Baldwin: It’s not radical or taboo to be a feminist in America today

What does being feminist mean? What does it mean to be a feminist today? What does it mean to…What does being feminist mean? What does it mean to be a feminist today? What does it mean to not be a feminist? After learning of the death of prominent feminist writer Shulamith Firestone, I found myself thinking about my own ideas of the feminist condition. What I couldn’t seem to understand is the current assault on women’s rights in the public forum.

These thoughts on feminism came to a climax this past weekend when I attended the Microscopic Opera Company’s production of “Lizbeth,” a short chamber opera with feminist motifs about the murder trial surrounding Lizzie Borden in 19th century Massachusetts. After growing up in an affluent New England home and having suffered through the stifling social conventions placed upon women of the era, she was accused of murdering her father and her stepmother. According to some feminist scholars, Lizzie did so in an effort to free herself from her patriarchal oppressors. The story of Lizzie Borden is set in an era where women were still considered inferior, the women’s rights movement was still aspiring to gain suffrage and equal rights. In the late 19th century, feminism was a clandestine and taboo subculture; few openly identified as such and those who did risked alienating themselves from society and their families. Lizzie Borden didn’t have the work of Simone de Beauvoir to help quell her nerves and let her know that she was not the only one suffering — she only had her anger and an ax.

By the mid-20th century, the goals of the first-wave feminists had been accomplished and the movement shifted its focus to gaining social equality and exploring gender and sex relations and how women could function independently. Betty Friedan proposed that the hypothesis that women are the keepers of the household and the key to a nuclear and stable family life was fallacious and only served the interest of patriarchal capitalism. As the second wave of feminism slowly morphed into the present-day third wave, there was a reduction in the emphasis on powerful independent women and, instead, a new focus on the removal of gender norms from society took its place. By the 1990s, even though feminist intellectuals still were doing important work on the analysis of the role of women in society, the battle to define women as equal in society, in the home and in the workplace seemed to be over. In western nations, it was an accepted principle that women were equal. However, this sense of calm and accomplishment has quickly demonstrated that it was short-lived and requires constant attention in order to maintain the movement’s vigor.

The present day finds us in a post-feminist era. Unlike the second wave, in which sexual norms were rejected, our current culture embraces women’s sexuality, but independently and not as an adjunct of men. The second wave brought accomplishments that left most thinking that the fight for reproductive rights and defending women’s equality was over. As women within the social realm have reached new heights of equality and independence, the institutional support of women as of late has retrogressed. We, as a society, need to consider how to rectify the systematic subjugation of women in our political discourse and in the public forum.

In June, a representative in the Michigan House of Representatives was banned from speaking after using the word “vagina.” National Republican lawmakers questioned the funding for Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides free and reduced-price gynecological services, men’s sexual health services, STD testing and abortion services. The level of dialogue for women’s rights in this country has sunk so low that once-firmly established rights are now on the legislative chopping block and the personal choices of women are an issue of intense political in-fighting. These are rights, and therefore should not be subject to legislative battles. Women’s rights are like any other basic, fundamental, inalienable human right and should not be a topic for debate.

It is an inherent assumption today that women deserve equal social, political and economic rights. To be a feminist is to be aware of these fundamental rights while simultaneously being cognizant of the feminist reality — that bigotry and anti-feminist currents are still alive and well. What is most concerning is the negative connotation attached to being a feminist. Men are frightened into denying feminism at risk of betraying their own masculinity and women are at risk of associating with an ugly, radical fringe movement. The truth, as with most issues of misinformation, is that most people don’t understand feminism, its history and what it actually means to be a living feminist.

It is possible that Lizzie Borden had to kill her father in order to feel like she was a free woman. Hopefully, women today don’t have to do the same in order to be liberated and independent. However, feminists must use a metaphoric ax of facts and conviction in order to combat the anti-feminist forces in today’s public forum. Being a feminist today means that you support the equal and free rights of women and their inclusion in all potential opportunities based on their merit and not their gender. Those who refuse to identify as a feminist are openly claiming that they are in support of subordinating women. There is nothing radical or fringe about the premise of feminism: Feminism is the notion that women are people.

Write Eric at eab73@pitt.edu.