Postfeminism sucks
2009 April 5
The problem with political ideas like feminism is that you are not allowed sometimes to say the truth. In Germany we have lots of older, very famous feminists. And it is not allowed for me as a young feminist to say that women are masochistic. I am and all my female friends are. We stand in front of the mirror, we are naked, and we feel ugly as fuck. We see everything as wrong. We try and fight our body to become prettier and work on it. It’s not at all free and self-confident. I don’t want it to be like that, but I see that it is.
–Charlotte Roche, on her novel Wetlands
I think it’s the biological essentialism that feminism challenges. I don’t think that poor female self-image is news to even the crustiest German feminist.
I call straw crone!
Also she’s using “masochism” to refer to poor self-image, whereas the traditional meaning is being sexually aroused by being subjugated.
Or is this your point? That post-feminist Roche only has access to twisted meanings of feminist vocabulary and thus cannot use it to describe her own situation?
I’ll shut up right after this, but here are the first three chapters of her book:
http://www.nerve.com/fiction/roche/wetlands/chapter-one/
http://www.nerve.com/fiction/roche/wetlands/chapter-two/
http://www.nerve.com/fiction/roche/wetlands/chapter-three/
There’s so much I have to say about this… (Sighs.) For starters, I think it’s awful that otherwise strong, intelligent, and sexually alive women (and, to be fair, some men) are consumed with fighting their own bodies rather than the causes of our collective dysmorphia. I also think it’s bizarre that not shaving one’s pussy has become a revolutionary act, one that Roche and her peers are entranced by and yet still can’t bring themselves to commit.
The thing is, the dysmorphia is insidious, even viral. I’ve noticed that the more time I spend with post-third wave women, the more self-conscious I become about my own body, even those aspects of it I like. It’s something I find I have to guard against, and this sometimes means shielding myself from the gaze of other women, not men. I hate it, but to paraphrase Roche, that’s how it is.
That said, I’m starting to think that postfeminism was so much a product of neoliberalism and the consumer culture it spawned that the current economic situation will inevitably inspire some other way of becoming-woman. Let’s hope…
I think this is very real-and not really about twisted vocabulary. Really, part of the experience of being a woman is sometimes looking in the mirror and feeling ugly. Do I find it sad? Yes. Do I feel like a bad feminist? Of course. Is it about subjugation? Perhaps, perhaps not. My feeling about about the 2nd wavers is they just sort of blazed through the issue and weren’t completely honest about it. I am thinking particularly of books I read by 2nd wavers when I researched eating disorders back in undergrad. I may be completely wrong, but I really got the feeling that they fetishized hungry women and talked about them in a very similar way to realist authors at the turn of century writing about women with consumption.
i mean, I really wish I was a marxist or whatever and didn’t care about how I looked or didn’t feel the need to wear make up when I go out or you know, buy clothes to look cute. I think of those teeshirts “this is what a feminist looks like” worn by very cute girls. Really, why does that teeshirt challenge people’s perceptions of feminist? If I were to roll out of bed one sunday morning and go to the cafe for my post saturday hangover omelette-no one would be surprised-they’d think yeah-that’s what I thought a feminist looked like. And really, the teehshirt would have no point. I mean think about the most popular American feminist-she could pass as a playboy bunny. I sometimes think people were only willing to listen to her because she was so good looking. And when someone that good looking tells you that it doesn’t matter how you look-well. It’s like your Mom telling you that you’re pretty. Sure.
It leads me to wonder what the point of post feminism is-it’s like you can be a consumer feminist- and you know, buy things and do things that make you feel good. Often cutsy things, like the dishtowels of women drinking cocktails I saw in the latest issue of Bust-or have botox or implants because it increases your self confidence. But it’s not cool to be critical about why that increases your self confidence.
It also seems to me that post feminist have decided that they want men-you know, so they can write Mommy blogs, and make slow cooked organic meals for the family. I guess the negotiation becomes how can you be a feminist attractive to men? When the langauge of second wave was very different and mostly talked about how women didn’t need men. Well, I don’t need lipstick either, but I still want it.
I just wrote that, and I think it’s really fucked up and I feel like a bad feminist for even thinking it.
I guess it’s weird to be aware of the male gaze and the patriarchy, but not quite knowing what you want to do with it, or what you think of it.