Gina Barreca: Women can't win by fighting among themselves [View all]

[maddezmom]

If you’d told me 30 years ago that women would be arguing over who was a “real feminist,” my response would have been to point and giggle. Until very recently (roughly 11 minutes ago), “feminist” was something no lady would call herself in public.

Lots of young women avoid the “f” word. I’ve had female students trip all over themselves to avoid using it: “I’m getting a doctoral fellowship from NASA after I complete my NEA grant although I hope it’s the work I did for girls in Tanzania during my Peace Corps stint that’ll be my legacy. But gosh! No, I’m not a feminist. I like using perfume and hope to get married one day.”

I’ve argued that feminism is the belief that women are human beings. I simply assume everybody I meet — men and women alike — are feminists because I give people the benefit of the doubt. You’re using cutlery? You don’t wear T-shirts saying “Men: no shirt, no service; Women: no shirt, free drinks!”? You don’t think women are just a man’s way of making more men? Then, honey, you’re a feminist.

It’s my version of feminism, which is sort of like a hip nun’s vision of Catholicism — affirming to all and not guided by rule books or doctrinal declarations — that makes me uncertain whether to applaud or denounce the ruckus going on between what is most neatly called The Atlantic Monthly’s “Stay-at-Home-Moms-are-Wrecking-Women’s-Economic-Platforms-FOREVER” article by Elizabeth Wurtzel and the approximately 17 million stay-at-home moms who have responded by blogging, posting, vlogging and ritually burning their copies of “Prozac Nation,” Wurtzel’s bestseller from 1994.

more: http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20120702/OPINION/307020029/Gina-Barreca-Women-can-t-win-by-fighting-among-themselves?odyssey=nav%7Chead