I've always somewhat prided myself on being a feminist (despite the rather unappealing picture that this word brings to mind for many). Of course this made me happy to discover that there is an International Women's Day, but also slightly disturbed that I was not aware of this beforehand. Not knowing this and not knowing much about the history behind the ideology that I've taken as my own made me realize how easy I've had things. I've never really had my belief in the equality of men and women tested.It's scary being reminded that the rights and freedoms that I take for granted every day would not have been available to me if I was born just 60 years ago, or, for that matter, right now in many other nations. If someone was working to take away these rights would I fight for them? Would I be willing to pay the price that those who've gone before have paid? Some of them likely paid a very high price.
I guess all of us eventually see our beliefs tested and refined by lifes bumps and curves much like the father in the movie "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" who's liberal views were tested by the realization of the effect his view had on his own life and family. Sure it was okay to believe that black people were equal to white people until his daughter fell in love with a black man in a time were that was still not considered acceptable by the majority of society.
I find myself often longing for simplicity and demanding more from myself as a feminist, but what I'm discovering about feminism is that the point is not to create a world where all women do what women could not when freedom to do so was not available, but where we can choose what matters to us...home, family, education, work, etc.
I may complain about the difficulties that having choices causes, but I would not have things any other way.
remember that the black housekeeper also had a problem with the inter-racial marriage and took sidney poitier to task for it! in the same way, women themselves can often slow progress by second-guessing their equality with men.
ReplyDeleteIt's scarily true! I remember sitting in the "Journey's of Women in Christian Tradition" class listening to a discussion on the different views on the roles of gender. I noted that the people who took the more tradional view of men having headship in the family were all women themselves. I think feminism in its extremes and the dirty tricks of those who oppose it have given it a very negative face (feminists are lesbians who hate men, etc). When I was trying to find a picture on the subject to go with the post it took me 20 minutes to find one that didn't seem negative, sexually explicit, or just plain old creepy.
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