What the feminists are saying

There are pieces of my life that represent glaring philisophical contradictions. The best example is my twelve-year-old love of country music. It's simple and shallow with underlying elements of ignorance, conservatism and patriarchy. So many of my fundamental values are called into question by the lines and language of country music and yet, I can't help it, I need it in my life. Perhaps even more insidious than country itself, are the radio stations that play it. Made famous by boycotting the Dixie Chicks after their allegedly unpatriotic criticism of George W. Bush (years before blaming him for the bad economy and global climate change was popularized), country radio isn't exactly the bastion of critical thought and progressive ideology that I would like it to be.

A couple of weeks ago I was driving home from work just before 4pm. My commute hours are epic radio listening times because early morning/afternoon DJs can more or less say exactly what they are thinking while safely assuming that their primary listening audience is not yet awake/still stuck at work, respectively. What a glorious privilege of free speech. On this particular occassion, the Country DJ on Sacramento's second country station* was sharing a story about a new line of women's underwear that contained a GPS tracking device. I happened to tune in just as the DJ was detailing "what the feminists are saying" about the new product. Oh man, I thought, this is going to be good.

Before I get into the significance of the broad scope of the DJ's statement, let me address the immediate issue: The GPS Lingerie. I don't know what you've heard about domestic violence lately, but one of its most prevalent (and under-recognized) incarnations is emotional abuse. This is often manifested in one partner's exercise of control over the other partner and typically includes the monitoring of where they are, who they're with and what they are doing, at all times. The percentage of domestic violence that is perpetrated by men against women is in the high nineties... need I say more?

Aside from the obvious personal privacy violations, one could imagine the outrageous backlash from a similar product designed (primarily) to track the whereabouts of men. Hasn't our culture developed a stringent code of ridicule and punishment for men who let the women's in their lives follow their every move? Don't we ostracize and criticize male partners who even make voluntary efforts to stay in touch with their female counterparts? Picture the last time you were out with a man who called/texted the woman he was seeing/dating/married to, chances are good the response from his peers involved some combination of ambiguous but overtly-disapproving noises and the word "pussy"(my favorite).

But back to the D.J. Obviously declaring himself in opposition to "the feminists," the D.J. took a condescending tone to describe a perspective ripe with the judgment of the prudish, repressed, uptight sensibilities of a nameless, faceless portion of the population that opposes expressions of heterosexuality-those feminists sure are a fun bunch! As I'm listening I'm thinking about my life as a feminist...

In the early days, I was a precocious elementary school student who spoke up in class, ran for student government office and believed whole-heartedly that boys and girls should be treated the same. Still long before I had a name for it, my feminism showed up in my critique of adolescent gender power dynamics and double standards. The harsh world of high school sluts and homecoming politics felt unfair and imbalanced. And finally as an adult, privileged by access to a richly diverse women's studies program and a library of feminist literature, my understanding and appreciation of my own feminism continues to evolve.

The point is, our culture has limited the reach of feminism by inaccurately labeling the people and ideas that comprise the movement. The country D.J. who uses the phrase be the "feminists" to describe a single type of feedback about a particular product is no different than my male peers at school who tell me, "I think women and men should be treated equally, but feminism takes it too far." Likewise, the women who called into the country radio station to express their disdain for "the feminists" because of how sexy they think it is to put on a pair of underwear and wait for their man to find them, are also missing the point. The definition of feminism? "The theory of political, economic and social equality of the sexes." Which would make "feminists" any individual or group of people who believe in it. Which would also mean that attaching a "feminist" label to narrowly conceived opinions (such as GPS underwear is for the promiscuous and amoral) disempowers an entire field of thought that has the potential to do great things in the world.

There are two primary points I am trying to make
1) GPS underwear was (like most things) probably designed by a man who has some unrealistic fantasy about what type of underwear gets a woman going, and a limited understanding of a real woman's needs and desires in that department. It is a disturbing invention but I think most feminists would agree, that if a woman chooses to wear GPS underwear for her own pleasure, fulfillment, happiness, etc, there is no judgment from us.

2) The worst part about creating an idea of what "the feminists" think, say, do believe, etc. is that it marginalizes and narrows a movement that is designed to be broad and inclusive. As soon as "feminism" has a concrete set of values and expectations, women and men can point to the reasons they aren't feminists instead of imagining all of the ways in which they are. Feminism is not about a dogmatic approach to social and political life. Feminism is about becoming aware of our simultaneous uniqueness and oneness, and creating a space where we can meet to improve our lives. Wear your GPS underwear, if you'd like.


*apparently the ridicule of the California state capital for being a backcountry hillbilly town had died down in the last few years so we needed an additional country music station to amp up our image.