(part 2 of a series on the renewed interest in feminism in the UK)
Laura Bates founder of the Everyday Sexism Project received a standing ovation at the Hay Festival. Her stories struck a chord and it seems everyone is now a ‘feminist’ including the classroom of boys at Eton that put their hands up to affirm that they believe everyone is equal, regardless of their sex, to be told by Laura Bates that they were now feminists.[1] This raises a question for me - what is a feminist?
In my early twenties I described myself as a feminist precisely because I, like those schoolboys, strongly asserted that everyone was equal regardless of race, gender or class. However if I had sought admission into feminism as a movement I would have failed to be fully admitted into the ranks because of my Christian faith.
‘Fundamentalist Christianity constantly thwarts feminism.’ Kate Millet
Why do my beliefs thwart feminism? I abhor violence towards women, I support access to education for girls, I supported the recent campaign against female genital mutilation, and I too am against ‘cultural sexism’-
‘The ugly wallpaper of women’s lives- Page Three, lad’s mags, music videos, the dearth of women in broadcasting, street harassment’[3]
Feminism is however much more than this list. It is an ideology that promotes equality but is really about autonomy. I suspect that many others today who are embracing the new wave of feminism similarly fall between two camps; they believe that women and men are equal but do they completely adhere to all the traditional tenets of feminism? I am conscious that there are different contemporary feminisms with debates and disagreements but there are some generally agreed aims in the feminist movement. These are as follows:
Equal pay
Equal education and opportunity
Contraception and abortion on demand.
Twenty-four hour nurseries.
Financial and legal independence.
End to discrimination against lesbians and a women’s right to define her own sexuality.
Freedom from intimidation by threat or violence or sexual coercion.
Quite a list. Things have moved on a bit since the days our great-grandmothers fought for the right to vote. There are some things here that I wholeheartedly agree with so why do I have a problem with this list? Primarily my concern is with the underlying assumption about our humanity which can be summed up in the phrase ‘a women’s right to define her own..’ Do we have a right to define ourselves? Not if we believe that we have been created in the image of God. God as our creator is the one who has the ‘right’ to define us. Of course if you agree with feminist Camille Paglia ‘God is man’s greatest idea’ then I am one of those 'fundamentalists' who thwarts feminism and colludes with patriarchy by my very act of faith. However I am convinced that God is our creator and the status that he gives to humanity male and female is greater than any status feminism has won or still seeks.
To be continued…
[1] http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/blog/tim-de-lisle/hay-festival-everyday-sexism
[2] Kate Millet, Sexual Politics revised addition 2000 University of Illinois Press, xiii.
[3] Kira Cochrane All the rebel Women: the rise of the fourth wave of feminism