Honestly? It is an opportunity for today's feminists to not be scared about where they are in this world. In love with our loved ones and interested and bewildered by our world at large we can express why.
Yes. Both the first wave and second waves of feminism made far too little a voice for poor women and women of colour when it came time to sit at the table. Feminists in the 60's and 70's slammed sex bombs like Raquel Welch, Sophia Loren, and Erica Gavin (all women who made it on their own and worked non-stop) yet how much money did these same Second wave women pay their fellow sisters who were their nannies and maids watching the farm while they went to work? Did they ever fight tooth and nail to give them healthcare, unions or a living wage? Noooooooo...they fought to live like men, get the best deal on childcare and make money(see Leslie Bennetts...barfy "feminist chauvinist mistake" ) not liberate women. Go onto MS and google "nanny" in their search engine and nearly nothing comes up.
Thankfully some third wavers like myself are now appreciating that a women like Ms. Welch cand Pam Grier can be beautiful, sexy, classy and a trailblazer without fitting into a prescribed box AND without being exploitative and trashy. many third wavers are also succinctly pointing out what SO many dating and relationship columnists gravely overlook-that men/boys these days are looking for a meal ticket and a free ride off a woman's hard earned money-even men as young as their early 20's! Third wavers don't let this happen to you!
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ah, feminism as chauvinism in disguise... glad you're touching on this topic. I wrote a poem about it a while ago and the fall out it has on our femininity and families.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read more of what you think about this. It was great meeting you today!
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ReplyDeleteAll very nicely put, very good observations. Real emancipation went out the window when radical feminism was kicked to the curb here in America in the early 1970s.
ReplyDeleteDirector Terry Gilliam knew Gloria Steinem in the early 60s and (he's not alone in the assertion) he was telling an interviewer that all she was interested in was social climbing at the time. She's been more of a divider than an emancipator. Most of these kinds of feminists are about power for themselves, not empowerment of everyone else.
Makes a great degree of sense, and if you look at the Progressive era here in the United States, it was upper middle class women pushing for if not crafting our prostitution laws. That's why the issue is a hot button for some of them, they're complicit in the failure of those laws as social policy, more power grabs and arbitrary social control.
To even bring up the issue of class in the 90s within a feminist analysis was anathema on American college campuses, you got shut out.