I feel like a troll this morning. I have a headache that isn't quite 'ache-ey' enough to justify embalming myself with Ibuprofen. Just the perfect mood to hit on something that gets me thinking, when all I wanna do is clear my mind completely, and zone out. So please excuse me if I’m being ‘a troll’.
I've had a book by Sandi Toksvig for ages and in a headache-quelling attempt, I decided, this morning, to pick it up and read it. I picked it up in Old Town Used Bookstore in Edinburgh. You should visit that, next time you're up there. It is good.
My initially thought was, “Groan! Here’s another celebrity/writer/wannabe successful chick lit effort.” Then I thought, “I have encountered Sandi Toksvig in that old broadsheet which I read, and she ain’t half bad.” Then I bought bought bought it because I am a material girl too, and the cover looks nice.
Anyway, enough explaining, the passage that spurred me to this rant is here:
"'It's a new millennium, mum.' She shook her head at me and crunched a Hobnob. 'It's time to move on. There are other issues. You know you really ought to be a 'post feminist' by now.'
Post feminist. It’s a funny expression. I think it suggests that I've already passed through a feminist phase, and yet I don't remember it... Perhaps my feminism is in the post and hasn't arrived yet."
The proverbial nail-on-the-head anyone? Feminism has always sat uncomfortably with me. I don't want to get too heated up about it because, quite simply, "female" doesn't quite sum me up in the same way that say "black" or "queer" does. Also, I have always (mutedly) agreed with the common notion that the feminist movement is inherently flawed because it's exponents will, invariably, start to veer towards 'superiority', rather than 'equality'. But then silly me gets her knickers in a twist anyway. Because I know about the debt that I owe to radical feminism. And I know that the struggle is far from over because a glass ceiling and two-tier salary scale lie waiting for me, when (if?) I join the rat race.
Everyone, I am a feminist in denial.
This book was only ever going to be a pap read for me. It's semi-vaguely pseudo-educational chick lit. But the idea of "post-feminism" has struck a chord. I am still only on page 9 but maybe this idea will be explored further, later in the book. Does this rant ring true with anyone out there? And has the idea of "post-feminism" has been explored by any writers before? Can anyone recommend some relevant reading to me so I can chuck out this embarrassing NOVEL?
I think for a lot of people, to be seen as an 'activist' or 'feminist' is embarrassing or over the top. But where would we be now without those people who fought for our rights, womens rights and black rights not so long ago? In a very different situation I guess.
When black and gay people are still murdered because of their race or sexuality, whilst its perfectly legal to pay a woman less than a man for doing exactly the same job, when a gay person can be sacked because their employer has a religous objection to them, whilst I can STILL be refused service, legally, in a place I choose to buy something from, whilst parties like the BNP, UKIP and fundamentalist groups like Christian Voice and The Christian Institute still exsist in this country, we still have a fight on our hands.
I suppose we forget sometimes the importance of what former generations did for us - how their radical thought, radical action and firm belief in fighting got us where we are. Yet sadly we still today expose the prejudices of the people that were fought so hard for back then.Some LGBT people spouting racist rhetoric and joing far-right parties, some Jamican music stars singing songs glorifying the murder of LGBT people, and some feminists going on transphobic rants in newspapers and books still today - I still think we have a fight on our hands.
Hmmm, a rant I suppose.
There are some really good books out there though on feminism/queer theory/equalism. Here are two.
Natasha Walter - The New Feminism
and
Judith Butler - Gender Trouble.
The latter is often cited as the spur for 'post-straight' queer theory and is something I am going to be using this semester in my moudle on post-modern writing by women.
anyway, have fun with Sandi, the little scandanavian scamp. Just don't read anything by Germaine 'Women Born Women' Greer - unless its on Shakespeare.
:)
Have fun.#
John K xxx
__________________
Johnk
The only freedom that you’ll ever really know
Is written in books from long ago
I don't really rate Gender Trouble by Judith Butler, had 2 read it for part of an essay i was doing on Nancy Chodorow's adaption of Freuds theory of gender identity. If ur lookin at feminist writers n stuff try reading The Reprodution of Mothering by Nancy J Chodorow
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Nic - Union Council LGBT Assembly Chair
Contact me at - lgbt.assembly@leeds.ac.uk / nicturner_85@hotmail.com
