Salon: The crisis of “bad feminism” is worse than you think

[theHandpuppet]

SALON
Monday, Sep 1, 2014 04:30 PM EDT
The crisis of “bad feminism” is worse than you think
Enough with the dangerous think pieces about whether we can like catcalls or heels or botox and still be feminists
Andi Zeisler

Look around the blogosphere, and there seems to be a serious crisis of conscience among feminists — one that even predates Roxane Gay’s trailblazing new book on the subject. One woman wonders: “I Love Wolf Whistles and Catcalls: Am I a Bad Feminist?” Another asks: “Am I a Bad Feminist Because Sometimes All I Want for My Life is to Get Married, Have Babies and a Nice House Out in the Country?” And: “Can a Beauty Editor Be a Feminist?” Everywhere you turn, there’s an overwrought unburdening by a woman wringing her virtual hands over the prospect of feminist failure — confiding her self-diagnosed Bad Feminism, unpacking its minutiae, and then ultimately concluding that, damn it, she’ll call herself a feminist if she wants to. Who says we can’t have it all?

Perhaps it’s not surprising that people find themselves so easily tied in ideological knots over feminism, given that it still occupies such a contested place in American culture. Miley Cyrus rushes to proclaim that she’s “one of the biggest feminists in the world,” while Katy Perry and Shailene Woodley blithely disavow the term; meanwhile, right-wingers like Sarah Palin valiantly attempt to co-opt the term for uses the second wave never intended, and the consumer marketplace shills Dove products and Pantene shampoo with watered-down feminist rhetoric about self-acceptance and empowerment. Is it any wonder that many of us aren’t sure where and how the term is rightly applied?

“Choice” feminism started as the belief, coined somewhat peevishly by Linda Hirshman in her 2007 manifesto “Get to Work,” that a woman’s freedom to choose trumps her right to equality. But in the years since — and thanks to “Sex and the City’s ‘ Charlotte York, who in one memorable episode chanted “I choose my choice!” like a mantra — it’s devolved into the idea that anything is a feminist choice so long as a feminist chooses it: not just relationships and kids and career but also religion, sex work, dieting, breast implants, stiletto heels, gun ownership, capitalist megalomania. The morass of choice is at the heart of these most recent self-flagellating screeds. And the specter of being a “bad feminist” tends to crop up around the issues that have most confounded choice feminism: marriage, children, beauty standards and the attendant rituals surrounding all three. Debates around changing your name in marriage, for instance, are perennial headline-grabbers, with a staunch defense of both sides erupting periodically in mainstream newspapers and online. Likewise, strenuously argued “High heels are feminist!/No, they aren’t!” back-and-forths pop up as regularly as Anthony Weiner dong shots.

But in a world where we’re all choosing our choices, there seems to be a lot of second-guessing going on. At first, I likened these confessions to a parallel trend, that of the “bad mom” memoirs and essays that regularly circulate through the blogosphere and publishing world. But they’re not the same at all. The performativity of those, at least, has something of a rationale: It’s less about actually being a bad mom than it is about showing that you fancy yourself a cool, nonconformist mom. Trumpeting your feminist infractions, on the other hand: Sure, you’re being honest. But is it an honesty that anyone needs?

MORE at http://www.salon.com/2014/09/01/the_crisis_of_bad_feminism_is_worse_than_you_think/

[boston bean]

1. Basically she is stating

that every personal "choice" a woman makes... has morphed into meaning that every choice is feminist.

And that helps feminist detractors in sowing division and discord regarding the feminist movement. ie, well woman so and so said this, woman so and so did that and they call themselves a feminist..... so you can't be one...

I agree. I think the movement in its attempt to grow and become more encompassing has given way to these types of issues, versus dealing with some very basic goals and issues most women agree with. Of course others just use it to be a negative force....

In other words, the personal is political has morphed into my personal is the only political ie, everything any woman does is feminist. And it is used to destroy feminism. I think that is a fair criticism.

Where it gets difficult is when discussing cultural effects regarding the treatment of women in society. That seems as though women are judging other women, when in fact they are criticizing the patriarchy. Some of the arguments could be made better in commentary in newspapers/blogs, etc.

[Maedhros]

2. Conservatives, and others, like to reduce every argument to a semantic one.

Early feminism was naturally concerned with giving power to women to make choices: whom to elect, whether to work outside the home, whether to terminate a pregnancy.

I can't pretend to be an expert, but I try to pay attention. It seems to me that modern feminism is addressing deeper issues related to our culture at large: marketing and self image, exploitation, health, expression, etc. Naturally conservatives don't want to fight on those playing fields, so they seize on the semantics of "choice" because they think they have an advantage there.

[boston bean]

3. Exactly.. Thanks for putting it better than I!

[sufrommich]

4. Great post! nt

[nomorenomore08]

6. In part, I guess it's a matter of diluting the term "feminist" to the point of meaninglessness.

Or at least, implicitly trivializing feminism by tying it to fairly irrelevant things like fashion choices.

[geek tragedy]

5. not to mention "you're a bad feminist if you don't respect a woman's choice

to participate in rape porn etc"

the basic idea that the right to choose doesn't mean every choice is right somehow remains obscure