Feminism vs. Gender Egalitarianism

[trempnvt]

So I haven't posted in a while, but I kept meaning to. First I was going to post about feminism and gender egalitarianism and whether or not they're mutually inclusive, but I sort of lazed out on that one. Then I was going to post about white toilet paper, but I figured there are only, like, two people on my friends list who can relate to that

Comments

[prozacpark]

I agree with you. I think feminists can be non-egalitarian. I think it's rare today, but have you read some of the classic feminist novels (by men and women) from earlier times? Some of these feminists are very aware of the gender issues and explore them wonderfully in their works...and then the books have an amazing amount of racism and classism that makes me want to pull out my hair. This is especially true in the modernist novels since most modernists were elitist assholes anyway.

But, yeah...I can't imagine that an egalitarian can't be a feminist in today's society. But I bet that there were people in the past (and I wouldn't be surprised if such people exist still in some places) who considered themselves egalitarian but still thought of women as a different species/inferior class. History is full of texts where lower classes are going insane over the injustice of the upper classes or other races while the men writing these texts are the very people who are trying to suppress women in their own racial/social group. I know that Zora Neale Hurston faced sexism from within her community when she assumed that equality for the African Americans meant equality for men and women of their race. Her writings were suppressed and fell out of canon partly because men of her own community contributed to keeping it that way.

Also? Interesting question. Before I started answering, I actually assumed that it was impossible to be for an egalitarian to not be a feminist, but having thought of examples from history, I see that that's not the case. Unfortunately. Of course, such people, in our opinion, would not be egalitarian at all. It's really hard for me to understand how a person who can see that it's wrong for a certain kind of inequality and injustice to exist can't see the wrongess in all kinds of inequalities among people.

[trempnvt]

I haven't read too many specifically feminist novels...The Awakening is the only thing that comes to mind off the top of my head. But does a novel specifically have to explore gender issues to be considered feminist, or would you say that any novel with a strong female lead is a feminist novel?

Do you have any good reading recommendations for me?

[prozacpark]

I think that it has to explore gender issues to an extent, and for me, in a feminist novel, a character has to be aware of the issues at least. Jane Eyre, I know, is considered a feminist novel by some critics because it has a strong female character. But, she's very Cinderella-ish in that she gets rewarded for being good and conventional. So, in my opinion, not so much. And while I love Austen's Elizabeth Bennet, I don't exactly consider her to be a feminist heroine. And, in literature, there are often strong heroines who think all other women are stupid. Which? Not very feminist. But you can critique any novel from a feminist perspective so maybe it's not really important what makes a novel feminist since it's all open to interpretation. My "Women in Literature" professor, for instance, absolutely hates "The Awakening" and doesn't think it's a particularly feminist novel.

As for recommendations, I can't recommend Willa Cather's "A Lost Lady" enough. It has very familiar themes of the time, but it features a fallen heroine who is a survivor and wants to live despite the disgrace (unlike all the other feminists heroines who are running off to kill themselves). Additionally, Scott F. Fitzgerald was a big Cather fan and read "A Lost Lady" while he was working on his "Great Gatsby". He said that "The Great Gatsby" would've been a very different book had he not been influenced by "A Lost Lady." Really, when I read "The Great Gatsby" after having read "A Lost Lady," my perception of all the characters changed slightly and I realized many things that I never would've considered otherwise.

And Tanith Lee's "White as Snow" (not a Classic) is also really fun. It's a dark, creepy retelling of the Snow White story that goes to some very uncomfortable places. Not a happy book, but it's good.

And Pike's (since I already know that you kind of like him) "Final Friends" series, which I think I mentioned before. Not highly literary, but it's fun and a good mystery. His "Listerners" is also good and a bit like "Season of Passage" in its creepiness.