered either of the two would lose them interest from boys, which so many girls I know would shudder at the thought of. Naturally, boys and their behaviour play a huge part in this. I'm getting so tired of hearing young women label each other, sluts, slags, skets and whores. A suitable quote from Mean Girls just sums it up perfectly: "you have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores, it just makes it OK for guys to call you sluts and whores."
In a recent conversation with mates about a boy who is consistently unfaithful to his girlfriend with numerous other women, my two best friends (both female) told the stories about his promiscuity with fondness for the guy, as if it wasn't really his fault. In every story they told, the woman was the antagonist. They ended it with: "Well, you know, he's had a tough life."
I know that that their sentiments would have been considerably different had we been talking about a woman. However, you have to understand when reading this that I don't blame women of my age for condemning each other, since the dawn of time women have been punished for enjoying a liberated sex life, it's all we know. But really this is something that should have changed along with the rights of women. It's so unbelievably out-dated in it's misogynous attitudes. Things can only change if we want them to, and I'm not convinced that more than a small percentage of 18 year old girls actually give a shit. I could write about this for hours, but the last thing I want to do is bore someone who is unconvinced about feminism, that would definitely have the opposite effect to what I hoped to achieve writing this, so I have made my key points and I would appreciate any feedback. It would give me a warm fuzzy feeling if someone were to let me know I'm not alone on this.
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Feminism isn't exactly "fading away". I would say it is going into remission, like a cultural virus. It will lie dormant for a while and then bust out again. But for the present,the body-politic is developing antibodies.
ReplyDeleteAs for yourself, it appears to me that you are in the grip of a psychic condition that we call "feminist subjectivism".
Those people who appear to be disowning feminism, are doing so because they find something about it either repellent or uninteresting. In order to get a handle on where they are coming from, you would need to shift your psychic center to a location that is external to the feminist worldview. . .
And no, you are not "alone on this". If you look around the internet, you will uncover plenty of evidence that feminism is still alive and well in various quarters. But not "on the street." It has lost touch with the masses, you might say. . .
Which is understandable, since the masses aren't doing feminist subjectivism.