Putting Feminism Back Into The Feminist Movement
Contributed by Marilyn Bennett
When I was in my 20's I was very involved with the feminist movement. As a young woman out in the workforce I found that sexual harassment was rampant. I quit a couple of jobs to get way from over-amorous bosses and put up with lower pay as well as less opportunity than the young men in my profession.
Since then things have changed dramatically. The workplace is now safe for the majority of women. Today they now have a better chance of getting a job than do the young men they compete against. Affirmative Action has certainly changed things, buthas also brought new challenges. First, will her colleagues think she only got her job because of Affirmative Action? This is not comfortable for her nor the people she works with.
The second and totally new problem is that men are now feeling left out. Consequentlya small number of them have decided to pretend to be women so they can make the new system work for them. This is a double edged sword, as by claiming to be a transgender woman they have a double victim status. They may claim Affirmation Action both as a female and as a trans person. This is crazy, but it could be the new norm.
The other thing going on in the new world order is with the movies. Women are now just arbitrarily subsisted for men in action movies. The action comics have never had many women readers. As a kid I read action comics and enjoyed Super Man as well as Wonder Woman. However the new female superheroes have larger muscles than most weight lifters. Also, they never lose or even get hurt although they go up against huge evil men.
The new feminist movement apparently wants to get more women viewers and the Bat Woman series was made with this in mind. I don't know many women who could relate to Bat Woman. There is a very small target audience as men who are the main audience of Action Movies would certainly not watch it. To attract a new audience to a hero or heroine, you need a good story and a reason why men and women would want to watch. Politically correct characters do not automatically attract viewers.
Then we have Commander Holdo in Star Wars. The Last Jedi. For some reason this woman is portrayed as rude, unprofessional and condescending to her male subordinates. I don't understand why Hollywood thought that having a commander be an overbearing prick was a good idea. I don't think this helped the women's movement.
In the past the original Wonder Woman was strong, beautiful, kind hearted and doing good with her lasso of truth. The new Wonder Woman is still beautiful, but she has become less about doing good and more about indulging herself.
Those who perpetually view society as a struggle against the patriarchy need to come up with a better vehicle. It is not enough to take a popular character and arbitrarily change him into a woman and think everyone should be ok with that. I love a good story about a woman who has done something great against all odds. I do not appreciate a fake action shot of a muscular woman beating up men. Women have advanced over the years by figuring out ways of winning that did not include using brute force to overpower men.
Like it or not, men like saving women. Women like being saved by men. Men do not like being physically saved by women. Women also do not like being saved by a woman. That is the truth. When the fire department in our town lowered their physical requirements to include women I pictured myself being carried by a 5'5" woman down a ladder from my third story apartment. It was a scary thought. You may hate the thought that men get to be the physical action heroes, but it is reality. The market has rejected the idea of female action heroes in starring roles. They are only marketable if paired with men as part of an ensemble.
For a real fictional heroine we need to look no further than Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series. She was very feminine but used logic and knowledge to solve problems. She saved the hero from himself by using cleverness and not muscles and so was a true feminine heroine.
I grew up with three brothers and know that boys and girls are not only built differently, but also think and react differently. There is nothing wrong with embracing our feminism. It only makes us stronger to recognize our weaknesses as well as our strengths. We do not have to take on male traits to be better as we are pretty great, just as we are.