By Georgina Roberts
It’s a confusing time for young feminists.
Half have abandoned the term, in fear of associations with ideals
so radical they make Jim Davidson look politically correct. An audience
of groans, designed to put an end to feminist ‘ranting’
has worn the other half down. We are a generation whose mothers
burnt their theoretical bras for feminism and whose babysitters
put their lipstick on for post-feminism. The conflicting politics
of the 34 feminist movements, as identified on Wikipedia, have left
us bewildered.
Katie, 27 of Alkam Road considers herself a feminist, whilst Alenka,
26 of Osbaldeston Road, does not, yet both disagree with inequality
between men and women. The similarities in their opinions, despite
the difference in labels, seemed to confirm that the meaning of
feminism for young women today has been diluted, to the extreme
where Katie recognises ‘the term has been hijacked to use
as a term of offence’.
Feminism may not be a popular subject today, but it is a subject
that resonates. You don’t need a feminist manual to know that
sexual liberation has gone bonkers. It’s like the Spice girls
came along and said ‘we can be sexy and assertive’ followed
swiftly by a wave of lad mags that claimed ‘we can appreciate
that you’re sexy’ and then conveniently forgot the rest.
Amongst claims that women are ‘pretty much equal these days’
women clearly remain a commodity. We are told there is no topless
man on page 4 because men are more ‘visual’ than women.
Of course they are; sexual images of women have become an institution,
a catalogue for men to aid sex education and personal pleasure.
I hold down a ‘creative’ job and frankly, consider
myself a ‘visual’ person. Lame excuses like that, belong
in a dark bedroom with the lights off, where women lie back and
think of England. Surely most rational people can see that the whole
‘women seen as sex objects’ thing will be a continuing
dynamic while the imbalance in the media is so extreme. It is recognised
in feminism, that young women grow up considering themselves as
sex objects. They quickly learn that they are judged on their appearance
and become aware of the competition with other women as early as
their first story-time, with Cinderella, her two ugly sisters and
Prince Charming. As a self-aware young woman it is frustrating to
fall into the traps of judging yourself on appearance and competing
with other women, yet we frequently find ourselves pitted against
one another.
Alenka explained that this starts as early as primary school and
that ‘competition always exists when it comes to the subject
of physical appearance’. Outside of our close-knit circles
of friends, bitchiness appears to be a frequent occurrence, and
Alenka and Katie cited experiences from past work mates and acquaintances,
and even strangers in the street. In these so-called shallow times,
it seems to be some sort of acceptable pastime to bitch about people
with whom we are not close friends, but are these public comments
so harmless? Or are we simply condoning the judging of women? ‘When
a woman is threatened by you, she can deal with that by being incredibly
bitchy to you. That is hard to deal with as, although you know it
is simply a defence mechanism, it is a powerful one that can actually
be quite damaging.’ explained Katie. Bitching is a symptom
of society’s view on women. Although there are bigger issues
to address, it seems that immediate alleviation could be found in
one of the best characteristics of the feminist movement, which
has been lost along the way: the solidarity of sisterhood, something
that remains in our hands. |
