When Feminism Went Nuts

Quiet recently I stumbled onto an article about the New Feminist. In this long, enlightening and detailed rant/account about the decline of the modern feminist, a writer at the Times Online reacts to the changing attitude towards sex, body image, pornography, feminism and empowerment. While the first wave feminists wanted nothing more than equality, feminism 2009, according to the article means ‘acting out male masturbation fantasies — because you want to’.

With the sexualized society we live in currently (a society where pornography and strip clubs are widely accepted, bisexuality is defined as a Katy Perry song and women derive their self worth from shoe shopping and the ability to pleasure a man in the bedroom), the author wonders what happened to the feminists. To the women (and even men) who fought for actual rights for women.

The author (and I, personally) were shocked to discover so few women call themselves feminists these days. Stepping away from the article for a moment, I must quote songwriter Ani DiFranco here: ‘Why can’t all decent men and women call themselves feminists? Out of respect for those who fought for this.’ (Grand Canyon, 2004)

More troubling, even, is the twisted image of a Feminist. ‘Feminism means no fun or make-up, anger and hating men.’, the article states. Apparently in the global society of 2009, we have forgotten Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker, Susan B. Anthony, Angela Davis and all the other women who fought so women had the right to go to the police when they were raped, so women could vote, get educated, have a job that paid and have abortions and sex only when they wanted to.

“All the battles are won.” one of the interviewees in the article says. It’s one of the saddest things I have heard in a long time. As a woman who’s subjected daily to the sexualized view on women that is so very, very active these days, I’d say that the war is just beginning. As Ani Difranco states; ‘feminism ain’t about equality, it’s about reprieve’.

My own rant aside, this article offers a wonderful inside into a changing, global, society that’s influenced greatly by mass media that defines behavior for every target group. After the loss of religion and its rules and regulations and even after the first, second and maybe even after the third wave feminists, we are left with the society described in the article. A society that could benefit greatly by having the female (and dare I say it—feminist) view on it more publicly proclaimed.