It is not enough to be equal to men, when the men are acting like beasts.

[rusty_halo]

My coworker just sent this link to me. How incredibly appropriate it is when considering the themes of BtVS.

From Barbara Ehrenreich's commencement speech at Barnard:

Gender equality cannot, all alone, bring about a just and peaceful world.

What I have finally come to understand, sadly and irreversibly, is that the kind of feminism based on an assumption of moral superiority on the part of women is a lazy and self-indulgent form of feminism.

Self-indulgent because it assumes that a victory for a woman - whether a diploma, a promotion, a right to serve alongside men in the military - is ipso facto - by its very nature -- a victory for humanity.

And lazy because it assumes that we have only one struggle - the struggle for gender equality - when in fact we have many more. The struggles for peace, for social justice and against imperialist and racist arrogance ... cannot, I am truly sorry to say, be folded into the struggle for gender equality.

Women do not change institutions simply just by assimilating into them.

Read the whole thing here.

Comments

[jolielaide.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. I've bookmarked the speech as well.

[amerella.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. It's very well-worded, and very true, I think. People suck. Except for John the unholy terror Stamos, who is god. In an unholy sort of way...

[kassto.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting speech. I don't agree with her comments about the war in general but I certainly agree with her that women are not by nature morally superior to men. They can be just as vindictive and ugly, but because they have generally less physical strength than men, they tend to show their bad side in more subtle ways. Just on a small scale, I remember the cruelties of the playground and of the all-women organisation I used to work for, which I found quite nightmarish. And, of course.... Buffy. I really really want to ask Jane E at Writercon what she thinks about so many people finding it hard to respect Buffy ever again after her abusive side was revealed in season 6.

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

"I remember the cruelties of the playground and of the all-women organisation I used to work for, which I found quite nightmarish."
Quite agree - the prospect of all-female gatherings still fills me with dread.
My mother is always on about "chauvinist pigs" and is the worst tyrant under whose iron jackboot I have ever lived.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Word. Feminism has to be part of the struggle for social justice for all. We're all human and all subject to the same failings. We've all go the same potential to be so much more though, and we can only achieve that together.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for posting this. I've been despairing of just the kind of mindset she describes. Thank god we're seeing voices now raise the ethical red flag.