While making my son's usual eggs and hashbrowns and toast this morning, we somehow found our way onto the topic of Feminism.
If you want to know what 14 year old girls think about feminism, you don't have to look past social media. A great many of them make a point of disavowing any belief or need of feminism - they see Feminists as Dykey lesbians, as combative demonstrators for a cause they don't think they need. These girls haven't been taught anything in school about feminism, and they have no idea what it is they are railing against.
My son said that girls at his school think that feminism is about not letting a man (or boy person) hold open the door for you. They think that whatever feminists are talking about, they don't need it. It's all old school, ancient history. Totally uncool.
I told my son a few facts about north american women in the 20th century - like the fact that we weren't allowed to vote until 1918, and even then, not all women, aboriginal women did not have the right to vote until the 1960s. Until 1909, it was perfectly legal to abduct a woman. Women weren't allowed to serve on juries until the 1950s, and lots of similar facts. I also included the fact that when I got married in 1990, the marriage form that I was supposed to sign designated me as a 'spinster.'
I told him the story of post WWII America, and the massive propaganda machine that worked to take women out of those war jobs, and back into the home so that returning soldiers could go to work. I told him about the suburbanization of the American woman. He was looking pretty skeptical when I told him about the media machine 'resocializing' women to be content with cooking, cleaning, and being home for their husbands, so I found some ads from back in the day. The images pretty much made the point.
It is unbelievable to me that they don't teach any of this in High School. Shame.
