Last weekend a Butler in the Buff came to my flat, hen do of course. Today my mum viewed the photos on facebook (yes my mum’s on facebook). She sent me the following email in response “Feminism was supposed to make men and women equal in a good way - not to allow men and women both to wear lots of make up and pay others to appear semi-naked!”
This captured what seems to be a topic on the moment. Somewhere along the way feminism went wrong and the general consensus is that the young women of today don’t get it. The perceived liberation that we believe we have is overshadowing sexism, exploitation and inequality. Ouch.
Sure a few of you have read this article. My mum agrees with every word of it, I’m not so sure. Yes feminism needs to wake up but it also needs a bit of a rebrand. A PR campaign maybe to let young women know its not radical movement that rejects waxing but…I'm not entirely sure what. The need for women to remember to value themselves and strive for an equal standing maybe. A position that unfortunately we’ve not quite reached. But mum - it doesn't mean we can't enjoy our girly nights out and the latest GHDs in the mean time.
I have to agree with a lot of that article, particularly insofar as I fail to buy into the ‘post-feminist’ idea that the proliferation of pseudo-porn mags and high-street lapdance licensing (mentioned in that article) are liberating – they’re nothing more than examples of the mainstreaming of misogynism, which feels like a pretty regressive step in the scheme of things. I think the scariest thing though is the number of people today who even hesitate when you ask if they call themselves a feminist. Of course the distancing from the term is linked to misconceptions about what it actually means to be a feminist – some man-hating, activist stereotype – but it’s a term that needs to be reclaimed not rebranded. Being a feminist means believing in equality of opportunity and rights between women and men – pity so many find that controversial in 2009.
ReplyDelete(None of which means that I wouldn’t quite like to meet a Butler in the Buff…)