If you'll indulge me once more . . . so, I also just might have a rant about the state of feminism these days. Again, to set the scene, at one time I could have also been a poster woman for a feminist liberal (though not quite raging, a little loud sometimes) I'm all about women's rights, equal representation (in life, movies, books, faith, TV), women in the workplace, equality of pay, the view of women, "herstory," etc. Sometimes my feminist side still jumps out of me. A few weeks ago, sitting at the serving bar at LeftHand Brewery, the bar tender (poor guy) asked Michael what he wanted to drink and "what can I get for your lovely lady?" To which I quickly replied with a nice smile, "I am my own lovely lady," with a thank you very much thought bubble. Carrie Bradshaw would be so proud. In a Bible study I lead, one of the women bought me a "Women of the Bible" book because I wouldn't pipe down about the lack of references to women in the study book we were reading.I was quite happy today while flipping through a series of pictures on the Time Magazine website showing all the lovely women in British and European politics. Apparently, Spain is getting quite a bit of flack because the number of women in the Spanish Cabinet now out numbers the number of men. And the new Spanish Minister of Defense is a woman. And she's seven months pregnant. Oh, yeah. How do you like them apples?
Yet (and here we go), one of the pictures' captions read, "Sarah Brown, the wife of the Prime Minister, like her predecessor Cherie Blair, has found that women in the public eye are still judged more on what they look like than on their brains and abilities." Of course they are. Nice.
There's a commercial on TV featuring Kelly Ripa of Regis and Kelly selling appliances. She does her TV show and then rushes home to do all the mothering duties - cooking, cleaning, finding things, entertaining, raising her children, and dropping exhausted. It's amazing, all the things a woman can do. It's amazing all the things we can do to run ourselves ragged. I read a regular column recently in our newspaper by a woman who is self-titled, "Brazen Careerist." She recounted a time when she had just had one of her children, was working full-time and working on a publishing deadline. She finally got help with everything when - get this - her husband found her in the kitchen stabbing herself with a knife. Uh, yeah. And she goes on about how amazing it is to be a woman and working like she always has.
Let me just put out there that the feminist movement has been amazing for women. I wouldn't trade what I now can do in the world, in my community, in the workplace, on the web, anywhere, for the world. But, I also think my generation and generations to come struggle with putting this new world into play, balancing the many parts of being a woman - in the workplace, in the home, in the community, in the world, in the bedroom, in the marketplace - along with the constant focus on our appearance. I've been struck recently with how dangerous it can be for a young woman to be pretty and attractive. Being a woman can't mean doing everything but in the same ways they've always been done. None of us should ever get to the point where we're stabbing ourselves with a knife for the sake of being a "modern woman."
Ahh, a lightbulb. Perhaps I can be more green by doing less housework - use less water, less energy, fewer chemicals - and save some of the valuable time a modern woman needs.
(Note: How great is that picture after my last blog rant?!)
2 comments:
this post is a great summary of why you were such a breath of fresh air to me in good ole Clinton, MS!
As a high school teacher, I find three things curious with respect to the women's movement. First, to many young women, many of whom I doubt have any notion whatsoever of the work of their predecessors, freedom seems to mean sexual promiscuity and dressing in clothing as revealing as possible--in other words, they are missing the important part of the message, of being their own person in all respects. Along with this goes the alarming number of children these girls are giving birth to, and the attendant stresses on our social systems. I wonder, too, that few boys run for election on campus now. Do they feel they can't win? Are they glad to have the girls do the work? Finally, there still seems to be the overriding sense of girls needing to attract boys--the make-up, the low cut tops, and the angst that goes with it. (I'm sure guys have angst, too.) On the other hand, there are many young women who are confident, independent, intelligent, fun, wonderful, involved, have girl and guy friends--all very healthy. And of course, some of what we see, due to our nearly 50% Hispanic population, is Hispanic cultural mores, as well as poor black families with one or both parents absent, and that's a whole bucket of issues part and parcel of, yet also peripheral too, the women's movement.
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