Why You Should Be as Pissed Off as I Am: The assault on feminism in the United States

By Kari Sledzik

This recent fall, I took a stab at journalism for my first time. I enrolled in a journalism course, and I also attempted to write for the infamous Recorder. The Recorder attempt was, for lack of a better term, a complete disaster. In the matter of only a few weeks, it became abundantly clear that the Recorder would only support free speech for the people who sat at the cool kids’ table, and my articles were consistently subjected to censorship or outright rejection.
The journalism course was a little less frustrating. I mean, my articles were read, critiqued, and ultimately respected. Fine. I stopped writing for the Recorder basically as soon as I became recognized as a staff writer, but I couldn’t quit the journalism course without having to go back and re-take it anyway. I was never really experienced in journalism, so I did end up learning a thing or two.
One assignment was particularly poignant to me. The assignment was simple – think of a question, and write a short article incorporating about five people’s responses to said question. My question was rather straightforward – “what is a feminist?”
I’d be lying if I said that the assessments of women in the United States I subsequently received were really surprising. One woman said that feminism is totally outdated, and that no woman – even Hillary Clinton herself – still considers herself a feminist. Being that I was just the reporter and recording the response, I deemed it inappropriate to tell her she was sitting across from a feminist, who was dating a feminist, who knew many feminists, and, well, you get the point. Although I did get some educated and what I would consider to be accurate portrayals of feminists in my interviews, an overarching concept of feminists as lesbians and man-haters, and exclusively women for that mater, was definitely there. And it pissed me off.
Maybe it’s not fair to be pissed off at the people I was talking to. When you live in a society that attacks women consistently through institutional, interpersonal, religious, and countless other ways, how can we expect them to react any differently? Our government, media, schools, private companies, and essentially all elements of our society are slighted against women. All of these institutions teach us, from birth, that men are fundamentally more perfect than women, and therefore have to make all of the decisions that affect our lives.
When women pose a threat, it becomes the men’s job to remind us how the world works. This is when they get the promotion you were more qualified for, give you a good slap in the face when you argue, close your neighborhood sexual health clinic, or flat out rape you. And it’s when this becomes your fault. You talked back, you dressed too provocatively, you’re a bitch. Is it any surprise that women have this perception and shy away from feminism? Is it any surprise that these institutions paint feminism this way? They have a lot at stake, and they could lose it all if the playing field were actually even remotely equal.
Immediately, people point to Roe v. Wade, the Equal Rights Amendment, and female suffrage, which suggest that we have made significant leaps and bounds towards equality. Never mind that Roe v. Wade is in the most precarious situation that it has ever been in. Never mind that it took congress over 50 years to approve the three sentences known as the Equal Rights Amendment, but it never in fact passed state ratification, even after Congress passed a two-year extension on its ratification. Never mind that female suffrage took until the 1920s, only about 150 years after white males of privilege allowed themselves to exclusively control the fledgling government.
The well-known wing of the feminist movement made demands for white, bourgeois women. You know, Gloria Steinem would get up and wax poetic about how oppressed middle class women were. Don’t get me wrong. All women’s rights are equally important. But were most women really thinking of being able to get out of the house instead of baking cookies and reading magazines, or were more concerned that their hours at their only low-paying job were cut to 30 per week and she would consequently be denied maternity leave for the baby expected to arrive in less than a month? More importantly, did you hear about any of the feminists in the movement that were concerned about the latter? Well, they were there, standing somewhere in the shadow of middle class feminism. It’s no accident that a movement to empower second-class citizens created more of them.
So here are the lessons that Gloria Steinem chose not to teach you. Embedded in our institutions, within those endless layers of bureaucracy, are several absurd reasons that women cannot succeed. They get diseases once a month. If they get pregnant, you have to pay them to be out for a few months to take care of herself and the baby. They’re too weak and sensitive – having leadership and decision-making positions would be damaging for them and the institution. If she gets the job, the man who is more powerful and competent would not. If she reports that he raped her, it would be so damaging to his career and livelihood, which is much more important than her physical and mental health. So men have to stick together and make sure that society is organized so they can keep their power. It’s not a conspiracy, folks. It’s reality. All institutions benefit from sexual discrimination. It drives down wages for everyone, male and female alike.
Have we determined that men were right all along? We’re too quick to say “well, it’s not as bad as it was.” Wake up. It is that bad. It is that unequal. Call the police next time you encounter a domestic dispute. Time how long it takes them to get there, and take note of what they actually do. Hell, report it at CCSU. You will be politely escorted to each facet of judicial bureaucracy, and maybe if they like you the report will reflect what you said or even be filed at all. And when hell freezes over, they’ll investigate it properly.
Aren’t these pretty serious issues? Aren’t they current? How does any of this indicate equal and fair opportunities for women? The truth is that feminism is in serious trouble. Women haven’t moved forward and continue to face discrimination, harassment, and a consistent lack of support from their government. It’s not just a Central thing or a Wal-Mart thing or an office thing. If anything, Central is a microcosm of some of these serious issues that nobody in society seems ready to deal with. That’s why I’m pissed off, and why you should be too.