*Transcendental *Logic

So, someone I know who’s prone to random presents (and I think I know who) seems to have gotten me a magazine subscription.  The magazine in question is called, simply and powerfully, Bitch.  It describes itself as a "feminist response to pop culture".  At first glance, I thought the title of the rag was intended to mean "reading this will turn you into one, because you will be perpetually pissed off and bringing these things up in conversation", and maybe that’s true, but I no longer think that’s how it’s intended.

The magazine’s central thesis is something that, I think, everyone must know:  That pop culture (probably worldwide to some degree, but this focuses on the U.S.) is horribly, often disgustingly anti-woman.  (And anti-GBLT, which the magazine also makes generous room for.)  You really can’t avoid knowing this, if you ever pay any attention whatsoever to television, billboards, magazine covers at the supermarket, etc etc etc.  However, it is surprising, and therefore interesting, the depth and direction of this prejudice, and that makes Bitch, which is well-written and -organized, a neat thing to have around the house and read when you’re in the kind of reading-mood a magazine can fulfill.  It never fails to offer up something that makes you think, "Holy crap, really?  I never thought of it that way…but yeah, really." 

The passion and heat with which the rag is written gives me pause, though.  Its proprietors seem to think that pointing out the treatment of geek women in movies, or chastizing Nair advertisements that play off pre-teen girls’ shame about their bodies, is going to change society somehow.  Can this be true?  Is shlock Hollywood and the waste-your-money-at-CVS advertising circuit really so socially crucial?  Can real change really come from modifying comedy scripts and getting Cosmo to think twice about the latest women-in-politics gag?

My objection to that is that I’ve never thought those things were that important, and I’m reluctant to start now.  If women want change — which they should, at least until we reach wage-parity, thank you — shouldn’t they be taking their wishes to the boardroom, the law office, the lecture circuit, Washington…even the streets?  It certainly would be nice if the country would see women less as self-absorbed ornamental baby-machines, but won’t that happen after women actually are more than those things in the places where it matters to history?  (Obviously women are more than those things in their daily lives, but society is hardly built upon the truths of daily life, unless some crazy democracy comes along and forces it to be!)

Or to put it another way:  If Hollywood and supermarket magazines and prime-time TV all gave Bitch exactly what they wanted, would the world be a better place?  …Well, yes, actually, it would; at the very least it’d be less annoying and better for the mental development of children, especially children who don’t have vigilant parents.  But all those changes wouldn’t equal the bettering force of one constitutional amendment, so why aren’t we working harder for that and paying less attention to the television?  We got the most important change we’ve gained so far — a constitutional right to vote — due to the tireless political action and stunning physical bravery of a handful of women, and the support that others gave them.  Shouldn’t we be focusing our anger, our energy, and our money on making the other important changes that still need making (and protecting the ones we do have, since many, like Roe v Wade, are under constant attack)?  The social message coming from the movie Knocked Up is mildly interesting bathroom reading, but as a feminist, why should I give a shit?

Of course, the person who sent me this magazine knows me, and knows I like to think about contentious and tricky things, and thus is probably perfectly aware that Bitch would raise this issue (and probably others) for me, and is, therefore, an awesome awesome person and thank you for the gift.  ;) 

The question of "whether to be a feminist" is, I think, a stupid and closed one — look around, and you cannot deny certain things are way, way off from what an equitable and fair society should be.  These range from income disparities, to screwed-up prosecutions and investigations of rape cases (lord, please, just one time in my life let me stab someone who thinks it’s the victim’s fault), to the availability of math and science education for girls…and so on and so on.  If you’re not in favor of equality for women, then go the hell back to the dark ages where you belong; and if you are in favor, then you have to admit that our supposedly-progressive society falls way, way short of that ideal.  Case closed. 

But the question of "how to go about it" is a far trickier and more open one.  Perhaps things were simpler in the Sufferage days, when there was really only one movement to support.  And the theory that change can happen from the popular mentality on up isn’t empty or stupid; I just personally don’t like it, because it grants so much importance to things I generally think of as trivial.  On the other hand, I do worry that if feminists don’t pick a front to focus on, they’ll never be able to gather enough steam to move the collosal, ancient structures that are holding gender inequalities in place.

(You can buy today’s picture as a fridge magnet at www.superherostuff.com, if you want.)

This entry was posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at 9:45 am and is filed under ethics, many-bloodsucking-parasites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.