Guest columnist: In defense of high heels

In groups of girls, the F-word is often a point of contention. There is a debate amongst young women about whether or not to identify oneself as a feminist.

Reactions to feminism often begin with “I believe in equality, but...”

Feminism is handled with care publicly in light of political correctness. But few of my girlfriends are willing to label themselves as a feminist to other girls.

They are deterred by the strong connotations associated with the word.

Many think that being a feminist is equivalent to going bra-less and refraining from shaving.

Yet, “girl power” was an accepted buzz term throughout our childhood, and most of us grew up believing that anything boys could do we could do better.

So I have difficulty understanding the rampant rejection of the word feminism by those people who benefited from it the most.

The word feminism, rather than the ideas behind it, is largely rejected. I believe that our generation sees calling themselves feminist as limiting.

We want to both embrace our femininity and enjoy equality. We don’t want to choose; we want to have our cake and eat it too.

The girls I know are future leaders, but we also played with Barbies. We aren’t intimidated by our male classmates, but we like to wear dresses and high heels.

Second-wave feminism was in the ’60s and ’70s. It was a different generation. They were the ones who created the image of radically anti-feminine feminism.

Ironically, the second-wave feminists were the ones that worked to gain the equality and human rights that we have.

Without them, we would be unable to lead the independent lives that we so enjoy.

It is this rejection of the image of second-wave feminism that has spawned the reactionary third-wave or the “girly feminists.” But still, few willingly identify themselves as a part of the third-wave movement.

Young women of today are misunderstood by the second-wave feminists. We are seen as rejecting the ideas of feminism, or our preferred term “girl power.”

Today’s girls aren’t looking to revert to the past, though. Living by the former expectations of society is unacceptable to our generation. We don’t use our feminine wiles to attract a husband so that we can be completely dependent on them. But we reject second-wave feminism’s stipulation that we absolutely may not be feminine, either.

We want to live by our own rules.

The strongest women that I know unabashedly embrace both their own potential to impact their world and their chosen level of femininity. But I think that fear of the word “feminist” keeps girls from knowing the history of how strong women before them fought for their rights.

We should embrace our “girly feminism.” Rather than shunning our history, let’s choose to shape new connotations of feminism and what a feminist looks like. We can choose to influence our present and future, while still honoring our history.


E-mail: adrmeier@indiana.edu