Today's Star had articles by two women of different generations talking about how feminism affected their lives. For me, born after the influence of second-wave feminism, its effect very simple: "Because I am a woman" does not exist as a reason for any of my decisions or life choices. With the possible exception of stepping into the women's washroom when there are two washroom choices (although I have no problem with unisex or coed washrooms), I have never thought "I must/must not/should/should not/can/cannot/will/will not do X because I am a woman."
Even when I do make choices or decision that, in previous generations, would have been based on the fact that I am a woman, "because I am a woman" is not my motivation. Instead, it's "because I am introverted" or "because I am arachnophobic" or "because I am in love with mi cielito" or "because I live alone" or "because I have an aptitude for languages" or "because it amuses me".
The only time my being a woman even comes into play is in the bedroom, the doctor's office, and the clothing store and even then it isn't about gender roles, but rather about strict physiology. None of this taking modern perceptions of prehistoric human behaviour to be a biological imperative and using that to support one's own concept of morality bullshit. It's strictly about the presence of a cervix, the proximity of labia to the urethra, the ratio of hip circumference to waist circumference. These issues would need to be addressed in the same way if I were FTM. "Because I am a woman" becomes a shorthand for a number of physical realities, parallel to "because my eyesight sucks" or "because my feet are messed up," but it isn't actually a basis of decision-making.
So that's what feminism has done for me in my own personal life - it has made gender completely irrelevant as a basis for life choices.
1 comment:
this is a very well argued point. in the context of many history of sexuality classes, i am confronted by writings by feminists that seem to claim that to be a feminist also means being a lesbian. how one's sexual preference is supposed to dictate one's stance towards equal rights has puzzled me to no end. i imagine it makes much more sense to someone who has lived through the feminists' successes, but i still find it somewhat as discriminatory as the chauvinist himself. i do not want to be labelled a "contributor to the oppression of women" because i engage in intercourse with my male partner.
well argued point. thanks.
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