How to Be a Feminist in the Twenty-First Century
Georgia Christinidis (University of Rostock)
Feminism, the Assault on Women’s Times on 20 October 2017, that Reproductive Rights, and Sexual “feminism”, as a purely western credo Harassment born in America of postwar affluence, is no longer particularly relevant, to me or to n 2006, feminist cri- others. The principle of equality between Itic Toril Moi claimed that the sexes is now sturdily enshrined within a general notion of liberal human We are witnessing the emergence of a whole rights; feminism has done its work there new generation of women who are careful to preface every gender-related claim that seems laughable to me at a time when just might come across as unconventional there is a backlash against those very with “I am not a feminist, but_”. rights, with various incarnations of It is a familiar phrase; one that I suspect the alt-right leading the assault while everyone who teaches gender and/or decrying what they often refer to as feminism has heard their students use “gender madness”, and purportedly at least occasionally. In the face of the ‘mainstream’ politicians like US assumptions usually implicit in this President Donald Trump, President disavowal of feminism, that feminists of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, and Prime are “strident” or unreasonable in their Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán not demands, or, on the other hand, that far, if at all, behind. A central goal of the feminism has nothing more to offer alt-right seems to be to curtail women’s contemporary women because its aims reproductive rights; this ties in both have long been achieved, I find it not with the patriarchal view of the family only easy but necessary and urgent to frequently espoused by its members, and self-identify as a feminist. To argue, with its claim that the comparatively low as Jan Dalley did in the Financial rates of childbirth among ‘white’ women
Page 127 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) How to Be a Feminist in the Twenty-First Century amount to a form of genocide. Their Great Britain, between 65% and 93% anti-abortion stance unites prominent of the population support the legality members of the alt-right, like Steve of abortion, depending on the reason Bannon, with traditional conservatives why a pregnancy is to be terminated, a like Gloria Prinzessin von Thurn und majority of the population of Northern Taxis. Donald Trump’s nominations Ireland think abortion should be illegal of ultra-conservative candidates to the if a woman does not want the child, Supreme Court have given rise to concern but support its legalisation in cases that Roe v. Wade, the case in which it was of rape, incest, or foetal abnormality found, in 1973, that State legislation (Taylor 2017). The legality of abortion banning abortion was unconstitutional, within the US is supported by 58% may be overturned in the near future. of the population, a relatively small An increasing number of Republican- majority (“Public Opinion” 2018), and controlled states are banning abortion anti-choice movements are increasingly after the first six weeks of pregnancy. using the popular media in their effort to turn people against women’s right to lbeit abortion has been legal in Great choose. On 29 March 2019, the film ABritain for over fifty years, it remains Unplanned opened at 800 US cinemas. It is based on the memoirs of Abby Johnson, a former employee of the NGO Planned Parenthood turned anti-abortion activist. Johnson denounces Planned Parenthood for profiting from abortions and argues that the legality of abortion does not in fact empower women. It is one of a wave of anti-abortion movies. While it may be tempting to dismiss these developments as primarily confined to the bible belt of the © Tiocfaidh ár lá 1916, taken June 2017 United States or historically Catholic Anti-DUP march in London countries like Ireland, Hungary, or Brazil, the anti-abortion message illegal in Northern Ireland. The DUP, is not confined to single-issue movies currently at centre stage of UK politics like Unplanned; rather, it is becoming due to the Brexit deadlock, are strongly prevalent in the mainstream media. anti-abortion in their stance. While in
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he Twilight franchise is, perhaps, its share of criticism due to the high Tthe most successful instance of visibility entailed by its exceptional this development. In 2012, Dorothy popularity, its politics are most clear- Pomerantz wrote in Forbes that sightedly summarised not by a liberal critic, but by the conservative James P. [o]verall, the films have earned $2.5 billion at the global box office. You can probably Pinkerton in a celebratory article that double that number when you include appeared on Fox News in 2010. He DVD sales, cable and television showings exults in the fact that “Bella, the classic and the gobs of merchandise sold annually. damsel in distress, relies on men to protect her, and she will reward only The protagonists, human teenager Bella one with her virginity—and, of course, and vampire Edward, wait until their at the same time, her hand in marriage.” wedding night to have sex, a decision Pinkerton reads the Twilight films as a that is motivated in the story by Edward paean to Authority with a capital A, and having been born as a human in the suggests that by watching them, kids early twentieth century and therefore will receive “Conservative Imprinting”. being old-fashioned. When Bella gets pregnant and her life is threatened by y comparison with the immensely the half-vampire baby who is effectively Bpopular Twilight-franchise, The eating her from the inside, she refuses Frankenstein Chronicles has largely to terminate the pregnancy, albeit her remained below the radar of critical and vampire in-laws unanimously advise her academic commentary. The critically- to do so. She explicitly states that she is acclaimed series was first broadcast on willing to sacrifice her own life for that of ITV in 2015, but has since been picked her baby - and her choice of words, too, up by Netflix. Set in an 1827 London is significant here. Though it is Bella’s where a serial killer inspired by Victor choice not to have an abortion, and Frankenstein’s experiments dismembers author of the Twilight books, Stephenie and reassembles the bodies of street Meyers, therefore, argues that the story urchins, one of its central characters is a is not anti-feminist, all other characters poor, underage girl, Flora, who is made consistently use the term foetus, while drunk and impregnated by a surgeon. Bella vehemently insists that what she is In dealing with this plotline, the series carrying, a few weeks after conception, is rehashes many of the tropes invoked by a baby. Her choice of term is consistent anti-choice activists. Flora wants to “get with the anti-choice movement’s rid of the baby”, but Marlot, a retired contention that a fertilised egg is a officer who investigates the case of the human baby as soon as conception has murdered children on behalf of the taken place. Albeit Twilight has garnered
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Home Secretary, as well as his Constable presumably not an organisation prone sidekick, Nightingale, want to protect her to spreading ‘fake news’ or conspiracy unborn child and place her in the care of a theories, finds that anti-choice extremists practitioner of alternative medicine. The within Europe collaborate in a highly latter, Daniel Harvey, however, is pro- organised, systematic, and deliberate choice and provides Flora with herbal manner, with the declared goal of remedies that induce a miscarriage. “roll[ing] back human rights for sexual Nightingale, albeit distraught, assures and reproductive health in Europe” her that God will forgive her if she (Datta 2018). They affirm that the repents, in a manner that is reminiscent Agenda Europe “movement would force of the “hate the sin but love the sinner”- women to carry unwanted pregnancies, rhetoric of fundamentalist anti-LGBT restrict access to contraception, decide rights activists. Flora herself is full of who can marry and decide who can regrets for killing her “baby”. Most call themselves a family. Many will be importantly, however, while Flora’s surprised that they also target divorce actions are represented as driven by and access to IVF treatment.” Though the desperation, Daniel Harvey, the only 100 to 150 members of the “clandestine” character who explicitly advocates a network that the Forum was able to woman’s right to choose, turns out to identify may sound like a small number, be the psychopathic child killer whom it appears to enjoy significant levels of Marlot has been pursuing. Furthermore, support among wealthy players willing his sister, Marlot’s love interest, who is to bankroll its strategies, including represented in unambiguously positive members of the European aristocracy terms in the series, clearly considers like Otto von Hapsburg. According the fact that her brother helped Flora to the report, Agenda Europe’s to-do to induce a miscarriage to be just as list includes points like “Repeal all monstrous as his dismemberment of laws allowing divorce”, “Prohibit sale the street children that he uses in his of all pharmaceutical contraceptives” Frankenstein-inspired experiments. and, of course, they would like to see “Abortion bans in all jurisdictions, he salience of anti-abortion topoi including in international law”. The Tin the popular media is not merely report suggests that Agenda Europe evidence of ‘residual’ attitudes that has hitherto been significantly more may safely be shrugged off. They occur successful in its aim to protect what it at a time when a report published by considers to be the “traditional family” the European Parliamentary Forum and halt “expanding marriage rights to on Population and Development, same-sex couples” than in its attempt to
Page 130 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) Georgia Christinidis roll back abortion rights. It registers the exclusively self-identifying as male) network’s “rapid professionalization”, people felt was acceptable in the face of its successful “network-building” the overwhelming number of narratives and “placing the right people in the of sexual harassment and discrimination. right place”, however, and warns that The continued existence of such attitudes even among some academic Progressive actors should take heed that this fight is engaged and that social colleagues, and, on the other hand, progress is not necessarily inevitable. the concerns of many women, some of whom are also academic colleagues, who Overall, the situation in Europe as were reluctant to post their stories for well as in the United States is not fear of a backlash, means that here, too, one in which we can afford to be solidarity among feminists is imperative. complacent concerning women’s rights; in the face of professionalization The Horns of the Feminist Dilemma of the anti-choice and anti-gender et—I am almost tempted to say “I campaigners, solidarity among am a feminist, but” at this point— feminists is important and necessary. Y while I know which side I am on in s yet, in the area of reproductive Arights, the anti-choice agenda seems to be driven by an extremist minority, albeit a well-organised and dangerous one. The #metoo-phenomenon, however, has drawn attention to the casual acceptance of sexual harassment in the mainstream of Western societies that tend to understand themselves as committed to liberal humanism and the rights it entails. While I am normally sceptical of hashtag activism, sometimes, and in my view with some justification, referred to as ‘slacktivism’, the responses © Charles Edward Miller, taken on 26 August to #metoo have proven it to have been 2018 necessary: what made #metoo different, Protest rally in Chicago against Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court. Costumes and what eventually prompted me to inspired by the recent Hulu adaptation of also post under the #metoo hashtag Margaret Atwood’s novel A Handmaid’s Tale play an increasingly central role in feminist protests, on facebook, was the derisory response illustrating the almost exclusive focus on sexual and that some (predominantly, but not reproductive rights at such events.
Page 131 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) How to Be a Feminist in the Twenty-First Century these debates, what concerns me, as with family-friendly policies. Yet women a self-identified feminist, is that the are still overrepresented in relatively low- ground over which they are conducted prestige, low-pay jobs and the gender is too limited. The focus of mainstream pay gap is not entirely reducible to the proponents of gender equality and career breaks that are still considered a women’s rights appears to be as firmly natural corollary of women’s ability to on female reproductive capacities and bear children (though the fact that the female sexuality as that of the right- mother typically takes a longer career wing extremists. Reproductive rights break than the father is not ‘natural’ and freedom from sexual harassment are but a consequence of the aptitude for important, no doubt, but their centrality caring that is a central component of to debates over women’s rights implicitly the way in which femininity is socially confirms a biologistic conception of constructed). Furthermore, businesses what it means to be a woman, and are encouraged to employ more women one that reinforces the long-held view based on their supposedly ‘feminine’ that women are more determined by qualities, like empathy and emotional their biology than men at that. By intelligence; as recently as December extension, it would appear that women 2018, Rosie Millard wrote in The who are not being and have never been Independent: “I think that the typically sexually harassed (though the #metoo “female” traits of collegiate working, phenomenon leaves one in doubt regarding the existence of such a group), who are not in need of either an abortion or an infrastructure that enables them to better combine family responsibilities with their careers, do not, presumably, need feminism. Some so- called feminists might even argue that such a person does not fully qualify as a woman; womanhood, all too often, is © Reclaim Reklam, taken on 27 February 2010 conflated with the ability as It is symptomatic that an image search yielded only a Swedish well as the desire to bear and example of a feminist campaign focused on something not related raise children, and feminism, all to reproductive rights or sexuality. The hacked advert draws attention to the fact that women’s earnings in Sweden amount to too often, is seen as coterminous 83% of those of men.
Page 132 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) Georgia Christinidis emotional intelligence and keen antennae What, following Kristeva, she calls for sensitive issues are key to today’s “radical” feminism, on the other hand, boardrooms.” Here, a restrictive image of even in “praising the superiority” of femininity is put forward even by those women, at least in some respects, “runs who would promote women’s rights. the risk of becoming an inverted form The implications of promoting women of sexism […] by uncritically taking over to boardrooms primarily based on their the very metaphysical categories set up supposedly specific skill set is empirically by patriarchy in order to keep women in problematic; also, it is a corollary of their places” (12). There is some evidence the exultation of women’s emotional of this stance in the mainstream ‘liberal’ intelligence and other ‘feminine’ media: in 2017, it was announced that qualities to assume that they lack the the role of the protagonist of Doctor Who, stereotypically ‘male’ qualities, such as one of the longest-running and most bravery. Yet as Christina Patterson (2019) popular British television series, often points out in The Guardian, “It’s a cliche considered as iconically British, would, [sic] that women aren’t brave enough. for the first time, be played by a woman. It’s also a lie.” The reason why women Some fans were outraged, though why a should be promoted to boardrooms isn’t time-travelling alien with the ability to any specifically feminine skill set; it is regenerate into a new body when he/ simply the fact that hitherto, they are she dies should not be regenerated as a underrepresented due to discrimination. woman is not clear (Flury 2017). The Affirmative action is needed to overcome uproar that greeted the news shows this situation, as it is needed in the case the necessity of these kinds of casting of ‘race’, not because there is a specific decision. Nevertheless, the changes to black or feminine skill set, but because the Doctor’s character that accompanied of the injustice of discrimination itself. the casting decision—what showrunner Chris Chibnall describes as a “new evertheless, in addressing these mixture of Doctorishness” (“Doctor Nissues, mainstream feminism will Who” 2019)—are problematic from almost inevitably be caught on the horns a feminist perspective. As a woman, of a dilemma: what Moi describes as the Doctor, who in his last few male liberal humanist feminism, in its focus on incarnations sometimes behaved in an formal and legal equality between men authoritarian way (Ecclestone), tended and women, fails to address and combat to lack sensitivity and awareness of the the devaluation and marginalisation of needs and personal boundaries of others qualities that are frequently regarded (Smith) or even seemed to lack empathy as stereotypically feminine (2002, 15). completely (Capaldi), leading fans on the
Page 133 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) How to Be a Feminist in the Twenty-First Century asperger/autistic spectrum to highlight Such a rejection of the very dichotomy the character’s significance to them as a between men and women, masculine generally positive portrayal of behaviour and feminine, would require saying patterns often linked to autism (Evans goodbye to the expectation that women 2017), suddenly exhibits continuous ought to be more sensitive, caring, and concern for her companions’ emotional empathetic than men. Nevertheless, it state. Thus, the apparently emancipatory does not mean that discrimination of decision to cast a female doctor ultimately people who exhibit these traits ought to serves to reinforce gender stereotypes. be tolerated, whatever their biological characteristics. While women are, here liberal humanist feminism indeed, discriminated against as women, Wimplicitly devalues qualities fighting discrimination does not require stereotyped as ‘feminine’, ‘radical’ one to acknowledge any essential ‘reality’ feminism devalues women who fail to of womanhood beyond the shared exhibit those qualities—Moi adduces experience of discrimination, any more the example of Margaret Thatcher, than fighting racism requires one to whose enthusiasm for the Falklands accept any ‘real’ basis of ‘race’. In order War was framed as evidence of her to combat discrimination, feminism is lack of femininity (174). This does not nothing less than superfluous. On the entail any approval of Thatcher’s stance contrary, it still has a long way to go. concerning the Falklands War on Moi’s part; but criticism of warmongering does not necessarily have to be linked to a politician’s gender, or the qualities Works Cited that one would expect them to exhibit Dalley, Jan (2017). In “The Meaning of based on that gender. Moi explicitly, the F-Word—Feminism in Five Voices.” and rightly, rejects any position “that Financial Times 20 October.
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“Doctor Who: Everything We Know The Guardian 15 March.
Flury, Annie (2017). “Doctor Who: Pomerantz, Dorothy (2012). Fans React to Jodie Whittaker “Looking at ‘Twilight’ By the Casting.” BBC News 17 July.
Patterson, Christina (2019). “Why So Few Women in the Boardroom? Because Men Won’t Listen to Them.”
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