This
Salon article, “ Mainstream Feminism Is Tepid And Cowardly: Work , Sex, Race, “Having
it all”, and True Liberation – is an
excellent article. There are what I see as a misconceptions I'd like to comment
on .
I wasn't there in the 1800s or early 1900s, but I was there in the 1970s.
I devoured the history and the brilliant feminist tomes of the time.
I lived in a politico household committed to social justice, that meant sex role awareness also.
Nobody anywhere ever told us we could have it all. , except maybe Virginia Slims cigarettes ( talk about pink washing). That was a slogan the media plucked from the actual and substantial content , as it skipped away to make cutesey provocative drivel from the very real work and struggles that actual inequity and Feminism were involved in. Feminism was never, in actuality, touted as a sure fire wagon to climb upon, so that you 'got to have it all." That was the ensuing hope, not the point.
The have it all? Was a Disney movie fantasy that somehow got bought by many of us, not as a concept or belief, but a hope that , without or with a partner, we could pursue meaningful work that was a living wage , have children if we wished, and juggle those, along with nourishing a relationship, if we had one, and parenting with equity and awareness. It was kind of heaping stuff on a little donkey, with good intentions.
But a lot of careful thought and writing and conversation went into growing ourselves and supporting each other, so that we could assert ourselves in the world, and initiate growth there.
I think that class , and capitalism ,are always the missing ingredients. And class is one of the main points of this article. That a lot of things happened for women who could afford to burn their bras, so to speak.
The way our culture works and controls and makes money has a lot to do with the fact that many things like feminism don't become institutionalized. And if they do become institutionalized, lose a great deal of what they originally meant.
To me, as an 18-year-old, waking up to feminism, reading Andrea Dworkin and then Mary Daly, living in Montague, Massachusetts, where there was a hotbed of women like Adrienne Rich et al, with discourse, writing separatist rags and figuring this out, to me it essentially is about options.
For every single human. Options for every single woman. Options for every single man.
And relates to my own allergy to sex-typing and limiting us by sex from the moment we 're born infuriates me.
Feminists' who tittered and ridiculed men taking their first steps parenting their newborn or decorating their house without normal everyday support just pissed me off. Purported feminists throwing slogans at their 4 year old boys, instead of getting inside things, and supporting them and their innate growth, if you just stop type casting and restricting them.
But now, many of us are older. We studied history, as much history as is available to us. We have some understanding of what remains of life and women from thousands of years ago to now. We have some idea of what impact class and profit continues to have on any social mores. On minimum wage laws. On wage disparity. In income disparity .
It seems to me that the biggest obstacle to feminism, or options, available to any human beings who are working class or low income, involves classism. And capitalism.
The struggle we have with the gross nauseating rise in income disparity. That just keeps getting worse. The options for education whose parity keeps worsening also. Options, my dear Watson.
The changing of the nature of what jobs are available in our culture, which keeps changing again.
Giving advantage to those born with wealth, race and class, and passing by all others, even those who work jobs, build up student loans, and eek their way through college .
To me, true feminism holds hands with an awareness of class and capitalism and the way our economy works.
The equation must acknowledge and include all pertinent bases to even approach a working balance.
It's not on 'Feminism's shoulders to promise fairy tales, like having it all. Or, bing ! Whacking a reticent conservative or apathetic legislator or powerful CEO with a wand to get them to change their priorities. Their organization, their fleeing factories.
Change comes from within. It's hard stuff. A dispiriting path .
There are multiple approaches , from people going down , repeatedly, and still , to New Orleans, when the government has shut its eyes and offices, and keep helping people rebuild and reclaim their homes .
It's going into Reservations and places of intentional inequity and supporting one project after another.
It's mentoring young girls and boys in school , so that someone with fresh blood shows up, repeatedly, to assert that kid's innate value and possibility . And help them navigate well enough to find their place in the world .
It's the woman who started '68 Hours', to provide FOOD! For CHILDREN who don't get enough , between Friday school lunch and Monday school breakfast !!!
Virtually everything is feminism to me, if done with awareness.
It's simply all about seeing what can be done, now or gradually , so that as many of us as possible- have access, in our minds and beliefs and our neighborhoods- to as many options as possible. No stupid back- room antics or antiquated useless restrictions applied.
A dear friend, for years taught at The Summer Institute for Popular Economics, where activists from all over the country, and all kinds of backgrounds, would come to learn how the economy actually functions , and how to fine tune their activism to be as effective as possible
I wasn't there in the 1800s or early 1900s, but I was there in the 1970s.
I devoured the history and the brilliant feminist tomes of the time.
I lived in a politico household committed to social justice, that meant sex role awareness also.
Nobody anywhere ever told us we could have it all. , except maybe Virginia Slims cigarettes ( talk about pink washing). That was a slogan the media plucked from the actual and substantial content , as it skipped away to make cutesey provocative drivel from the very real work and struggles that actual inequity and Feminism were involved in. Feminism was never, in actuality, touted as a sure fire wagon to climb upon, so that you 'got to have it all." That was the ensuing hope, not the point.
The have it all? Was a Disney movie fantasy that somehow got bought by many of us, not as a concept or belief, but a hope that , without or with a partner, we could pursue meaningful work that was a living wage , have children if we wished, and juggle those, along with nourishing a relationship, if we had one, and parenting with equity and awareness. It was kind of heaping stuff on a little donkey, with good intentions.
But a lot of careful thought and writing and conversation went into growing ourselves and supporting each other, so that we could assert ourselves in the world, and initiate growth there.
I think that class , and capitalism ,are always the missing ingredients. And class is one of the main points of this article. That a lot of things happened for women who could afford to burn their bras, so to speak.
The way our culture works and controls and makes money has a lot to do with the fact that many things like feminism don't become institutionalized. And if they do become institutionalized, lose a great deal of what they originally meant.
To me, as an 18-year-old, waking up to feminism, reading Andrea Dworkin and then Mary Daly, living in Montague, Massachusetts, where there was a hotbed of women like Adrienne Rich et al, with discourse, writing separatist rags and figuring this out, to me it essentially is about options.
For every single human. Options for every single woman. Options for every single man.
And relates to my own allergy to sex-typing and limiting us by sex from the moment we 're born infuriates me.
Feminists' who tittered and ridiculed men taking their first steps parenting their newborn or decorating their house without normal everyday support just pissed me off. Purported feminists throwing slogans at their 4 year old boys, instead of getting inside things, and supporting them and their innate growth, if you just stop type casting and restricting them.
But now, many of us are older. We studied history, as much history as is available to us. We have some understanding of what remains of life and women from thousands of years ago to now. We have some idea of what impact class and profit continues to have on any social mores. On minimum wage laws. On wage disparity. In income disparity .
It seems to me that the biggest obstacle to feminism, or options, available to any human beings who are working class or low income, involves classism. And capitalism.
The struggle we have with the gross nauseating rise in income disparity. That just keeps getting worse. The options for education whose parity keeps worsening also. Options, my dear Watson.
The changing of the nature of what jobs are available in our culture, which keeps changing again.
Giving advantage to those born with wealth, race and class, and passing by all others, even those who work jobs, build up student loans, and eek their way through college .
To me, true feminism holds hands with an awareness of class and capitalism and the way our economy works.
The equation must acknowledge and include all pertinent bases to even approach a working balance.
It's not on 'Feminism's shoulders to promise fairy tales, like having it all. Or, bing ! Whacking a reticent conservative or apathetic legislator or powerful CEO with a wand to get them to change their priorities. Their organization, their fleeing factories.
Change comes from within. It's hard stuff. A dispiriting path .
There are multiple approaches , from people going down , repeatedly, and still , to New Orleans, when the government has shut its eyes and offices, and keep helping people rebuild and reclaim their homes .
It's going into Reservations and places of intentional inequity and supporting one project after another.
It's mentoring young girls and boys in school , so that someone with fresh blood shows up, repeatedly, to assert that kid's innate value and possibility . And help them navigate well enough to find their place in the world .
It's the woman who started '68 Hours', to provide FOOD! For CHILDREN who don't get enough , between Friday school lunch and Monday school breakfast !!!
Virtually everything is feminism to me, if done with awareness.
It's simply all about seeing what can be done, now or gradually , so that as many of us as possible- have access, in our minds and beliefs and our neighborhoods- to as many options as possible. No stupid back- room antics or antiquated useless restrictions applied.
A dear friend, for years taught at The Summer Institute for Popular Economics, where activists from all over the country, and all kinds of backgrounds, would come to learn how the economy actually functions , and how to fine tune their activism to be as effective as possible
CPE
is an amazing collective of lefty type economists who teach an excellent,
interactive curriculum to put that information ; those actual dynamics- in the
hands of the people.
It seems that understanding the underlying economic dynamics enables all work on equity and justice to proceed on all economic , sex , race, sexual orientation, and economic levels.
And as so many who came before us realized. , lay the foundation and show up with the mortar to build feminist awareness and options into all things.
It seems that understanding the underlying economic dynamics enables all work on equity and justice to proceed on all economic , sex , race, sexual orientation, and economic levels.
And as so many who came before us realized. , lay the foundation and show up with the mortar to build feminist awareness and options into all things.
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/14/mainstream_feminism_is_tepid_and_cowardly_work_sex_race_having_it_all_and_true_liberation/
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