Follow up to Jocelyn 2/1

When I opened up Enlightened Sexism I knew it would be intriguing and I would find it interesting after having read the introduction last week.  While I found the stories on Lorena Bobbitt, Janet Reno, and Amy Fisher to be very interesting, as well as the perspective on Buffy and Xena, Chapter 1 particularly caught my attention.  I grew up in the 1990s and have known more about Buffy and Xena, but until reading Chapter 1 of Douglas’ book I did not know all that much about 90210 or Melrose Place.  I especially did not know about Riot Grrrl or Sassy magazine.  Northern Exposure was one show in this chapter that really caught my eye.  The description Douglas gives on page 41 reminded me of my current favorite show, Grey’s Anatomy: “people of various ethnicities and worldviews mingle easily”, “women were utterly unintimidated by male privilege, and indeed has much of the power”, the lesbian lovers in town, etc.  Furthermore, “Only in the alternate universe of Cicely [Seattle Grace Hospital] could conventional gender roles for women be abandoned, and lesbianism seem utterly natural” (Douglas 42).  When Grey’s Anatomy first started in 2005 I remember hearing about how diverse the cast was, how the directors didn’t specify a race for the roles but simply hired whoever was most qualified, etc.  When I read about Northern Exposure I was shocked at how many comparisons I could draw between the two shows and how ahead of its time Northern Exposure must have been in the early 1990s.

I found Walker’s writing on the Third Wave of feminism particularly intriguing.  Since I was only a toddler when the Anita Hill testimony happened, I do not know a ton about it, but was intrigued to hear how Walker became a “Third Wave Feminist”.  I have grown up in the third wave movement and it was interesting to hear what triggered this movement.  I also found part of her definition of feminism to be interesting: “It is to search for personal clarity in the midst of systemic destruction” (Walker 400).  In the previous waves it has seemed, to me, that feminism is more broadly defined and that this definition brings the personal aspect back into it and allows for more women to feel connected to it than before.

The piece by Baumgardner and Richards really surprised me.  After reading it I went back to look at the date it was written and it was only written in 2000.  After reading those thirteen agenda points I, for some reason, thought it would have been written earlier.  Many of the points struck me as things that had reached equality long before 2000—but perhaps that is just me being naive.  However, on the other hand, there are many that I was not surprised to find and that we are still fighting today.  The agendas I was not particularly surprised to find were, for example, number 2 (as there will always be a battle over abortion), number 4, number 7, and number 11 (to name a few).  This piece made me realize that while we have come a long way in fighting for equality we still have battles to resolve and we cannot stop here.