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NEWS & LETTERS, December 2007 - January 2008'Sisterhood, Interrupted' dispels mythsSisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild by Deborah Siegel (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) studies how the controversies within the feminist movement have played out in the popular culture of the 1960s through today. Siegel noticed that younger women get a very incomplete, caricatured view from popular culture of the feminism that arose in the mid-1960s, which makes this movement seem monolithic. She wants them to know about the multifaceted and contentious history of what is called feminism's "second wave" so that they can avoid both the trap of rebelling against its supposed stodgy "political correctness," and that of idealizing its supposedly harmonious "sisterhood." She also wants to remedy the view that second wavers get from the mainstream media of "third wavers"--the new generation of younger feminists--as not being serious. Siegel often focuses on Betty Friedan, author of THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE, who used the mainstream media (including a women's magazine column) to help popularize liberal feminism but at the expense of radical feminists, all of whom she lumped together and demonized as "man-haters." In reality, the radical feminism of the 1960s and '70s contained just as many, if not more, competing philosophies than it does today. This should be a surprise, not only to the average person who continues to believe the "man-hater" myth, but to radical feminists themselves, some of whom argue over ideological purity. This brings up the question of just what constitutes a "radical" or a "liberal" feminist position, as the definitions have often changed and even switched places. One of the major controversies between the two (and within radical feminism) has been a view of feminism as a mass movement with the goal of changing society's institutions vs. a view of feminism as self-empowerment, with even Friedan switching views. Other controversies have been over sexual liberation and "cultural feminism" and whether they really make any change in society and women's lives or whether they are dangerous distractions from such change. All of these controversies have also been played out as a supposed generation gap between second and third wave feminisms. Siegel points out that third wavers often think they have invented sexual liberation, which was really a focus of radicals in the second wave, and which Friedan derided as "orgasm politics." ( I've personally seen the same term used by second wavers to describe the supposed frivolity of third wavers!) However, the various strands of both radical and liberal feminism have contributed towards both individual empowerment and reforming society, even though the same battles against oppression still must be fought. SISTEHOOD, INTERRUPTED was written to reach out to the general public, especially younger women, to help them learn more about the feminist movement and entice them to become active in it. Siegel envisions her book as the start of a conversation in which more feminists will write comprehensive books on feminist theory, activism, and history. --Adele |
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