Love Of Wisdom: Naomi Wolf #1, Do Women Feel Free?

"At last, after a long silence, women took to the streets. In the two decades of radical action that followed the rebirth of feminism in the early 1970s, Western women gained legal and reproductive rights, pursued higher education, entered the trades and the professions, and overturned ancient and revered beliefs about their social role. A generation on, do women feel free?"​

​

The passage above is the opening paragraph of Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth, written in 1990. I would like posters to answer Wolf's question as if she was asking the question today, so let me ask the question anew: A generation after the second-wave feminists acted, and fourteen years after Naomi Wolf wrote The Beauty Myth, do women feel free? Has Wolf's campaign been successful?

Digressions are welcome, but I would like to keep this a 'answer-statement' thread. The answers to this question are intriguing and an in depth debate would obscure the opinions of individual posters.

Those interested in participating in or reading other LOVE OF WISDOM debates should click here.

 

Yes, I do feel free, if for no other reason than that I refuse to be a victim. I do not feel that I have a right to bitch about society's concept of beauty, because every society has a concept of beauty, and compared to other societies, we have it made here in the US. Sexism goes both ways--women aren't the only ones. I for one do not allow other people's opinions from stopping me from doing what I want. Victimhood is a choice.

 

Thank you for responding, Strawberry. You position is an interesting point of departure on an issue of great importance.

 

Anyone else like to respond to Naomi's question reasked?

 

dumb question, but why are we supposed to check out your website when all it does is link back here, and to wikipedia (which isn't always the most reliable source of info?) Anywho, it's a little offsetting, which might be why so few have responded to your thread.. as well as you having to use someone else to back up asking a relatively simple question. Not trying to come off as a bitch, just saying why I didn't respond any earlier than now.

Anywho, I feel free as a woman. Exactly as much as a man does in society, in my opinion. I don't feel all that constrained to be a certain way or do any specific activities. I put make up on because I personally prefer the way I look with it. I dye my hair because it makes me different than every other blondo out there (not that all blondes are bad, just some)

The only time I dislike being a chick is when I'm at the bar dancing. Nothing like being treated like a slab of meat to make you happy. I go to dance, not to hook up with guys, nor feel their crotches against my rear when I haven't even seen their face yet. So not cool.

 

ihmurria

I wanted you to understand what I am trying to do, but it seems that I was unclear (I will have to rethink my choice of words)

I agree with the Wikipedia goal of creating a free online encyclopedia, so I support it.

That could be a good thing.

My page is a list of links that connect surfers to debates on specific passages from the books of great philosophers. My goal is to discuss these famous quotes to encourage readers and posters to become more knowledgeable, intimately, about key arguments that effect politics, education, identity, morality, the environment, etc.

I don't believe in 'bitches', only complaining (by men or women) and women (or men) who seek power. "Bitch" is an outdated hierarchical term used by liberals who have not reflected on its meanings and political import.

LOL! I have violated my own request!

 

I feel very free, because I choose to be taken seriously. I think that women in American society can do just that - choose. You can choose to let others think of you as a mindless bimbo with boobs and a vagina, OR you can pursue your interests and get respect from both men and women in whatever feild you are into.


Interesting thread, kudos and good karma to you, blueskyboris!

 

It strikes me that The Hip Forum's answer to the question "Do Women Feel Free?" will be both true and false. From what I can gather, most posters here are of the 17-24 age group, so that means most posters do not have a career, bills to pay, a family to raise, or a husband or wife to deal with. To be young in a liberal culture is to be as free as you will ever be, perhaps?. So the answers are wrong in the sense that those who have answered the question have not truly tasted full responsibility and the possible shackles. That said, The Hip Forum is also the perfect place to ask such a question, because 17-24 year olds are the heirs and result of both the greater feminist revolution and Naomi Wolf's individual campaign against what she termed the beauty myth.

 

Cheers!

 

fyi, I lived on my own last year, worked 30 hours a week (well, 28-34 on average) on top of 4 classes (one shy of a full courseload), paid all my bills, made all my own food (well, pizza should be ordered in), took care of my own transportation, got mostly 80s in my university classes, and helped my mother emotionally deal with a divorce. So no, it's not as much resposibility as having kids (which I don't plan on doing) or having a husband (and I don't much believe in marriage, but it is a modicum more than most 17 year olds deal with (yes, I was 17 when I moved out)

 

I was 16 when I moved out, but I have yet to go to university or start a career other than planting trees. Treeplanting seems a littlte unfair at times because its peice work. men are usually physically stronger than women and, planting, usually make more money. I think he was getting at sexism in the workplace. Men get paid more on average for doing the same jobs and get to be the boss more often. I read The Beauty Myth and it changed my life, seriously. I reccomend it to all women. The book is not about how bad make up is. What an amazing book.

I feel free.