I suspect that the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women falls into the ineffective category. It's hard to have a favorable impression of them when their president releases this statement:
Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA, the Family Leave and Medical Act to name a few. Women have buried their anger that his support for the compromises in No Child Left Behind and the Medicare bogus drug benefit brought us the passage of these flawed bills. We have thanked him for his ardent support of many civil rights bills, BUT women are always waiting in the wings.It goes on from there. Thanks to Feministing.com for flagging this
And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment! He’s picked the new guy over us. He’s joined the list of progressive white men who can’t or won’t handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton (they will of course say they support a woman president, just not “this” one).
One wonders why many women are hesitant to embrace the term "feminist" even when they seem to hold such viewpoints. Who wants to be in company with people like the author of the above missive?
2 comments:
Oh, jesus. Come on. The hyperbole from NOW is ridiculous, but your point is lost when you choose to engage in hyperbole as well. You aren't so naive as to actually believe that young women don't identify as feminists in large part because of this crap are you? You must be aware of the last thirty years of successful backlash against the feminist movement, and other liberal and progressive causes by conservatives? It's evident that they've succeeded even in getting fellow liberals to actually believe there rhetoric.
Fair enough. but my intent with the throw-away comment at the end of the post was NOT to offer a universal explanation of why some young women hesitate to self-identify as feminists.
Certainly, the backlash against the feminist movement is a big part of this. When people are told "feminism" equals "man hater" or other such things, they eventually internalize it.
So, I wouldn't place the blame on feminist leaders, but on the conservatives' echo chamber. Still, it can't help when some self-identified feminists engage in hyperbolic rhetoric that seems to confirm people's mis-impressions of feminism as a simplistic, out-of-date, philosophy that comes down to women=good, men=bad.
Now, the women=good, men=bad is an oversimplification of the NY NOW statement, but I think that is how many readers would take it. And that doesn't really help the feminist cause.
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