Audra Williams has a really interesting piece about feminists in their 20s and early 30s on Rabble. I felt a little anxious about writing about it first, because I disagreed with her to the point where I was highly annoyed by what she was saying. But then I re-read it, and I realised that I agreed with her argument.
I’m not doing this to be adorable; this is what it’s like in my brain. I have Feminist Insecurity. In fact, if I didn’t repeat those first two points to myself, I’d never have the guts to say the third. And it’s not just me. So many feminists in their 20s and 30s are like this. We apologize, we disclaim and, worst of all, we don’t reach out to other young feminists for fear of being called out as the frauds we feel we are.
One of the ways this isolation manifests itself is that we don’t organize in the ways of the generations of feminists before us. We don’t join. We’re not sure if we should, and we can’t seem to navigate the movement as it is.
This is an incredibly important question. What is it that makes feminism an individual enterprise for some people, rather than a collective experience?
Audra presents this problem as a generational one: second-wave feminists organised, third-wave feminists generally do not (I do have a rant about the term third-wave, and what it ignores, but I’ll save that for another time). She describes third-wave achievements as follows:
That isn’t to say there isn’t a great deal of amazing energy and teamwork happening with younger women right now. We have Shameless magazine. We have independent women’s businesses like Venus Envy and Peach Berserk. We have menstrual experts like Blood Sisters. We have bands like Pony Da Look, Bontempi and the Maynards. We’ve got body-positive troupe Big Dance.
While our achievements are not the sort of feminism that older women hope to see, one thing that we’ve done well is dissect and influence culture. Third wavers might not have an abortion caravan, but we’ve got record labels. Maybe we don’t attend candidate’s school, but we’re running feminist businesses. We don’t hold consciousness-raising sessions, but we stitch and bitch.
This was the bit I was afraid of being overly sarcastic about, because for me those lists don’t begin to compare (even leaving aside my opinion of alternative businesses). These individual projects don’t make a movement.
Having said all this I’ve spent most of my time as a feminist without belonging to a feminist group. My feminism mainly involves words, writing, ranting, yelling, talking, and other words, but not actions. I try to make my feminism part of my activism, but I don’t really know what to do, or who to do it with. I don’t believe that women of my age are just lamer than the women who came before and who were able to turn their words into something more.
I think Audra has identified one possible reason, which is that feminism can be set up as a standard that women should attain, rather than a form of analysis. I had an activist friend tell me recently that she didn’t know anything about feminism. Which shocked me, but I understood what she was saying, because feminism can be seen as something that happens in a rarefied atmosphere, that comes once you’ve taken a women’s studies class and read the right books.
I think this is bullshit, I think all you need to do to be a feminist is to listen to other women and stand beside them. You take that step, and everything else you need will follow. I’m not devaluing analysis, I think it’s vital, but feminism isn’t dependent on doing the reading.
I think possibly another reason is that I don’t think we’ve got any idea how to fight patriarchy (for lack of a better term), because it’s so pervasive. There are days when I go to the supermarket and I just want to grab every single magazine and rip it into to tiny pieces stomp on them, because almost every page of almost every magazine devalues women. I hear stories about how women are relegated to the kitchen during a particular campaign, and I despair that 30 years of calling sexist men out has got us precisely nowhere. I hear the pay gap is getting wider and I know so many employers who promote men to the jobs that pay higher over women time and time again. I see how raising children is treated as some kind of weird hobby, where it’s fine if you want to do it, but don’t ask the rest of us to support you. It’s overwhelming, particularly when I’m think about it on my own.
I’m all over the place here – we’ve got too much theory, and not enough. But I think what I basically want to say is that feminism needs to start with women’s lives and move to collective action, and through that I’m hoping we’ll learn how to fight.
In the end I think that might have been what Audra was saying too:
Oh, I bet you are now all so excited to join and build NAC! But don’t forget, you can’t join NAC [A Canadian coalition of feminist groups]. After the last day of meetings wound down, I was whining to longtime feminist activist Lee Lakeman about this very thing: “So now I have to go win over some Nova Scotia women’s group if I can find it in order to get the right to come here and try to win NAC over?” Lee looked at me like I was perhaps a moron and said, “Why don’t you start your own group?”
As soon as she said “Why don’t you start your own group?” I started to hear “!!!!!!!!” “!!!!!!!!” “!!!!!!!” in my head, because WHAT. A. GREAT. IDEA.
Here is the deal. You need 10 people and a feminist mandate. Make sure you formally exist six weeks before the AGM (which is happening in May). You also have to have a recommendation by an existing member group. But really, contact me, we’ll find a way.
The idea of starting a group is fairly terrifying, because if we’re going to start groups we have to go on the record with stances, and we have to collaborate and lead and follow. But we have those skills, I know we do. It’s just a question of applying them in a new way. What issue infuriates you the most? How do you think it can best be addressed? What have you been wishing someone else would do? Assemble a team and get on it.
This was also posted on my blog
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Without disputing the overall truth of this, I wrote recently on my blog about something I noticed in my classroom the other day that I would not call cause for hope–though I think that in the rush to write I did use that word–but which does seem to me to contain the possibility of, to borrow a diplomatic turn of phrase, cautious optimism. It’s not really on topic in terms of your post, though, so here’s the link.
Feminism, unlike Environmentalism, doesn’t have a set of scaleable actions. You can dip your toes into individual participation in Environmentalism by recycling, reducing consumption (energy, water, goods), etc. What are the equivalent actions for budding feminists? In environmentalism, there are activist clubs that are attractive for their social aspects, such as a trail maintenance day with the Sierra club. What local feminist club has low-key group activities that help the cause while remaining social? Sure, there are protests for both Feminism and Environmentalism. Sure, you can write letters in isolation or groups for both causes. Where is the handbook of Feminist activities like for Environmentalism? How can you get the sense of tangible, immediate results in Feminism as you can in Environmentalism?
Well, hmmmm…. um, yeah, where to begin? Doing exactly what she laments in her article I’m going to preface this by saying I don’t know enough about this yet (which I think is a perfectly fine and honorable thing to say. The fact that men rarely say that is not necessarily something women should imitate; rather the reverse. Especially for us white 1st worlders… more humility, less arrogance is a good thing). So I don’t know but I am reading a book right now that sorta maybe addresses this…. at least it sorta lays out a framework for activism in the age of postmodernism/globalization. It’s Chela Sandoval’s Methodology of the Oppressed. Unfortunately it’s not an easily accessible book for most people but it’s worth digging your heels in and getting at what she’s saying which is basically:
Hey, you people up there in the rich Minority/1st world struggling with your existential postmodern angst of fragmented identities/realities, GET A GRIP!!! The oppressed have always been fragmented. We can teach you how to deal with it. Here’s a methodology for fighting oppression of all kinds.
She’s sorta saying (I think) that the way white/western feminists organized in the 70s and 80s doesn’t work. Or won’t work for us anymore. We need to look at for example the feminists movements of women of color and draw alliances across borders (and class? and generations?) to combat the new globalized hegemony.
I think. I mean I’m only on chapter 2 so I can’t really say yet. But it sounds good. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
Pardon my cynicism, but a lot of women in their 20s are pretty preoccupied with being attractive to men–and unapologetic sexism without “but we don’t hate men!” footnotes, to many women, is something that might get in the way of that.
I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and I’m undecided whether there really does need to be a “new” organization at each generational level or if younger women can truly just join right in. It’s not clear to me there’s a ready answer. For some reason, this really reminds me of girls breaking away from their mothers. Maybe it’s sort of inevitable that there’s a reorg every generation. If so, I’m not sure in what ways we can retain and carry forward gains made at each level. Perhaps they are. While I see stuff all the time that still makes me despair, I also see other stuff that indicates shifts in attitudes *are* appearing, albeit slowly…
I see how raising children is treated as some kind of weird hobby, where it’s fine if you want to do it, but don’t ask the rest of us to support you.
There are two perspectives ont his statement I want to mention.
The first is that if one believes (and I do) that a woman has the right to abort her pregnancy without havign to justify the reason then you have now made the decision to carry that child a literal choice. If, as a business owner, someone decides than that a employee choosing an extended absence (pregnancy leave) is no useful tot he firm then you should be able to dismiss them.
If you believe that pregnancy is not really choice, and that taking time off to have a child is morally different than takign that time off to do anything else then you have introduced problems into the moral argument of absolute abortion choice.
The second point is that looking down on women who have children and raise them is ALSO a feminist phenominon. We see blog entry after blog entry by women lookign down on stay at home mothers as either victims of internalized patriarchy or lacking in feminist drive. Not to mention implying they might just be lazy and ignorant.
Grr :) Sorry about the spelling. I can type code all day without a transposition error… English? Not so well.
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The second point is that looking down on women who have children and raise them is ALSO a feminist phenominon
It’s really a traditionalist phenomenon–nobody (I hope) suggests that feminists are 100% free of their sexist upbringing. The patriarchal culture treats childrearing and homemaking as demeaning and lesser than paid, career work–fit for women, of course, but not for men. Plenty of feminists absorbed this message.
It doesn’t help that childrearing and homemaking are not, in fact, high-status or high-wage positions in US culture.
Upon reflection, the difference between Feminism and Environmentalism is that Environmentalism is about changing physical reality, where Feminism is about changing social reality. Hence, you can pick up litter or positively change the physical reality without the participation or agreement of anyone. You can’t change the social reality as easily because you can’t do it as unilaterally.
From many conversations with environmentalists, I’ve gathered that the main difference between envirmentalism and feminism is people don’t blame oceans, rare plant species, and blind puppies for getting exploited and shit upon like they blame women for when it is done to them.
I agree with BEG about there being plenty of feminist and pro-woman organizations for younger feminists to learn from and grow within. The cult of youth combined with marketplace ideas of BIGGER, BETTER, NEWER, MORE would have young folks believing they have to reinvent the wheel before they know how to do more than crawl. While I appreciate innovation, I don’t think it serves newbie activists or feminism as a whole for young people to think they know all about what they’re doing without input from others who have been around the block a few times.
I co-founded and lead an action-oriented sexual health feminist group for three years. In retrospect, it showed gumption on our part to think we could do it all by our young and inexperienced selves, but the growing pains didn’t have to hurt like they did (ugh nonprofit incorporation) and I wish we’d had some older activist women to help guide us.
I frequently feel like a bad feminist. I’ve never done any women’s studies papers, I’m crap at reading non-fiction books, and although I’ve been in a few feminist groups I’ve always felt that I didn’t have the level of analysis required to be a true feminist. As a middle class white woman, with a privileged up-bringing, I’ve often felt awkward with working class feminists (who seem very angry, sometimes directly with women of my class, by whom I mean me!) but I subsume all that and assume they are better feminists than I.
I don’t know a lot about the history of feminism, but it seems to me that there isn’t an acceptance now, by some of the feminists that I encounter, that many women don’t have a background full of positive feminist experiences, and thus may need some time and support to really be consistent in their approaches. Where I live there don’t seem to be any consciousness-raising groups where it’s ok to raise questions that beginners like me struggle with (these are going to sound silly to many on here I’m sure, but stuff like “if I shave my legs am I denying the sisterhood?” or “if I compete with another woman for a job is that buying into the patriarchal bullshit?”).
I guess if I’m honest I’m thinking about a couple of particular feminists who I’ve encountered over the years, in feminist groups and in other settings, who put my teeth on edge because they directed their anger at middle class women (regardless of the politics of those women). I can understand that, but it makes it hard to participate or engage with those women and those groups.
That said, I work with a woman who considers herself a staunch feminist, but she frequently does things which show she doesn’t really get it (eg insisting that a man carve the roast at a work dinner we had). My way of dealing with her is to quietly put examples in her way that should eventually mount up to de-railing her flawed feminism. I don’t get angry with her (externally), but yesterday when she was criticising a women’s event for IWD (“my first mistake was that I wore a dress, not jeans” she said) that I was a little bit involved in I just let her know that I was originally on the organising committee and I could see her starting to think a little about it, as she respects me.
Ok I’m just rambling now. Just trying to give the perspective of someone who doesn’t have a particularly strong feminist background and is of the current generation who seem to be flailing a bit (not everywhere of course).
I don’t have a clue what to do about the feminist angst, which is hardly surprising since I’m male. However, if you ever actually carry out going to the supermarket and I just want to grab every single magazine and rip it into to tiny pieces stomp on them, because almost every page of almost every magazine devalues women, give me a jingle and I’ll happily go with you.
I’d prefer to use a flamethrower.
As to little things that one can do to engage in feminism, the equivalent of recycling, I think it just might be simple. A woman just expresses herself and carries herself as befits her personality and moral framework, without worrying about societal or male approval.
I personally don’t feel much angst, or fragmentation, or anything like that about feminism. Although other women may. I just don’t know what to do. It’s nothing postmodern, just the reaction of someone faced with what seems like an insurmountable object. I can write and analyse, and use words, but I really don’t know what sort of collective action would make a difference.
I guess I should make clear that I have no time for individual actions as substitute for political activity. I don’t think recycling, picking up litter, or even saying ‘fuck off patriarchy’, on my own, do anything.
I do believe that the only way you can make difference is . This was why I found Audra’s article so frustrating – she makes forming a feminist group seem like this amazing idea, and it shouldn’t be. That people think it is is probably at least partly because of the gross distortion of the meaning of the phrase ‘the personal is political’
mythago: I don’t necessarily think you’re wrong, that the need to please men makes starting feminist groups and building solidarity difficult. But that need must be surmountable, because it’s been overcome in the past.
Hey a lot of great discussion! NAC isn’t actually specifically an abortion-rights organization, although it certainly is pro-choice and did a lot of advocacy and organizing around this issue.
Do you think maybe what women of our generation don’t know is that the political is the personal?
Hmm..I think that young women today are forming groups more online too. I may not have been to a Unifem meeting lately, but I do inform myself about feminist issues. Other women at my school also involve themselves in activities such as going to the March for Women’s Lives, tabling against Alito, and generally talking back against sexism. That’s not every single girl, but I think there is a bit of feminism round here.
Thanks for commenting Audra – what is NAC?
I actually think everyone always takes the phrase ‘the personal is political’ the wrong way round. It doesn’t mean whether or not you wear make-up, or recycle, or buy fair trade coffee or whatever is political . That’s saying the political is personal.
It means that issues that are seen as personal personal problems are actually political problems that need to be addressed collectively. I regularly rant over the terrible bastardisation of that term, because I think it has really weakened the movement, and moved people away from collective action into indidivdual action.
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(I’m not sure that environmentalism is such a great place to be looking for advice on how to improve feminism — if anything, I feel like the advice ought to be flowing in the other direction.)
Maia, I know it’s not insurmountable. It’s just irritating.
I love the stage whisper comment from Stentor. I’m going to be hearing that for days. Stage whisper, Stentor. Just saying.
I’m not so sure that younger women can automatically be assumed to be too interested in pleasing men to bother with feminism. Are we to assume that all young women are looking to attract mates at that age, male or otherwise ? I’m not so sure. Couldn’t you just as easily argue that older women are less likely to do much for feminism, since they frequently have more pressing familial committments than unmarried women with no children– who aren’t yet struggling to pay off some giant-ass college loan, in the case of college-educated women.
At any rate, I find the feminists half my age to be much more savvy, better-educated, and more organized than I was at that age. But that may be the influence of the internet, which wasn’t around when I was a young college woman. Make of it what you will.
And ageism can cut both ways. I’ve heard from younger feminists that they sometimes feel patronized and belittled by older feminists. It’s easy enough for “learn from my mistakes” to morph into “What worked for us will inevitably work for you, so stop asking so many questions, Sprout.”
Again, YMMV.
Actually I’d say that the goals for feminism are pretty concrete. Equal pay, equal access (to the circles of power as well as to the military and other segregated proffessions – and this goes both ways) and equal power.
As for everyday feminist acts, I regularly hide sexist magazines behind magazines I think are cool. I always comment when people make sexist assumptions and I support and encourage people who breaks the assumptions their gender pose upon them.
Small things is to try to read the female sf-writer and the male writer of historical romances. To encourage the father of your child to feed and care for them as much as you do (and if you’re a man to insist on it). Activist groups could do letter writing campaigns to lokal papers or similar stuff.
As a teacher I discuss issues of gender, sexuality and rape with all my classes and I’m certain everyone of us can make a difference – wherever we are.
I did say I was being cynical, alsis.
I love cynicism, mythago. Also skepticism and fatalism. I mix them every morning into a delicious, fortifying, virtual version of a fruit smoothie and gulp them down before wast– er whiling away another fun day in blog-land.
But you knew that.