Feminism: 4th Down?
Huff Post Women: The
Blog
Posted: 02/14/2014 12:00 am
EST Updated: 02/14/2014 4:59
pm EST
Is this The Revenge of the
Goddess in Technicolor or just
the modern ad man's fantasy
of the powerful female? A guy
with tits, vagina, stiletto hells,
an AR-15 and an attitude.
Welcome to feminism 2014.
Back in 1917 things were a
little different.
Once upon a time, feminism
was a clear-cut moral and
social imperative and sheer
common sense. Now the F
word means rants on New
Feminism, embodied
feminism, Miley Cyrus and
rebranding. It's a commodity.
Ad agency fodder.
Someone call Ogilvy &
Mather. Or maybe the
morgue.
Feminism has finally
succumbed to the same
compartmentalization, sexual
objectification and
trivialization as woman
herself. We hear the word
"rebranding" and actually
think about it, unconsciously
reducing the noble ideal of
equality to the level of a
breakfast cereal. We
contemplate the New Feminist
and images of fierce Sirens in
black leather pop into our
heads, voluptuous breasts
over-swelling their cups,
bullets blazing from the
nipples. Oh yeah, baby,
yeah...
damage.
Feeding sessions occurred
three times a day for weeks.
The tubes and prying devices
were not always cleaned and
the women contracted oral
and genital infections. The
screams during sessions could
be heard throughout the
prison. Many women emerged
physically, emotionally and
mentally scarred.
But they persevered. Years
later, the Nineteenth
Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution was ratified on
August 18, 1920, giving
women the right to vote in
local and national elections.
Alice Paul and other
suffragettes stoically endured
catcalls and egging during
marches. Arrested for
obstructing traffic while
peacefully picketing outside
Woodrow Wilson's White
House, many were sent into
the Occoquan Workhouse
without representation,
without bail and without the
right to have visitors. The
women suffered serious abuse
at the hands of prison guards.
In a desperate attempt to
make the public aware of their
treatment, Paul and many of
the other women went on
hunger strikes.
Force-feeding was
administered by tube up the
nose, down the throat, and,
according to some sources, up
the rectum. It took multiple
attempts by wardens to
accomplish penetration with
the tubes because the women
resisted, resulting in mouth
and genital lacerations, deep
bruising, and esophageal
Kate Heffelfinger (right) after
her release from the
Occoquan Workhouse
(Source: Library of Congress)
Brand that.
In all the distraction over
unfathomably shallow issues
like the right to twerk onstage,
we've lost track of what
feminism is ultimately
about: ensuring that woman's
value as a human being is
accepted as being absolutely
equal to man's value as a
human being. Ensuring the
equal right to vote, work,
receive equitable pay and have
equal access to legal,
economic and educational
opportunities has been an
important part of the
movement towards the equal
valuation of the sexes.
But it's only the first half of
the game.
Unfortunately, we -- women
and men -- haven't realized
there's a second half yet to
play. We're screwing around
in the locker room arguing the
details about women playing
as linebackers, quarterbacks
and defensive ends. We don't
get that playing the guy's
game only validates the guy's
game. We don't see we're
making guy's goals, guy's
ideals, guy's philosophies and
guy's wars and economic
machinations over territory
ever more valuable and the
only valid game in town.
No wonder feminism is
becoming a joke. We're
flagellating the last details of
getting in the game when it's
time to change the game
itself.
Instead of arguing about who
gets to tote a gun on a
battlefield, it's time to take the
issue to a higher level,
introducing traditionally
feminine values of compassion
and cooperation into politics
and questioning the need for
battle.
Instead of banging our heads
against the last fragments of
the corporate glass ceiling, it's
time to reexamine the
masculine hierarchical
structures of monopoly,
scarcity, resource depletion,
competitiveness and greed
that line the pockets of a few,
disempowering everyone else.
It's time we took the economic
power of the Sheconomy out
for a spin, introducing lifehonoring values of generosity,
caring, and sustainability into
the marketplace.
But to do that we have to
openly value compassion and
cooperation, trust, generosity,
and sustainability. We have to
see these qualities and
woman's more "otheroriented" values as equally
important and necessary for
human wellbeing as more
survival-oriented masculine
values of competition,
aggression, control, authority
and domination. Not more
valuable. But equally valuable.
Follow Cate Montana on
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Cate
Montana

How To Be A Good Woman,
According To Wall Street
Journal Op-Eds

10 Enduring Truths About
Womanhood From 'Sex And
The City'
When that happens, women
and men we will finally be at
par and the game will end.
The question is, are we ready
for this? Are we ready to enter
the second half? Are we ready
to stop trivializing feminism
and get serious about leveling
the playing field of gender
values? Or has the patriarchal
mindset now invaded both
women's and men's souls to
the degree we can't even see
there are other ways to be?
Other potentials? A greater,
more rewarding and pleasant
future for humankind that can
only be arrived at through the
balance that comes of full
gender equality?
I think I know what Alice Paul
would say.
I think she'd say, "Ladies, (and
gentlemen who are so
inclined), it's time to take your
hard-earned positions in the
marketplace, your knowledge,
economic wherewithal, guts,
minds, hands and hearts and
set your caps on making the
whole world a different and
better place for everyone to
be."

Apparently, Size May Matter -For Women

The Feminist's Dilemma: Why
We Can't Stop Caring About
How We Look

7 Things Vintage Stars Can
Teach Us About Body
Confidence