Smalltalk about Feminism, Chauvinism and FCPs
I’ve always uphelp that morally, ideologically, culturally, laborly, and socially women and men should be treated equally. Many activist groups, thinkers, writers, jorunalists, photographers and general members of society have fought throughout the years to achieve this.
But we are a long way away from achieving this. As author Ariel Levy wrote in her first book, Female Chauvinist Pigs, “If Male Chauvinist Pigs were men who regarded women as pieces of meat, we would outdo them and be Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women who make sex objects of other women and of ourselves.”
And I think she has the right to say so, just look around us, walk around at night, you’ll notice it right away. The point is that we claim to be conscious beings, far superior to animals, because we have larger brains, we use a higher percentage of it, we have invented modals, we have literature, television, education, politics. We have started all these different organisations, languages. We have developed tools to aid us on a daily basis, but how can we say we are that much “higher” than animals when most of the time we do not act accordingly?
“This is our establishment, these are our role models, this is high fashion and low culture, this is athletics and politics, this is television and publishing and pop music and medicine and – Good news! – being a part of it makes you a strong, powerful woman. Because we have determined that all empowered women must be overtly and publicly sexual, and because the only sign of sexuality we seem to be able to recognize is a direct allusion to red-light entertainment, we have laced and sleazy energy and aesthetic of a topless club or a Penthouse shoot throughout our entire culture.” – Writes Ariel Levy
I remember at school, junior high, high school, and even at university. The girls just seemed to want to call for boys’ attention no matter how. It seemed like a contest of who could dress the least for school sometimes. If it were not for public intervention, and a very conservative background in mexico, the situation would have been much more severe, probably as bad as some schools in the USA.
“Instead of trying to reform other people’s- or her own- percepton of femininity, the Female Chauvinist Pig likes to position herself as something outside the normal bounds of womanhood. If defending her own little patch of turf requires denigrating other women-”, writes Ariel, “so be it”.
“Women who’ve wanted to be perceived as powerful have long found it more efficient to identify with men than to try and elevate the entire female sex to their level.”, she righteously states throughout her book.
I particularly liked this following section:
“There’s just one thing: Even if you are a woman who achieves the ultimate and becomes like a man, you will still always be like a woman. And as long as womanhood is thought of as something to escape from, something less than manhood, you will be thought less of, too.”
“It can be fun to feel exceptional- to be the loophole woman, to have a whole power thing, to be an honary man. But if you are the exception that proves the rule, and the rule is that women are inferior, you haven’t made any progress.”, she states further on in the book.
An example I would like to state, concerning issues similar to what she describes above, is this BBC article in which “A top lawyer who was struggling to balance a demanding career with caring for her three children drowned herself in the Thames”.
So, it seems being “powerful” and in an excellent position can put much more stress on your personal life, marital life, and life as a whole when you are a woman than when you are a man. It shouldn’t be like this, but there are many more “strings attached” to a particular high-profile job when you are a woman, rather than if you are a man. Specially if you are married and with children.
I will end this post with a few words the author talks about, refering to women: “If we believed that we were sexy and funny and competent and smart, we would not need to be like strippers or like men or like anyone other than our own specific, individual selves. That won’t be easy, but ultimately it would be no more difficult than the kind of contortions FCPs are constantly performing in an effort to prove themselves. More importantly, the rewards would be the very things Female Chauvinist Pigs want so desperately, the things woman deserve: freedom and power.”
Though I would not agree on the “power” issue, as I would state it more as “equality”.
Note: I am not bashing men in this story, nor am I bashing feminists, or the general female culture. I am bashing the fact that we can’t act decently according to what we perceive ourselves to be. If we are looking for a bright, intelligent future for society then let’s actually move things forward. If we are looking to continue with this utter and blatant nonsense that has been going on for thousands of years, then please, let’s stop calling each other humans, as the term animals might fit us more.
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