final paper # 1

Taylor O’Neal

Women’s Studies

Final Paper : #1
The Problem with Feminism
Feminism has conquered many of the issues it has fought for over the centuries. Women activists have gained women the right to vote, the right to get an education and a career, the rights to protect themselves with contraceptives, and it has brought many different sexual issues to the public‘s attention. However, the feminist movement continues to possess one flaw- the fact that there still a necessity for the movement at all. After years of progress and success, why is there still a requirement for the feminist movement? In this day in age, it’s shameful that in spite of everything it has accomplished, the need for the movement still exists. Our culture constantly evolves and progresses, one improvement after the other, yet social, political, and economical equality of women remains an issue. The feminist effort has been raging on for over a hundred years in our world, and yet we still face equality issues between men and women today. The women’s movement has triumphed over many objections through years of struggle and oppression, you‘d think the problems would be solved and forgotten by now.
This semester we learned a great deal about the feminist movement and the meaning of the word feminism. We’ve learned about the beginning, middle, and now the present stages of the feminist effort. The main concern for me now is: how come there hasn’t been an final stage yet? Five of our assigned readings in class cooperate well together on the issue that there still even an issue of feminism in the world today. The readings : White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack by Peggy McIntosh, Feminist Frontiers by Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila J. Rupp, He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know by Jessica Valenti, The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, and lastly The Will to Change by Bell Hooks, are all relating on women’s issues, and greatly connects to the most important detail that, the feminist movement is still necessary today.
The article written by Peggy McIntosh titled White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack is presenting how feminism and racism are very much similar. Men are constantly unaware of the advantages they have over women, just as many white people don’t realize their upper hand they have opposing to many black people. McIntosh begins the article by calling these men, and white people “privileged“, yet towards the end of her message, she transforms her idea of privileged, and it then becomes an “unearned advantage and conferred dominance“. We didn‘t earn the right to consider ourselves higher ranked above other human beings, but our society and culture teaches us to do so. Our society still maintains the ideas of women’s roles as being subjective to men, which has been born and bred into our culture, and therefore goes unquestioned and unnoticed. Her study of how men go through life unable to notice these advantages they have over women connects with the morality that there is still a need for the feminist movement, because this type of ignorance shouldn’t stay tolerated and unmentioned. Just because oppression isn’t popular, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be changed. The feminist movement opens the eyes to create this needed change.
Feminist Frontiers by Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila J. Rupp studies bicoastal women working in harsh conditions crafting products for the use of the United State. Women in the United States would never be expected to work in the condition as those that work overseas. The hourly wages in footwear factories are dramatically lower than the wages here in the United States. In China, the hourly wages are as low as $0.10-0.14 compared to our $7.38-7.49. With women being the majority of these factory employees, it proves that women in other societies still face feminist issues. In some countries the feminist movements are sadly paced behind ours, meaning that they have many more years of hard work ahead of them to achieve the progress we have accomplished here in the United States. Articles such as the Feminist Frontiers are just more supportive examples representing the present need for the feminist movement.
Next, the sarcastically comical assigned reading “He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut” by Jessica Valenti perfectly describes several different stereotypical scenarios where women receive unfair treatment just because the fact that they are indeed a woman. This article demonstrates that feminism should still be an issue in our culture with absolute perfection. The notion that men and women are thought of differently, and even if they perform the same actions, their consequences can be drastically different. For example, the stud/slut theory: when a woman has sex with multiple partners she is then considered used, promiscuous, and “slutty”, however, if a man has sex with multiple partners, he is given the reputation of a pimp, player, or “stud”. When this double standard is actually given thought, it seems ridiculous, yet the standard remains and endures. Also, the idea of the stay at home mother, and the big business man that works still stands in our society today. Slowly these standards presented in Valenti’s article are starting to falter and women are progressing against the stereotype, yet women still face these common misconceptions everyday.
Women are constantly subjected to body images in our society. Our culture still views women based upon their looks or their sexuality, instead of their minds and their personality. In The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, she discusses the timeline on the idea of “beautiful” that women are judged by. Wolf brings up an interesting point that the myth can destroy feminism, because it turns women against each other through jealousy-jealous of other women having what the others do not involving beauty. Year after year, the idealistic role of beautiful alters and so the women follow suit. Women stress about their weight, their wrinkles, their skin color, their hair styles, their outfits, and every other superficial aspect of appearance. Even though men are also judged upon their looks, women are greater looked after as objects instead of people. The third wave of feminism taking place today is struggling to fight against this so-called beauty myth, because the idea of beauty shouldn’t be categorized according to outward appearance, yet it should be determined by a person’s mind, personality, and soul. What determines beauty anyhow? Beauty isn’t something that should give women constant low self esteems, it should be something that is individual, and makes women love themselves because everyone is beautiful in their own way. The controversy over the Beauty Myth proves that there is still a dire need for feminism.
Lastly, the whole idea of feminism isn’t that women are better than men, or that men should lower themselves to women. Feminism is the idea that women are equal to men, and men are also equal to women. In an article by Bell Hooks called, The Will to Change, men face a lot of the same issues that women face when it comes to their personality and identity. Masculinity can be related to the beauty myth in our culture, because what defines a person’s masculinity or beauty? In the article Hooks expresses that boys at younger ages are more expressional of their emotions because they haven’t been taught to be tough and manly yet. However, as boys get older, they are treated with less emotional care than girls are, in order to toughen them up, and to avoid weakness. This stereotype that men should be masculine is the same wrong conception that women should be feminine. Our culture has determined masculinity as emotionless, strong, handsome, rough, and stable, while femininity is characterized as dainty, fragile, emotional, ditzy, and pretty. These misconceptions of “normal” men and women cause the problems with diversity in our society, making individuality hard to express with out facing ridicule. If women should be treated equal to men, then male issues should be brought to the table along with female issues. By recognizing the similar problems that men share with women, the feminist movement invites more controversies to cover and resolve. This results in prolonging the final wave of the feminist movement.
Each of theses assigned readings have taught me a great deal about the role of feminism still existing today. I strongly believe in the feminist movement, yet I can’t wrap my head around the problem that there still is the need for one. Our culture is so advanced in almost every aspect, yet we still can’t seem to get past the stereotypes of men and women roles in our society. Knowing that there is still a need for the feminist effort in the world I live, and plan on growing up in, makes me aware of the ignorance our culture still holds on to. This ignorance, I believe, will eventually be resolved, and men and women will hold equal respect for another. Yet, until then, the feminist movement presses forward because it will not give up on equality until every bridge has been crossed.

References:
The Beauty Myth “How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women” By Naomi Wolf
The Will to Change “Men, Masculinity, and Love” By Bell Hooks
Feminist Frontiers By Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila J. Rupp
White Privilege : Unpacking the Invisible Backpack By Peggy McIntosh
He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut “And 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know” By Jessica Valenti