I meant to write this yesterday (the twelth) but I didn't get around to it. Ah well.
I read an article on feed by Deborah Shapiro about this Bridget Jones movie. I know nothing about the movie other than it seems to be generating a lot of peripheral media (this included). This article, however, did contain one little tidbit that really made me think:
Along with Ally McBeal and Carrie from Sex and the City, Bridget Jones turned the plight of the self-obsessed thirtysomething single career woman into a regular cover phenomenon for the newsweeklies. "Is Feminism Dead?" asked Time magazine a few years ago, the implied answer being an insulting "Yes," that women were too concerned with the trivialities of their own social lives to think about any broader social action. A better question, though, is why these characters were ever expected to answer for and represent real women in the first place.
<theft apology>
I have no basis to discuss Ally McBeal or Sex and the City because I watch virtually no television. I think the "death of feminism" doesn't even merit discussion. It's absurd. Women, like any and all interest groups, will continue to fight for their cause both publicly and privately. How can something that is a fundamental part of a group's nature, by the very virtue of their group-ness (pardon), die? So, what's left, you cry. Well, the thing that grabbed me about this is the "...too concerned with the trivialities of their own social lives..." bit. Erm. What the hell? How could someone make a remark like this even implicitly (if Shapiro is even close to the mark)?
Look. Those "trivialities" are what life is made up of. We can't always be fighting the big fights and righting wrongs. The things that make life enjoyable and that are handed down from generation to generation among families are, generally speaking, these little things. I'm not saying it's bad to be a crusader... quite the contrary. However, I bet you that, at least in their own minds, even crusaders are defined by things and ideas that might considered trivial in light of our perceptions of them and their deeds.
Of course, I've been known to be wrong when I rant ;)
I think this whole thing is symptomatic of the modern lament: I have got to get a life. I don't know why so many people (including myself) have such a grass-is-greener complex. We all have lives and yet we spend so much time wishing we had bigger, more dramatic, more meaningful LIVES. So much so that many of us miss the joys that are to be found in these so-called trivialities. Just to stay in character I'll go ahead and blame the media, advertisers, and corporate america in general but I'm not sure, really.
I guess I'm just rehashing the smell the roses bit but it seems relevant.
Anyway. Since I am being horribly hypocritical AND not writing well (two major crimes in my book) I am going to stop. I just wanted to share a little thought-provoking moment.
Be good. Love,
-Loop
Extra
Another great feed quote (can you tell it's a slow day?):
Maybe I'm out of touch with what the kids are doing these days, but I confess that this psychographic niche -- the Christian, free-software-writing, Emily Dickinson-identifying raver on the attack sub -- was new to me.
I've been listening to Moloko's _Do You Like My Tight Sweater_. It's.. uh... weird. It's kind of art of noise meets some eighties female band that I can't remember the name of. Erm. I guess that would be like a souped-up, modernized version of Laurie Anderson. Somehow it's really oddly cool. Check it out.
Links
Now, being only one woman, I don't think I'm qualified to speak for the entire collective. BUT, I have kept my ears open and paid attention, so I have some rough ideas of what the current story is with feminism.
Feminism, right now, is sort of a fractured confused movement. You've got your radical feminists, your I'm-not-really-a-feminist-but-I-want-equal-pay-and-maternity-leave women, your things-are-fine-the-way-they-are-stop-making-trouble women, etc. You get the idea.
Now that we can vote and (theoretically) do whatever we want to do without fear of reprisal, there are those who think that we're done. Women are, for all practical purposes, equal, and if they're not where they want to be, it's because of lack of motivation, inclination, innate talent, midichlorians, whatever. We should sit down, shut up, and be grateful that we've even gotten this far.
There are those who think that we've merely gotten rid of the overt signs of sexism and prejudice. Sure, women can vote, and sure, women can do any job a man can do. But we still make only about 89 cents to the dollar, we still get sexually harassed for doing what only men should be doing, and it's very very very hard to raise children and earn a living, which sometimes means you have to choose between advancing in a job you may love, and having children with someone you love. If you choose your job, you're denying your role as a mother, and if you choose children, you're bypassing finding fulfillment doing "real work." Most women can't do both without help or without cracking up and taking to bell towers with high-powered rifles. Anyway, feminists in the "What now?" category know there are still problems, but we have trouble nailing down concrete examples, and we can't figure out where to start.
Finally, and please remember I'm generalizing very broadly here, you have your radical lesbian feminists. These tend to be vegan hemp-wearing why-aren't-you-lesbian-yet-you-patriarchal-brainwashee types. These people think that we should herd all you men onto reservations where you can kill each other to your heart's content; we'll only make token visits to perpetuate the species, and when we figure out asexual reproduction or how to make two ova combine, not even then.
To fully comprehend the difficulty with feminism, now consider trying to get all these factions to agree. In some ways, it was easier when we COULDN'T vote, because we could, at least, unite behind that. Nowadays, you can't even get women to use the word feminist anymore; it's seen as an archaic relic by some.
But there are those of us, too, who refuse to give up. Me, for example. I know that things are not yet perfect. I would like an ERA--it never hurts to have these things in writing. I would like equal pay for equal work. I would like to encourage teenage girls to get enthused about math and science (although I think that will also require figuring out how to teach these subjects in an interesting manner!). Well, it's a longer list, but you get the idea.
I guess my point is that the river of movement has dissolved into little tributaries of action. We are now stealth feminists. :)
I don't think feminism is dead. However, there's a ton of other things going that probably just keep it out of the public eye.
When you have a jackass president, people crashing into spy pranes, and the reoccuring school shootings that keep ending up in the news... things like feminism probably don't rank as high up as they should on the list.
And if feminism is dead and I'm just blind to the fact, then is there some better reason why women are not fighting back other than the one given in the article snippet?