Fearing Feminism

Have we outgrown the efforts of the past?

Feminism is dead…and anti-feminism killed it.

Recently, I was directed to an article published last year by Susan J. Douglas entitled ‘Girls Gone Anti-Feminist’, naturally I was intrigued. Douglas, a professor of Communication at the University of Michigan argues that 1970s feminism (stigmatized as dowdy, man-hating and unnecessarily radical) is thought to have already met the goals of the women’s liberation movement. This makes feminism ‘fait accompli’, and contemporary youths immune to any new notion of Feminism. Instead, sniffing, smirking and traipsing off in our glittering Manolo Blahniks.

Reading Douglas’ words, I noticed myself engaged in ferocious head nodding and tsk tsk’ing (which no doubt concerned the fellow passengers in my train carriage). This woman had articulated what I had artlessly repeated time after time: Feminism is polluted, un-cool and un-popular amongst both men and women of my generation. In the post ‘90s enlightened sexism’ phase, we no longer understand there to be a choice between Feminism and anti-Feminism, in fact most of us have resigned to apathy. Feminism is to the young what environmental activism is to Rick Perry–seeking to remedy something that doesn’t even exist.

Have we come as far as we think? Is our nonchalance justified? Pop culture paints a portrait of the independent, essentially free female. The market endorses this idea by encouraging our buying power, trumpeting the notion that goods-goods-goods shall set you free. We accumulate clothes, wax ritualistically, rock up to trendy bars and sip from twenty-two dollar Mojitos because in the words of Destiny’s Child: we are the ‘mommas making dollas’. But the question persists, are we satisfied with our newfound independence? Douglas thinks not, and I am inclined to agree.

The fact is we do these things because chivalry is dead, because women today are forced to vie and compete for male attention and because our gender identity is more muted than ever. This is not post-feminism, “it’s good, old-fashioned, grade-A sexism that reinforces good, old-fashioned, grade-A patriarchy”. But this time we have joined in, validated and ultimately legitimized the oppression. Whilst some of us continue to believe we can have it all, others are more pessimistic and point to the continued sacrifice ‘all’ requires. The legacy of the 1990s gender balance was purchasing and sexual power at the expense of feminine political and economic legitimacy. No great deal of equilibrium there. That is not to say we have not come a long way in these fields, but at what cost to our ‘femaleness’?

On the subject of media power, Douglas has an interesting theory about our own sense of awareness. She dubbs it ‘Media Irony’. Television programmes like Top Model, The Hills, Gossip Girl, The Bachelor, My Super Sweet 16 and so on, parade largely unsavvy girls who make mistake after mistake, hold superficial values, lack substance, exhibit little modesty and then bitch and moan for our entertainment. Why do we watch? Douglas posits it is less about our identification with the contestants and characters, and more about our ability to feel superior when we mock them. We know the media is flattering our intelligence, and we eat it right up.

It seems to me that more and more we relish the downfall of other women. We will call each other ‘whores’ and ‘skanks’ and ‘backstabbing stut-faced ho-bags’ (Janis Ian’s words not mine), if only to build ourselves up. Female unity, girl power and sisterhood have flow the coop; it is every Birkin-toting girl for herself. We have allowed sexism to divide us because we feel threatened by each other.

But if we are aware of our eternal manipulation by the media and corporations, why do we still opt for Anti-Feminism? I will share with you what I think is at the heart of Anti-Feminism: fear, good old-fashioned grade-A panic. We are terrified of winding up spinsters, ‘cat-ladies’ or worse: successful businesswomen who sacrifice their femininity in order to play hardball in a workforce that favors masculine traits. We do not want to be Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada—an ice queen despised by all. We want to be whatsherface who skips out on the industry because her boyfriend feels momentarily neglected as she turns down yet another of his Jarlsberg toasted sandwiches. For us, the important trend to note is how this fear resigns itself to apathy when faced with a real choice: Feminist or not?

Susan Douglas is the author of ‘Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message That Feminism’s Work is Done’, 2010. Read Susan Douglas’ article online at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5575/girls_gone_anti-feminist