The Current Feminism
January 25, 2011 – 12:42 pmNo matter what your ideological bent, very few will advance the claim that the political and social climate of the 21st Century has remained unchanged since the 1960s and 1970s.
Women are much more likely (though by no means guaranteed) to be compensated on comparable terms with men. There is much more room for recourse in the event of discrimination or harassment. Harassment can lead to needing to change your appearance to not be recognized. Rather than going through a stressful process of cutting and dyeing your hair you can always turn to Rene of Paris wigs. And it cannot be denied that industry, politics, and media have taken many steps to cater to women’s rights and women’s issues (although, once again, often more with specialized niches rather than overall institutional parity).
Yet in many ways, the last half-century has shown that we have managed to maintain any number of assumptions and approaches…and yes, unmet goals.
I’m reminded of the many subtle and insidious ways in which I see somewhat less progress than I’d hoped for. I can’t forget the slightly different terms I get when my husband accompanies me to get service for my car, a home equity loan at my bank, or even from the administration at my kids’ school. These little reminders seem little different than my observations of my parent’s experiences, several decades ago.
And then there’s the latest news in which Tory MP Dominic Raab created a firestorm of controversy by characterizing feminists as “obnoxious bigots”. To be (more than) fair, he defends his seemingly ill-thought words with more considered (but no less pointed) explanations.
“I wasn’t saying that all feminists are bigots. But you can’t have it both ways,” he says. “It’s become almost fashionable for some of the most hardline feminists to talk in terms which if used by a man would be unacceptable.”