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Feminist Revolution: Carrying On

by Cindy Cooper

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What revolutions do we need? "We still need the feminist revolution," Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said in a video commentary to On The Issues Magazine. It’s now posted Online with Merle Hoffman’s commentary, Revolution Lite (scroll down on the left). "We’re still fighting for family planning, abortion rights. We keep on moving ahead, they push back," she said. "I think we’re moving forward; it feels good," she said.

Liza Sabater comments about what it means to be a feminist in another video posted on the same page (scroll down on the right). Sabater is a new media consultant, blogger and founder of the site culturekitchen. "(F)eminism redefines social and political engagement by giving a person’s private (life) as part of the political sphere," says Sabater. Her feminism means she can look at issues from multiple perspectives, she explains.

Hoffman’s essay, Revolution Lite also generated healthy discussion as it swirled through cyberspace. On the fem2.0 site, Cynthia Corby says that it would help her kick off a discussion on the "F-Word" in her community. "Let’s keep dreaming and focus on the world that ‘should be,’" she wrote. Laurel Davila, at the fem2.0 site had lots to say about "the outrage of sexism being swept under the carpet." The perpetrators, she says, are sometimes women themselves who turn their backs on predecessors who fought to get them their rights. "I am angry at the ignorant and uninformed civil liberties groups who have waved us aside with the ‘F’ word," she writes.

In her essay, Hoffman takes on women who take advantage of the fruits of feminism, but refuse to call themselves feminists. "Kate Roiphe is quoted …as saying, ‘One of the most unappealing things about the feminist movement right from its inception was its tendency to judge other women.’ Apparently, calling oneself a feminist might signal to the world that the person has a judgmental standard of right and wrong, and feminist and non-feminist. And why not pass judgment on a ‘new brand of feminism’ whose agenda is a heady brand of consumerism and adolescent self-involvement," Hoffman writes. That became the "Worthy Quote o’ the Week" at feminist reprise: the blog.

For more good reading, see "Revolutions We Need," in "On The Issues Magazine."

April 16, 2009

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Cindy Cooper is the managing editor of On The Issues Magazine.

Also see
Ending the Male Patina in Biology by Mahin Hassibi in the Winter Edition of On The Issues Magazine.

See “a href="http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/cafe2/article/36">Finding Power in Women’s Voices by Hannah Miller in the Café of the Winter Edition of On the Issues Magazine.

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