Really, this seems to me to be a case of "Nancy Keenan needs to get her shit together," which we already knew, but to take this and make it a leap to "middle-aged women don't deserve positions of power," which is pretty much always going to be suspect to me, because middle-aged women do have, like you said, valuable insights and experience and in a lot of cases the better part of a lifetime working on this stuff.
I feel like such a weirdo. In terms of ideology, I kind of straddle the 2nd/3rd wave divide. In terms of age, well, I'm turning 30 this year, but honestly, I tend to have more in common with middle-aged women, really. Maybe it's the not planning to have kids thing. I'm a pro-sex (not anti-porn or anti-sex work in theory, although often in practice) feminist without feeling like empowerfulment is the most important thing women can pursue. I just feel like there needs to be a word for feminists like me. I'm not a radical feminist, but I'm not exactly a stereotypical liberal feminist either. Huh. Anyway, reading your posts helps me feel connected to the larger community of feminists. Much more so than reading (or contributing) to my feminist blogs.
Maybe we should just get rid of the "wave" terminology, since it articulates this huge generational divide that doesn't really exist. In reality, cohorts overlap and blend into one another.
Maybe we should just get rid of the "wave" terminology, since it articulates this huge generational divide that doesn't really exist
Yeah. I think it's definitely overstated in its importance, and it's especially frustrating that the more descriptive, philosophical "feminisms" are almost all construed to be second wave (liberal, radical, lesbian, so on) and while I get that Gen X/Yers don't love labeling ourselves, man those descriptors can be useful shorthand
( ... )
I think using Roe as a huge separating marker is pretty darn alienating to those of us who Roe means nothing or little to.
There are a whooole lot of feminists in the World That Isn't The USA - but you won't find that acknowledged often by the US-centric femiblogosphere; and when it is mentioned there, hoo boy, the backlash is frightening.
And there are a whole lot of people for whom the choice to have a child can be more uphill than the choice not to have one; positing abortion rights as THE feminist battle (and therefore Roe as THE huge event in feminist history) prioritises the reproductive oppression of certain people in certain situations. (Surprise! It's primarily white well-off currently-nondisabled premenopausal cis feminists again.)
I get what you're saying (especially on the US-centrism). But I do think that because abortion rights are fundamentally connected to issues of bodily autonomy I personally consider them more fundamental than the struggles of women To Have a child. Not to say that those struggles aren't important and shouldn't be supported by mainstream feminism, but they don't seem to be predicated on the same basic struggle to be recognized as a fully autonomous human. Although I might be missing something obvious. I have Finals brain.
Also, this: "primarily white well-off currently-nondisabled premenopausal cis feminists" seems a little off to me. When I worked in an abortion clinic very few of our clients were white, well-off, currently non-disabled, cis feminists. Most were Cis, and currently non-disabled, and a massive proportion were non-white and poor. But speaking as a disabled woman, an unwanted pregnancy would be catastrophic for me.
Divide and conquer, you've put it exactly right. This is backlash at work.
If it were actually outright dismissal of younger feminists at the hands of middle-aged women, that'd be one thing, but this is an opportunistic attribution of the backlash to the old guard. And that's unfair.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. :)
Comments 13
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Thanks for taking the time to read. :)
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I feel like such a weirdo. In terms of ideology, I kind of straddle the 2nd/3rd wave divide. In terms of age, well, I'm turning 30 this year, but honestly, I tend to have more in common with middle-aged women, really. Maybe it's the not planning to have kids thing. I'm a pro-sex (not anti-porn or anti-sex work in theory, although often in practice) feminist without feeling like empowerfulment is the most important thing women can pursue. I just feel like there needs to be a word for feminists like me. I'm not a radical feminist, but I'm not exactly a stereotypical liberal feminist either. Huh. Anyway, reading your posts helps me feel connected to the larger community of feminists. Much more so than reading (or contributing) to my feminist blogs.
Maybe we should just get rid of the "wave" terminology, since it articulates this huge generational divide that doesn't really exist. In reality, cohorts overlap and blend into one another.
Reply
Maybe we should just get rid of the "wave" terminology, since it articulates this huge generational divide that doesn't really exist
Yeah. I think it's definitely overstated in its importance, and it's especially frustrating that the more descriptive, philosophical "feminisms" are almost all construed to be second wave (liberal, radical, lesbian, so on) and while I get that Gen X/Yers don't love labeling ourselves, man those descriptors can be useful shorthand ( ... )
Reply
There are a whooole lot of feminists in the World That Isn't The USA - but you won't find that acknowledged often by the US-centric femiblogosphere; and when it is mentioned there, hoo boy, the backlash is frightening.
And there are a whole lot of people for whom the choice to have a child can be more uphill than the choice not to have one; positing abortion rights as THE feminist battle (and therefore Roe as THE huge event in feminist history) prioritises the reproductive oppression of certain people in certain situations. (Surprise! It's primarily white well-off currently-nondisabled premenopausal cis feminists again.)
Reply
Also, this: "primarily white well-off currently-nondisabled premenopausal cis feminists" seems a little off to me. When I worked in an abortion clinic very few of our clients were white, well-off, currently non-disabled, cis feminists. Most were Cis, and currently non-disabled, and a massive proportion were non-white and poor. But speaking as a disabled woman, an unwanted pregnancy would be catastrophic for me.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
If it were actually outright dismissal of younger feminists at the hands of middle-aged women, that'd be one thing, but this is an opportunistic attribution of the backlash to the old guard. And that's unfair.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. :)
Reply
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