Let’s pretend:
- The economic crisis is solved and the economy is stable.
- The ozone layer is healed and 84% of drivers use hybrid vehicles.
- Harry Potter has put Bin Laden and his followers in Azkaban.
- We have determined that Santa owns the North Pole – not Russia – no matter whose flag sits under all that ice (that is no longer melting).
- Teaching in public schools is the most sought after profession.
- Racism is a new NASCAR computer game.
- We agree that marriage is historically a social construction and that the benefits associated with it should apply to all
What’s left? Oh crap, we forgot about women’s issues.
- Equal pay
- Sex discrimination
- Welfare
- Healthcare
- Childcare
- Domestic violence
- Violence against women
- Ageism
- Poverty
- Anorexia
- Compensation and tax benefits for stay-at-home caregivers
- Reproductive rights
- Sex trafficking
"The personal is political” is one of the most important ideas generated from contemporary feminism. It was coined by Carol Hanisch, a radical feminist, as a result of consciousness raising sessions in the late 1960s. Hanisch argued that what happens in our private/personal lives is a part of something much larger – the political.
Most often, the topics on the above laundry list are viewed as the personal problems of individuals. Yet:
- Men commit over 99% of rape, and the overwhelming majority of violence against women is committed by men (this is not a woman’s issue!)
- Elderly women are highly vulnerable to poverty. On average, they are likely to live 13 or 14 years longer than their male partners. And they are more likely than men to run out of resources in late life.
- Sex trafficking is one of the most globalized markets in the world today and the third most profitable business for organized crime, behind drugs and arms.
In a perfect world, there would be space to confront “women’s issues.” But we never will live in a perfect world. Hanisch argued that our ability to control our own lives is limited by the environment in which we live. She said we should take collective action for a collective solution. Don’t kid yourself. Women may be able to collectively elect a president, but when it comes to taking collective action to improve the quality of life in America, we’re still in a position where women have to convince a predominantly white male political leadership system that “our” issues are important and deserve collective attention. In that sense, we’re still asking for the right to vote.
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1 comment:
I'd almost argue that the first-mentioned wish that public school teaching be a desired job is a gender issue. And I'm inclined to see the fight for gay marriage as closely related to feminism, because those opposed may do so out of the "threat" to stereotypical masculinity, because it partially challenges the idea of the man being head-of- household. Equity in a partnership due to sameness of sex demands that homosexual males and females shoulder both traditional marriage roles, in whatever balance it takes within each relationship. (To be sure, my own heterosexual marriage challenges these traditions as well to a degree, but then, I sure as heck didn't marry a chauvinist. :) )
So question: does feminist action necessarily include opposition to masculinism? Must it be down with the man in order to forward the cause for the woman? The sexes may be equal but they are undeniably fashioned differently. What does an equitable world for the female look like? Shouldn't it include a standard where men are enabled to be family nurturers?
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