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FEMINISM_OF_CHOICE


                                                             December 23, 2014
                                                             February 19, 2015
                                                             February 20, 2019
In the 150th anniversary issue, _The Nation_,
April 6, 2016, there was a piece titled:
"Spreading Feminism Far and Wide" a conversation
between Betsy Reed and Katha Pollit.

I thought these remarks by Katha Pollit were particularly striking:

   "Just try suggesting, however, that highly educated
   women who give up interesting, well-paid work to stay
   home with their kids embody a dependence on men that
   feminism has critiqued since forever (and, not
   coincidentally, make it easier for their husbands to
   advance over working-mother colleagues, who rarely have
   househusbands to free them from domestic duties), and--
   well!  Then it's choice feminism to the rescue. If a
   heart surgeon wants to abandon the operating table to
   raise heirloom chickens in Brooklyn, that's her right--
   and how dare you raise an eyebrow? You might as well
   say that Miley Cyrus isn't just a free spirit who
   happens to enjoy fellating a giant inflatable penis."

I would think that if you're going to
set about empowering women and so on,
you might actually try to have some     At another point in the interview she
respect for the choices they make.      regrets some things said in an early
                                        piece of hers ("Why did I make fun of
                                        quilts as an art form?").

                                            Old habits.

Particularly interesting is the
suggestion that female solidarity      Another interesting shift is that in the
demands you live in a particular       70s, feminism was big on demanding that
way or else be accused of assisting    men share housework duties-- here it's
the enemy.                             just presumed it doesn't happen and will
                                       never happen.


I might even suggest that activist social-critic
types should beware setting themselves up as the
authorities on all that is right and proper-- the
finger-waggling at Miley Cyrus, inane though her
schtick may be, is all too familiar.  Myself I        Girls just want to have
wouldn't want to rule out the possibility that        fun, and mothers want to
Miley Cyrus (or someone like her) might've            hector them: "no one will
gravitated toward exhibiting themselves because       have any respect for you
they're exhibitionists.                               if you dress like that".
   
But then, while Katha Pollit doesn't spell out    
the case very well, in context I gather she's       
trying to make the point that these individual    
choices are made under the contraints of present    
social conditions, and some other institutions    
might be set up that increases the range of          How working your
choices, making it easier for for all parents to     eyebrows in
maintain their careers and also raise children.      disapproval at
                                                     other women is
                                                     going to help get
    Both Reed and Pollit criticize young             there escapes me.
    net.feminists for not going after
    "structural" issues, i.e. they should
    be working on the economic angle.

    Actually, I wonder if that's quite right:
    that's essentially Bernie Sanders' beat.
    Wasn't he popular enough with young women       (Maybe they weren't
    back in 2016?                                   women who count as
                                                    internet feminists?).


Speaking of which there was a funny slip by one of
the elder gods of the Second Wave, Gloria Steinam
(she did a retraction soon afterwards).  Hilary
Hanson wrote about it at the Huffington Post:

                                                      [link]
   "The feminist icon made an alarmingly sexist
   remark on 'Real Time with Bill Maher' Friday
   night, suggesting that young, female supporters
   of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie
   Sanders only support him because dudes do, too."

   "Steinem was discussing Democratic presidential
   candidates Hillary Clinton and Sanders.  When
   Maher noted the Vermont senator's popularity with       [link]
   young women, Steinem responded with her theory
   that women get more 'radical' as they get older."

   "'When you’re young, you’re thinking, "Where
   are the boys?" The boys are with Bernie,'
   she said."                                           The remark is doubly
                                                        peculiar when you
                                                        consider that Bernie
                                                        is arguable more
                                                        radical than Hillary
                                                        on feminist grounds:

                                                           [link]


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