A feminist position statement and outline of the challenges ahead.
Feminism, in myriad metaphorical ways, is a relief from male oppression. There is an inextricable relationship between the two where the former is only needed by the existence of the latter. This is the broadest, and therefore most accurate, definition of feminism to my mind. To be more detailed in its definition encroaches on agenda, which is far more varied and complex.
In attempting to define feminism, I find symmetry in a vision of it as a “supernumerary bone of man.”[1] This was the phrasing used by Bossuet (paraphrasing Genesis) to describe woman’s relationship to man artfully deployed by de Beauvoir in her introduction to The Second Sex to convey the othering and oppression of the female being in male rhetoric.[2] Such a description of woman is entirely flawed scientifically because in biological terms we all start out as “female” in the womb and it is that which our society calls “male” that is formed from this original building block.[3] This single fact makes case in point of the rhetorical/cultural nature of female oppression. The idea of woman being less than and/or subordinate to man is a fairy tale we’ve been told and continue to tell each other which, as Nietzsche speculated about all truth, was hewn into fact by the tools of society and sands of time.[4] In this way, feminism can only be described as a rejection of and response to the ideology of male superiority.
It’s interesting (another word for sad) that there currently exists among so many an idea that we are beyond feminism. From Tina Fey’s Boss Lady self-deprecating comedy to Hillary Clinton’s “glass ceiling shattering” win of the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, post-feminist ideology threatens to be more damaging than the outright female oppression which it pretends to have conquered. It is the insidious nature of such false accomplishment that engenders such menace. The foremost challenge for feminism is the denial of its need to exist, particularly among women. The second greatest challenge is in its articulation, the negotiation of its co-opting by other oppressive structures like capitalism. Speaking to Good Housekeeping, rock star Annie Lennox expressed her happiness at the word “feminist” no longer being prohibited as a kind of curse word.[5] While certainly gratitude-worthy in concept, I worry that it is not so much a sign of progress as it is a measure of the concepts de-fanging, its withered and tamed scope. Shouldn’t the word continue to inspire fear in a still gender-oppressive society? That it doesn’t bears witness to the low-hanging fruit of its current goals, which easily achievable are easily gotten. The fierceness of feminism is inherent to a real feminism for its enemy will be vanquished by nothing less. Fear the name feminist because it means a dismantling of the comforts oppression brings its benefactors. Respectability politics then are our greatest challenge.
The numbing effect of seeking to honor the status quo is entirely antithetical to any feminist agenda—yet it isn’t simply the entrenched villains of equality that we must fight in this last challenge, but more so the comfort born of separation and codification of physical attributes as shorthand for culture/identity. My social position as a person classified as Latina/Hispanic I think brings me special insight into the fabrication essential to the concept of race. While certain attributes are genetically passed and therefore more common in those who procreate with those who look similar to them, race isn’t really more than skin deep. We have necessarily banded together as groups based on how we are treated within societies, because of kinship structures, and by cultural affinity.[6] However, the only way to truly dismantle the major oppressions of our day is to see them for what they are rather than ascribe essentialist, constrictive meaning that validates continued differentiation and therefore hierarchy.[7] We can be different without giving greater meaning than is prudent to our differences. That is the slippery slope where we currently dwell.
References
[1] Beauvoir, S. (1949/1972). The second sex (H.M. Parshley, Trans.). Harmondsworth: Penguin.
[3] “Embryos are programmed to have primary sex characteristics that are typical for females.” Lacey Alexander, “Module 2 Lesson A Video: Sex differentiation and intersex conditions,” GWS 103: Women’s Bodies in Health and Disease. University of Wisconsin-Madison (Summer 2017).
[4] In his On the Genealogy of Morality (1887/2006) and The Gay Science (1887/1974), Nietzsche problematized secular notions of morality and the nature of truth as a continuation of theistic belief. He proposed that truth is simply a story told over centuries that people invented.
[5] Gordon, N. (2019 January 01). Annie Lennox on why she hasn’t had botox or plastic surgery:
[6] See Gayle Rubin (1975), The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex”
[7] “Separate but equal” comes to mind.
Cristina Forever 