Advice

On feminism.

In what ways does Postmodernism and Multi-cultural/global feminism critique the feminisms of the 1970’s and 1980’s?

Gloria Steinem is one of the baddest bitches ever to walk the earth. Back in the days of hairy bush, she was the cartoon tiger on the cereal box of women’s liberation, and the very fact that I can use that metaphor without irony or disrespect is just a friendly reminder of how far the movement has come.

Feminism has a sense of humor now. It’s less radicalized and it has less to prove, not because it’s any less important (it never will be), but because women like Gloria made such amazing progress in previous decades.

I say this only to preface that any critique third-wave feminism has of its predecessors it also owes to its predecessors, so that shit should come laced with a heavy dose of respect.

As for critique, I’m not going to be a douche and pretend to speak for an entire post-feminist movement. This is a just a personal observation, and quite frankly, something that’s always bothered me.

One of Gloria’s most famous quotes is that, “a liberated woman is one who has sex before marriage and a job after.” Yeah, no. That shit never sat well with me. In Gloria’s version of liberation, a woman’s sexual freedom and upward mobility still orbit around the institution of marriage.

Fuck that. That flavor of liberation isn’t enough anymore. I can fuck on my own terms, work on my own terms, and I’ll be damned if my life pivots around a wedding. My marital status is not a binary state that determines anything about me other than whether I’ve chosen to keep a particular promise.

If marriage is your thing, that’s fine. A liberated woman can choose traditional gender roles or make up whatever shit that works for her. Still, it’s no yard stick in my world.

Standard

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *