Though I enjoy making angry calls to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office with a morning cup of coffee, the glee from calling others out on their ideology doesn’t fix the issues in my own.
Internal critiques of feminism feel undeserved when feminist ideals are under outside attack, but they’re necessary to preserve feminism as a political movement.
To achieve any goal, collective action must precede individual expression. The future will never “be female” if we don’t invest in policy to incite gender equity or spark political interest to achieve parity in representation.
In her forthcoming book “Why I’m Not A Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto,” Jessa Crispin writes that we’ve reached a subscriber-friendly form of feminism because “somewhere along the way toward female liberation, it was decided that the most effective method was for feminism to become universal.”
However, political movements naturally try to optimize their mobilized numbers. The power of the masses is what keeps movement afloat. But Crispin is right in noting that we can’t shy away from the rawness of female subordination just to accommodate other people’s feelings.
A more constructive argument is in Andi Zeisler’s “We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement.” She argues that easily consumable feminism doesn’t inherently turn people off from politics but makes it a lot harder to look in the face of misogynistic legislative bills and political agendas and fight them head-on.
After all, “wouldn’t it be a lot easier to seize your power and tap into your inner warrior?” she writes.
Aside from reservations, both Crispin and Zeisler rightly profess that feminism still has a long way to go in shaping politics effectively.
In her review of Crispin for the Guardian, Suzanne Moore writes that “feminism as self-absorption, as an add-on label to a new lifestyle, has got us...where exactly? Where we are now. Stalled.”
Feminism’s depoliticized nature leaves us wondering where we go next.
Obviously, building individual expression is essential to embodying feminism. Questions on how to live accordingly are good for nurturing well-informed feminist identities. But I guarantee you Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) doesn’t care about the morality of crotch waxing.
Since many internal critiques came after the tumultuous 2016 election, perhaps this isn’t a conceptual crisis, but instead the ebb and flow of an ideology alive and well.
The turnout at the Women’s March on Washington proved we aren’t living in a postfeminist world. People still care about advancing feminism politically and socially.
Still, the best feminist barometer should determine how an action could mold federal and state law or cultural norms.As a political movement, this is the most effective strategy to ensure all genders from all intersections of identity will be put on equal footing.
jsbourkl@umail.iu.edu
