Summer is finally nearing its end, though the high temperatures linger, making any thought of hot chocolate and curling up in blankets on the couch dangerous. These days still call for cold drinks and as little clothing as is practicable.
But soon ... soon it will be fall. Not that I haven't already been wearing my "My favorite season is the fall of the patriarchy" T-shirt. It will never be a bad time for that.
When I say things like that, I typically get glares or nasty comments from men (and a few women) who think that feminism is a dirty word. I would remind you that women have only had the vote in the U.S. for just over 100 years, and until the latter part of the last century couldn't hold bank accounts in their own name, report sexual harassment on the job, get equal pay for the same job or attend an Ivy League university, among other things. The SAVE Act and other bits of pending legislation, as well as a patchwork of abortion restrictions that endanger the lives of pregnant women (you can say that the laws are clear on saving the life of the mother, but the cases of women dying because they couldn't access a medically necessary abortion in a timely manner say otherwise) are just the canaries in the coal mine.
Some maintain that women are just too emotional to be in positions of authority. I would point to a certain individual's crazed rants on the social media platform he created after he was tossed off Twitter for dangerous misinformation and similar tirades there as just one example that being "emotional" is not something that is exclusive to women, just as being condescending isn't exclusive to men.
Still, I know I'm far from the only woman who has experienced condescension from men, such as when my first adviser in the College of Communications at ASU told me, when presented with my proposed class schedule that was over the usual limit because of a required lab, "Honey, you can't take 19 hours." My answer, based on my research of school policy, was "Sweetie, yes I can. Look at my GPA." I took those 19 hours the following semester and earned a 4.0 GPA. I knew what I was capable of, what the policy allowed, and I fought for it (I also switched to an adviser who actually listened to me, and she became one of my best friends). I wish I could say I've consistently been that brave.
In the wake of Gloria Steinem's death last week has come revived criticism of feminism, but as writer and activist Rebecca Solnit wrote in a recent Facebook post, "Much dismissiveness about feminism comes from ignorance about how profoundly feminism changed things that were so deeply entrenched, so normalized into invisibility, so ancient and customary that they first had to be denormalized, named, unpacked, and explained as to why they were incompatible with women's status as people entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Political theorist Anne Phillips noted in her 2021 book "Unconditional Equals," "Anyone, given half a chance, will prefer equality and justice to inequality and injustice. ... Subservience does not, on the whole, come naturally to people." So why do so many accept it?
Some point to the Bible as the reason for our patriarchal society, yet women are not as trod-upon in the Bible as some would have you believe, with strong examples such as Esther, Mary, Ruth, and Mary Magdalene (who is usually portrayed as a prostitute, but non-canonical texts left out of the Bible by early church fathers defy that description). But what about those who don't follow Christianity, or matrilineal societies where power is shared and property, lineage, etc., are passed through the female line?
Being a feminist doesn't necessarily mean you hate men. More likely, you're an advocate for equality and meritocracy (heck, even though Dolly Parton didn't call herself a feminist, she was, and built a massive business and philanthropic empire on her own terms). Science journalist Angela Saini, in an April 2023 essay in National Geographic, wrote, "If we resign ourselves to accepting our lot as part of who we are by nature, we give up on understanding how it might have come about. When we settle the case for patriarchy on something as simple as biological difference, even though the evidence points to a reality that's far more complex and contingent, we lose the capacity to recognize just how fragile it might be. We stop asking how inequality works or the ways in which it is being reinvented."
Women are capable of a great many things, but we're still looked down upon and targeted with rhetoric on what it means to be a woman meant to keep us fighting among ourselves. There has long been an imbalance that has run to the advantage of men, but as a whole we aren't asking for women to have all the power. We're not asking to control men's bodies or take away their freedoms. We're not waging a war.
We want equality for women and men. We want to be judged for our actual merits rather than our assigned sex at birth, and to make our own choices about what kind of life we want for ourselves, whether that's at home or in the workforce.
Is that really so scary?
Assistant Editor Brenda Looper is editor of the Voices page. Email her at blooper@adgnewsroom.com. Read her blog at blooper0223.com.
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