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August 22, 2008
Feminism for the 21st century: a call to arms
There is a thought provoking argument for teaching feminism in schools in today's Times Online, which suggests that feminism needs reinvigorating for 21st century girls and women. This new feminism, the writer advocates, requires a new language to resonate with young (and not so young) women who have turned their backs on a political stance wrapped, as they see it, in the seventies stereotype of a dungaree clad short-haired, loud mouthed radical.
I, myself, have long struggled with what I call the pornographisation of western culture, which jars against my own views on the liberalisation of censorship. Whilst on the one hand I can applaud the business acumen and financial success of some of our 21st century popular female icons, their chosen methods of self representation via a set of narrowly defined male-orientated sexual ideals, portray a dichotomy for women which is difficult to negotiate.
'Success' based on financial gain for looking like a twig with plastic boobs and lips who can give an amazing blow job, hardly sets our society up for women who are strong self-determined confident characters who can make their way through life based on social, political, economic, and academic skills which will enable them to achieve happiness throughout their lives.
As Dr Jessica Ringrose says, feminism is about human rights, it is about equality and it is as relevant today as it was when Germaine Greer caused a stir with The Female Eunoch, or when Shere Hite published The Hite Report on Female Sexuality.
Young women need to know that there's nothing wrong with liking clothes, shoes and boys (or other girls), but they're also in urgent need of a language and ethics that allow them to be themselves.
We need to reclaim feminism for the 21st century and find new and relevant ways of bringing what feminism has to offer women today to the fore. Being a feminist should not be a bad thing, but should be a desirable movement to engage in, which engenders values and attributes for women to aspire to which are not singularly based on their sexual attractiveness and success in the bedroom, but which equip women with tools to see them through their changing phases of life whereby the natural process of aging beyond 20 is not seen as a crime, or a path to anonymity and failure.
I am a feminist, I am proud to associate myself with a set of political ideals which I see as empowering, and I do not think feminism has had its day. It is more relevant now than ever. Be feminist, be feminine, be an individual, revel in self-determination and buy as many pairs of Jimmy Choos as you like.
Posted by glittrgirl at August 22, 2008 9:10 AM
Comments
Agree 100%. Having been a child in the 70's and a teenager/young adult in the 80's, I'm also proud to call myself a feminist. This does not mean I hate men (I don't) or that I think that there are specific pathways to feminism (I don't). Like Glittr, I have issues with the ways women are portrayed by media, and how many women play to that- this might seem like a form of 'feminism', but the harsh reality is that this picture of 'successful woman' is pretty much ALL we see in the media these days- it seems to be going back to the old-fashioned cliche of madonna, whore or 'wannabe man'. I am none of these: I have a PhD in a science subject, I write, I bake, I knit, I run, I surf and snowboard. I know I can have a go at pretty much anything I put my mind to.
Putting myself forward as a man's 'idealised' woman, that is, tits, blonde hair, pout and dimwit, with a secret hard-nosed business woman's personality driving it: well, again, as one model of female kind it's fine, but it seems to be ubiquitous now.
We need lots of different types of role models, dammit, not just for girls and young women, but for young men too. I don't want teenage boys growing up thinking that is the only way for women to be.
Posted by: Skitten 
at August 22, 2008 11:03 AM
Hear, hear.
I don't know if the idea of teaching feminism in schools will ever get off the ground, but it's a damn fine one. I think a lot of my own feminist consciousness can be ascribed to having gone to an all-girl high school (at least for the last 3 years), with wonderful teachers who made us think about feminist issues in the course of the regular curriculum. And having had that, I was and am constantly gobsmacked to realise just how out of date and back to front so many people's idea of feminism still is. ("You have to admit though, feminists are always fat women who can't get men," said a chap at university who just happened to be trying to get into my pants. Whoops. Misfire there, buddy.)
Posted by: Robynn at August 24, 2008 2:31 PM
I also think that something needs to be done. There are plenty of girls at school who's only ambition is the become a WAG or a glamour model. It is not for want of positive female role models or messages at home or in school. Parents despair. A lot of girls are totally switched off in school. It's not just girls. There are plenty of boys out there lacking ambition to achieve.
I think the real problem is the media's obsession with sex and celebrity. Let's face it, a society who's most celebrated intellectual female is a woman who is botoxed up to the hills, dresses like someone 20 years younger and sticks numbers on a board has got a bit of a problem.
Posted by: Knitnurse at August 27, 2008 9:04 AM
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