what does feminism look like today?

In its formative days (in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and then in the 1960s and ‘70s), feminism was, above all, about promoting equal social and political citizenship for women. Contemporary feminism – the “third wave” – is, like today’s world, far more complex than its predecessors. It’s not just about equality anymore (though this is and always will be an issue). To me, today’s feminism is less about getting equal pay and spouting catchy phrases (“down with the patriarchy!”) and more about fostering a world in which women, men, and transgendered people all have the opportunity to live healthy, happy lives as whole and fully valued human beings. To me, feminism is about turning current concepts of gender, sexuality, rape, and more completely on their heads. I could spew statistics galore about unequal pay, but the fact of the matter is that inequality is only one piece of this massive, multifaceted puzzle.

Give me a world where rape (not only of women, but of men, children, and transgendered people) is obsolete, and I’ll show you a world where feminism isn’t needed.

Give me a world where ze and hir are as common and widespread as he/she and him/her, and I’ll show you a world where feminism isn’t needed.

Give me a world where women and girls are valued primarily for their intelligence, humanity, and personalities rather than their physical attributes, a world where sex trafficking doesn’t exist, a world where politicians don’t bicker about what a woman can and can’t do with her body, where music about raping and killing women isn’t popular or mainstream (such as Eminem’s album Relapse, which sold over half a million copies just upon its release and contains the lyrics: “whore you’re the kinda girl that I’d assault and rape and figure why not…”), a world where sexual violence isn’t sexy, where young girls aren’t taught that in order to be a “pure”, happy, healthy member of society, they must jealously guard their virginity, a world where sexually active women aren’t called “hos”, “sluts”, “whores”, or any other multitude of demeaning and dehumanizing names, but rather are considered to be normal and healthy human beings.

We need more than systematically defined equality. We need a world where men and women aren’t forced into constrictive, harmful, and untrue sexual stereotypes such as the passive woman lacking in sexual desire (and thus needing to be convinced or coerced into sexual activity) and the man who is predatory and hypersexual. Let’s build a world where the foremost method of combating rape and rape culture isn’t telling girls and women ways to protect themselves (don’t drink too much, don’t wear anything too revealing, never go anywhere alone at night, don’t ever leave your drink alone, carry pepper spray, don’t lead men on, don’t leave your house, become a nun, et cetera) – thus preemptively placing the burden on potential victims – but a new paradigm where men and boys are instilled with the values of healthy sexual relationships and taught to view women as human beings who are sexual creatures, as are all human beings. (This is opposed to the current images of sex in popular culture, in which sex is portrayed as a commodity, something that women “have” and men must obtain through force or some other non-mutual, unilateral action.)

Give me a world where all these things are true, and I’ll give you a world where “feminism” is a thing of the past.

how is feminism doing in Sweden?

What grieves me most as a Swedish feminist is hearing that our movement is dead or that it is only a trend. I’ve argued with anti-feminists, whose best argument nowadays is that feminism advocates female supremacy. If this group of anti-feminists were small, I would not worry about their opinions because there will always be people who disagree with you. What troubles me, however, is that this way of viewing feminists seems to be mainstream in Sweden.

The Swedish media thrives on stories about feminists, who, the media says, claim that “men are animals” and that “any man would rape any woman at any time.” Hardly anyone seems to know what feminism is really about.

As a socialist-feminist I think that laws could help our society become more equal. I believe in quotas that would help women reach higher positions in the labour market, like chief-positions. Here in Sweden, almost no one seems to agree with me and many people (especially men) argue that “that would be discriminatory against men.” They ask “so the gender of a person should decide the position, and not the qualifications?”  In Sweden 90% of the absolute highest positions in our economy are held by men, and these men tend to hire other men for high-level positions. How can we ever break that trend without quotas?

In a perfect world, there would be no need at all for laws that could seem in any way unfair or discriminatory. In a perfect world people would not be hired based on their gender or connections. But there’s a long way from here to there.

As long as there are thoughtful and brave people left in the world who demand equality, the “trend” of feminism that has already achieved so much will never die!

The Shriver Report

When my peers find out that I am a feminist blogger, I am generally faced with a few questions. “So you’re a lesbian?” is a pretty common one. “What’s a feminist?” is another. I have honed answering these questions into an art form, where I am able to answer both educationally and with a snippet of snark. It’s statements like, “We don’t need feminism anymore,” that truly give me pause.

Of course we still need feminism — but the reasons aren’t so simple anymore. We still don’t have equal pay, it’s true, but there are women who have truly impressive and powerful careers. Women don’t sit at home while men bring home the bacon anymore; in fact they’re 50% of the workforce. Statistically, it would appear that we’ve made such great strides as to be on the cusp of equality. But still, the need for feminism is beyond facts, beyond statistics – it’s embedded in our culture.

The Shriver Report truly hits the nail on the head in this respect. Yes, women have become 50% of the workforce, it acknowledges, and now more than ever, women are sharing economic and domestic responsibilities with their husbands, if not becoming the primary breadwinner. In fact, the report points out that 4 out of 5 American families with children at home do not fit the traditional male-as-the-breadwinner, stay-at-home-mom model. Despite this, our culture has not transcended sexism as evident in statistics of unequal pay, domestic violence and, more pervasively, in the way the media still portrays women; however the mindset of equality is undeniably in place in the way our culture is shifting on the level of individual families.

The problem is our government and many businesses are slow on the uptake with the mental groundwork that has been laid in our country. Both parents may be working, but problems like the lack of flexibility in work hours, the inadequacy of health insurance for women and their families, and a variety of other issues indicate that the structure of our country simply hasn’t caught up.

My generation of girls will enter the work force in greater numbers than any generation before us. Certain powerful female characters on TV shows (yes, typical to our extremist culture it seems that it’s all or nothing in TV characters…), our schools, even our mothers have built us up to believe that we can take over the world, and it’s true – I believe we individually have the ability to do so. However, it’s clear that there is a disconnect between this capability and the reality of the workforce we will be entering. We want to be the CEO of a major corporation by the time we’re 40, we want to be involved parents, and we expect our partners to be reaching for the same goals while also supporting us in our own endeavors. But is our country ready for us to do so?

The Shriver Report asks this very question, and challenges our society to recognize our structural shortcomings. My generation will enter the workforce in less than a decade. Previous generations have left an overwhelming mess for us to address in our professional lives. We are up to the challenge, but we need help. ??So, for my sake, for the children and grandchildren of America’s sake, I hope the adults of this nation will take this report seriously, and dedicate themselves to change.