June 17, 2007

  • A Small Epiphany

     I just saw that Stephen Colbert had the author of Full Frontal Feminism on his show, and I realized something.

    After the word "feminism" got such a bad rap, after it became associated with angry, bitter, ugly, man-hating lesbians, feminists have been working hard to show people that feminists are actually just normal women (or men!) who think women should have equal rights as men and shouldn't be judged by their looks or debased as sex objects.

    The funny thing (and by funny I mean not funny), is that the way they're doing this (consciously or unconsciously) is by parading around feminists who are deliberately feminine and non-threatening. Books about body image tend to be written by women who are quite attractive, and books about our obsession with weight loss tend to be rail thin. I suppose this is meant to legitimize their points- to prove that these social problems are serious, the books about them are written by people who don't appear to be affected. Picture Joe Shmo in his living room, when he hears that some lady wrote a book on how unattractive women tend to be on the low end of the pay scale. "She must be a bitter hag", says he, sweeping pringles crumbs off from his gut. But lo! A slender, fresh-looking young lady is in the interview chair. Well, then. Maybe this is a real issue.

    If any unattractive woman speak out for feminism, it only "feeds into the stereotype", but if an attractive woman does it, she's fighting the good fight.

    So, this is the state we're in as a gender- the worth of our opinions is tempered by society's assessment of our looks- even when we're writing books about how the worth of our opinions is tempered by society's assessment of our looks.

    Just something for you to mull over.