We’re back for the occasional history of feminist theory. Earlier posts are here:

Feminist Herstory Pt. 1 – It is discovered that Women are PEOPLE!!!

Feminist Herstory Pt. 2 – Here comes the FIRST WAVE

Burning bras and breaking free!

The Depression didn’t kill the feminist movement but with the right to vote and record unemployment, activist women diverted their energy to the right to work and unionize. World War II actually was a period of empowerment for women. As men shipped off to the Pacific and Europe to fight the enemy, women took over many of the social positions they vacated. Not only did women go to work in the jobs at factories and office buildings left open by men, they became a major part of the industrial workforce in the war effort. Women were building tanks and battleships and assembling munitions. The number of working women increased by 57% from 1940 to 1944. They were immortalized in the classic images of Rosie the Riveter. There would be no Allied victory without the formerly weak females building B-52 bombers.

Susan Faludi points out in her 1991 book, Backlash, that these working women not only had their own money (and government funded childcare), with their men overseas they also had some space. This was reflected in the media of the time. Gone were the Betty Boops and damsels in distress. In their place were strong independent women who drove storylines in movies and radio programs. A perfect example is Woman of the Year (1942). In this classic film, Spencer Tracy has to negotiate the new gender dynamic with his talented wife, played perfectly by Katherine Hepburn.

But like all good things, World War II came to an end and most of those men came home to reclaim their old jobs and women. Kathrine Hepburn was replaced by Marilyn Monroe and films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The resulting “baby boom” put women back in the kitchen, pregnant and getting dinner on the table at 6 pm.

But after that glimpse of economic freedom, feminism was far from dead. In 1953, Simone de Beauvoir’s 1949 book, The Second Sex, was made available in English. De Beauvoir, the life partner of French existentialist Jean-Paul Satre, made waves with The Second Sex by separating the terms sex and gender. The famous quote from the book, “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman,” opened the door for discussions of gender socialization. The Second Sex also outlined the many ways females are marginalized as aberrations and second-class people.

Unfortunately for 1950s feminists, The Second Sex wasn’t as popular as romantic novels, like James Jones’ From Here to Eternity (1951). The 50s were characterized as a time of consumerism and domesticity and women were expected to find happiness in housekeeping and mothering. That is until the 1960s happened. Betty Friedan’s 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique, identified the “problem with no name,” and that problem was sexism.

Friedan, who has written that she was pressured to leave her graduate work at Berkeley by her boyfriend, had been a union activist. She was fired from her job as a union writer when she became pregnant with her second child. The idea for The Feminine Mystique came after her 15^th college reunion. When surveying female college graduates she found a similar theme. (White middle-class) women asked, “is that all?” Were their lives meant to be lived in the shadows of their men?  Didn’t they have the right to pursue their own dreams?

The Feminine Mystique kicked of the “Second Wave” of feminism. Where the first wave was primarily concerned with political empowerment (suffrage), the second wavers addresses the broader marginalization of women in society. In 1966, Friedan co-founded the National Organization of Women (NOW). NOW took on not only the issues of first-wavers, like abortion rights, but also the expansion of the civil rights legislation to protect women from discrimination.

The second wave went to the heart of the marginalization of women, the Miss America pageant. Since 1921, the Miss America pageant has promoted itself as the annual crowning of the most beautiful (young) woman in America. The beauty contest was (and is) the largest source of college scholarship money for females in America. You might be beautiful on the inside, but if you don’t look smashing in a bathing suit (now a bikini) you have no hope of getting that college money. In 1968, feminists protested outside the contest in Atlantic City. The protesters crowned a sheep as Miss America. They threw many of the symbols of female beauty, including (male designed) bras, into a trashcan. Although the trashcan was never lit, the feminists were forever labeled as “bra burners.”

Coming Soon: Part 4 – The Second Wave Arrives.

The following books mentioned above are available at Powell’s by clicking the covers below.

February 11, 2015

I’m so torn on this Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon (Not really, but for the sake of debate I’m going to pretend that I am). No, I haven’t read the book. I heard its poorly written and there are about 300,000 good books ahead of it on my “To Read” list. I still have to get to Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. (I’m currently reading the fast-paced novel, The Residue Years by Portland’s Mitchell Jackson.) But God knows, I’ve read enough about 50 Shades to have an opinion.

On the “pop” hand, there’s a long tradition of women (including old-fashioned horny housewives) getting their rocks off with some randy literature, reading a few pages of D.H. Lawrence, and making a date with Hitachi’s Magic Wand. More power to ya. You deserve a break today.

But on the feminist hand, there is mounting concern that the book and film glamorize abuse of women. That Ana is not an “empowered woman,” but the archetype of a victim of abuse. A 2013 study published in the Journal of Women’s Health asked abuse professionals to rank the interactions between Ana and Christian in the book series and (Surprise!) they found nearly every interaction abusive. Besides the intimidation, stalking, and isolation, Christian uses booze to undermine Ana’s consent.

 “Double Crap!” Abuse and Harmed Identity in Fifty Shades of Grey

A 2014 study found women who read the book were more likely to have abusive partners (and eating disorders). Thankfully, all this has helped spark a backlash against the book and film, encouraging people to explore the normalization of sexual abuse and rape culture. #FiftyShadesIsAbuse has been trending on Twitter. Additionally, #50DollarsNot50Shades is encouraging people to give their money to women’s shelters (where women like Anastasia end up), instead of the filmmakers at Universal Pictures.

Now, on the kinky hand, people have every right to have a “playroom,” and tie each other up and whip each other with wet noodles if they want. The whole BDSM thing can be hot among consenting adults, “consenting” being the operative word. When I was teaching in London in the 1990s, a story came out about powerful British politicians who enjoyed being spanked. It’s not really my thing. I’m more of a role-player (I like to play the an out-of-work writer and my wife plays a big publisher, repeatedly slamming the door in my face. So hot.) Out of curiosity, I once visited a dominatrix on 82^nd and just couldn’t stop laughing through the whole experience. (Maybe it was the “dungeon” wallpaper.) But word is Christian disregards Ana’s safe-words, which is a violation of the prime directive in the BDSM community. Not cool.

In the world of fiction, we can enjoy the abuse of others. Look how many popular movies about serial killers there are. Why? I argue in my criminology class that most people have at least three people they’d like to knock off. (In my case, they all work in the same building.) So virgin Anastasia Steele is abused, so what? She doesn’t exist. No harm, no foul. Most people can separate fiction from reality.

The harm is the promotion of this fiction without the discussion about the reality of sexual abuse. Just listen to what abuse survivors have to say about 50 Shades. It’s soul crushing. Is this really what we want to spend our energy promoting? It’s been so sad to see Ellen DeGeneres, who puts out such positive energy into the universe, promote the shit out of this movie without any acknowledgement of the harm her endorsement may cause.

As the father of a young daughter, I don’t want to be a sexual prude. I know she’s going to grow up in a highly sexualized world and if she wants to embrace BDSM when she’s an adult, that’s her right. (Right now I’m looking at her wrapped in a pink blanket so I don’t have to think of her wrapped in ropes.) Feminists need to let women reclaim their sexual selves. Part of the appeal of 50 Shades must be an unflinching look at one woman’s sexual exploration, rare in pop culture. But what I don’t want is some bullshit romanticization of sexual abuse. I certainly understand the power of the rape fantasy. I read Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden, after all. But that book discussed where the fantasy originates. 50 Shades doesn’t and neither does Ellen DeGeneres or the rest of the massive hype machine.

If you want something hot but actually well-written, read Anaïs Nin instead of E. L. James (Erika Mitchell) or check out Bitch Magazine’s suggestions for feminist erotica:

50 Shades of “Meh.” Here’s Some Erotica to Read Instead!

And if you’re gonna get all “50 Shades” for Valentines, make your safe-word, 800-799-7233. That’s the number for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

 

The following books were mentioned in this post and are available at Powell’s by clicking below.