The Goal of Feminism

“My generation of the Sixties, with all our great ideals, destroyed liberalism, because of our excesses.”
Camille Paglia

The ultimate goal of feminism?

Feminism as a radical, headline-grabbing, movement, is pretty much dead it seems. There are still a few vocal activists and several women tucked into their cushy taxpayer supported sinecures keeping an eye on things, of course, and there are those who quietly work toward social, legal and economic equity. The days of bra burning and ejecting men from anti-violence-against-women marches seem to be behind us though. That is so for a variety of reasons I imagine. Among them, I would guess:

• It was crushed under under the weight of its own bureaucracy.
• It was undone by the ludicrous actions, positions and demands of its more extreme leaders – some of them successful (“equal pay for work of equal value” As if “value” were an objective absolute rather than a subjective decision or mutual agreement. Yikes!) and some of them, thankfully, either meant nothing or went nowhere (Scent wardens at the entrance of feminist meetings to weed out women who might have a dash of cologne behind their ears! The Demon Dworkin declaring that any sex, if the man is erect, is rape! My god, who let these women go about unmedicated?).
• It actually worked, as many movements do, to the extent that enough concessions were received and changes made that the rank and file upon whom such movements depend to maintain a profile could quietly drift away with their gains and satisfaction and attend to more important things like putting food on the table and having fun.
• Real feminists (a la Camille Paglia, Madonna, Martha Stewart et al) simply went about fighting the same fights men do every day to accomplish what they wanted without reliance on “victim” legislation and favoritism and the assistance of self-serving demagogues like Gloria Steinam. They changed the language and the assumptions of the debate.

So, was all the gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair worth it? Perhaps. I really don’t know. I am not a woman.

Was 30 years of activist feminism a success? No. In my view it fell far short of success. Now to this simple mind, “success” (or anything else) can only be measured against a stated goal and I do not recall ever seeing a concrete definition of the ultimate feminist goal. If there ever was a Mission Statement it was hidden from me. Precisely what was wanted and what did they hope to achieve? Specific, ad hoc, items seemed to fill the feminist agenda despite the occasional sweeping demand such as the ERA. But I do not recall ever hearing or reading a statement saying “Feminism will have completed its job when…”

Over the years I thought about that a lot. I wondered how that sentence should be completed. I came to an answer that satisfies me (both as an observer and as a participating homo sapien) and creates a standard that was most certainly not met – not even close.

“Feminism will have completed its job when, if anyone on earth is asked “After you die and are reborn, would you prefer to come back as a man or a woman?”, the response is always “It doesn’t matter.”

C’est tout.