Fresh Hell of 11-5-07~Sisters are doin' it for themselves

Today in my classes its all been about gender. For not the first time, a large number of my classes as circled around the same subject. If I didn't know better, I would think it was planned. Today it was about gender in Sociology and Feminism in Modern American Poetry. My incredibly knowledgable yet equally absent soc professor asked us what we considered the advantages of being female and I won much praise with my list which consisted of:

• More social acceptance of emotional outbursts
• More range of wardrobe choices
• Multiple orgasms

Indeed, it is good to be a girl. He called me brilliant and that soothed an ego that had received earlier the lowest test grade in the history of its college career. Anyway, there was a list of the disadvantages and while that was not gone over in class, they are obvious. Social pressure to procreate, unfair work practices against women, the glass ceiling, blah blah. I say blah blah because this follows in with the usual song and dance that every woman is subjected to in college. We are all victims so lets get out there and beat the patriarchy. Rah rah rah! This would be the feminist cheer if feminists believed in cheerleaders. This kind of infirmary feminism is the result of strong opinionated women's anger over the supposed oppression of my generation. I say supposed because even though we are supposedly oppressed, I find myself not feeling oppressed. Perhaps its my strong personality that denies any man the right to have any say over my life whether it be my dear clueless father or any lover/boyfriend/husband. I had thought that perhaps I was the only one that felt this way. After all, we are subjected to the constant barrage of little barbs thrown by the third wavers that tell us we are the victims of society. I didn't understand how the sweet innocents of my generation could escape at least an inkling of the alleged oppression. After a brief little sojourn to the library for a quick snack and chat with cathy, my friend from soc, I proceeded to my fav class of the day. Modern American Poetry. Not particularly because I enjoy poetry, though I admit the modern stuff is much better than Victorian poetry, (thats probably the prof.) but because of the class quality and the professor is very intellectually stimulating. Anyway, to get to the point, we were studying Adrienne Rich, a feminist poet who went from being a 50's housewife with three sons to a bra burning lesbian. What interested me in the discussion is that Prof L asked us, how many of you consider yourselves feminists? Out of the 12 girls in the class, only three raised their hands. Really two and a half. The two were my dear friends who I knew before the class and they do understand the historical importance and the true definition of a feminist, which is simply someone that believes in equal rights for both sexes. By this definition, almost everyone is a feminist. Yet, one has to ask, why did most of the girls in that class not consider themselves proud members of the feminist movement. Is it perhaps that we do not consider ourselves oppressed? Are we poor dupes that do not see the conditions in which we live? The truth of the matter is that young single women are taking over the world. We are the children of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda. Bridget Jones is our hero and cautionary tale. We no longer believe in cinderella and snow white. We can't afford the idea of being rescued because the prince isn't coming and even if he did, who wants him? We are educated, intelligent, and organized. Perhaps not into a movement, but our buying power alone has every major corporation and merchandiser worshipping at our feet. We are going to college more than men, living by ourselves away from daddy's thumb, and we aren't going to get married until we are damn well ready, if at all.

We are in the words of every gay man that is our compadre, Fierce! *snaps*

Instead of the family unit, we depend on our social circle and ourselves. We are the future. We sigh because as much as we love our parents, they just don't get it. And they don't. The world we face is completely different than the one of their youth and its problems are almost beyond their scope. They don't understand our pitfalls and demons. And demons we have.

We have aspirations and the tools to make them reality. We can nourish our own dreams and foster our future. We have it all planned out. We are giddy over our own possibilities. So don't look at us like we are victims that need a special movement that gets us rights or a man to come along to solve our problems. Sister's are doing for themselves.