More rantage:
I posted Monday on women’s choices and male desire; I appreciate the many thoughtful comments. One aspect of the problem that I did not address was the role of the marketplace in prescribing and preferencing certain “choices” for women.
The fashion, cosmetic surgery and diet industries are multi-billion dollar businesses. Their profitability hinges on women’s “choices” to “consume” their products, be those products diet books or Botox. But given that those choices are usually expensive and frequently painful, women are not “choosing” for pleasure. Rather, they exercise their choices in an atmosphere of insecurity — an insecurity which advertising and popular culture relentlessly reinforce. It hardly bears repeating that our cultural ideal for women is that they be young, thin, and beautiful; it is biologically self-evident that no woman can ever be all three of these things for more than (at most) a fifth of her life-span! If every woman can be made to feel that she is “falling short” of the mark most of the time, then her consumer “choices” will be a major boost to the economy!
Of course, as it becomes more and more obvious that good looks play a critical role in the working world (and, perhaps, in academia), the notion that the pursuit of beauty and desireability is a free choice loses even more of its credibility. Attractiveness becomes as essential as a college degree — and often, over a lifetime, almost as costly! To choose not to play the game is to place oneself in genuine economic jeopardy. And as more and more women plan to be self-supporting over a lifetime (rather than relying on a male partner/husband), their viability as independent agents is contingent upon making the necessary “choices” to remain youthful and attractive.
At this point, some readers are surely saying, “But we’ve heard all this before.” I note that my students, for the most part, are tired of feminist professors who are relentlessly critical of the media and popular culture. By the time they hit college, most of them think of themselves as fairly astute cultural critics, far more “aware” than their aging instructors! My teens have grown up on Oprah and other talk-show mavens who regularly bemoan our cultural obsession with sexual desireability. They also haven’t failed to notice that the very shows and magazines that seek to reassure women that they are “okay just as they are” are sponsored by the beauty, fashion, and cosmetic surgery industries! My brightest students, as a result, tend to be highly cynical; they react to the information shared in class less with outrage than with resignation.
I have a theory about why so many of my students participate in a system that they know perfectly well is oppressive and exploitative. They absolutely loathe the notion of victimhood. The great mistake of Second Wave Feminism of the 1960s and 1970s was its reliance on the language of women’s collective victimhood. There was much in the work of that period that was of terrific value. But I note that most young women today find the idea that they are “victims” of men — or the media — to be tremendously disempowering. Popular culture, cleverly enough, has learned to play upon young women’s reluctance to identify their own exploitation. Instead, our popular culture flatters women with visions of their own independence and autonomy. “You’re not a victim”, the ads seem to say, “You are a strong and capable woman with a mind of her own who knows how to be successful and gorgeous all at the same time!” (Tangentially, one notes that rape crisis workers routinely disdain the word “victim” nowadays, preferring the more empowering “survivor”. That’s a whole other post).
For many of my young women, the word “angry” is almost synonymous with “victim”. They are extraordinarily anxious not to be seen as either of these! To be angry with the media, to be angry with men, is to admit that they have been hurt, and that they are increasingly reluctant to do. Traditionally, women were allowed far greater liberty than men to admit to emotional pain. But as women have moved into traditionally male spheres, I note that many have begun to adopt certain aspects of the male cult of imperviousness and silent endurance. To critique their sexualization and their exploitation is evidence of their own inability to compete successfully in the marketplace. To self-describe as a victim, these women believe, is to give evidence of one’s own failure. But to be an empowered, savvy young woman who is both an object of desire and an independent agent — that and that alone is real success!
What’s the upshot? The upshot is 18 year-olds in my classes in miniskirts, nervously tugging and adjusting themselves, absolutely insistent that their “choice” in attire was freely made, positively indignant when I suggest that they live in a system that is set up to exploit them. The upshot is 22 year-olds proudly sharing their stories of cosmetic surgery in their journals, arguing vociferously that the choice to enhance their breasts was “feminist, because feminism is about making women happy, and I’m happier with bigger breasts.”
And I gotta tell ya, it does make me question my own feminism when I — a 36 year-old man — find myself trying to convince young women half my age that they aren’t as autonomous and independent and liberated as they think they are! Something is wrong with this picture…
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