My impressions of Women's Lib, straight from the front. I was there, man, just young.
Feminism. What does that mean? Good question these days.
I was born in 1965. I can vaguely remember the women burning their bras on TV. I just got a glimpse before my mother turned it off. She shrugged it off as something "the hippies" were doing. I asked why people would burn bras they had paid money for. She said that they were protesting because they didn't think they should have to conform the natural shape of their bodies with foreign objects. Those were not her exact words, of course, I was 7 years old. I don't remember her exact words, but I do remember a little history lesson that started with corsets, hit girdles somewhere in the middle and ended with bras, burned in a dumpster.
I should mention now that my mother never, to my knowledge, went anywhere but to bed without a bra. I should probably also mention, because in my opinion, this MATTERS on this subject: my mom actually had boobs. Good ones, which get plenty of attention WITH a bra on, thank-you-very-much. I am pretty sure they must have all been small boobed women, those bra burners. Or high. Maybe they were just stuck at home with the kids and would take any opportunity to get out of the house. I wouldn't really know. I was at home with my mother, who explained what she could about the movement but never waivered in her conviction of what a woman is. Or the wearing of her bra, either one.
I wonder who watched the kids while they were burning their bras? Probably their mother's, who were at home doing what women had always done: raise children and making a home. I figure those mothers were probably thinking "get real".
Next was the Equal Rights Amendment, that resulted in nothing ,for decades, but a whole lotta arguing and a new name for laudry detergent. I love the irony there. It was supposed to make sure women got paid the same as men for doing the same work. The "same" work was never satisfactorily defined. At the time, my mother "had" to go to work, as was her right after she was left with two small children. Her husband finally left her to run off with another woman. I think she was a woman, although a legal definition of "age of consent" may need to be consulted to tell for sure. Never heard if she wore a bra or not. Mom got a job at a bank, where she was not allowed to wear anything other than a skirt or a dress. Of course she wore a bra, too. I'm pretty sure they would have frowned on liberated sorts who didn't.
I do not remember hearing discussions of who would watch the children if the women went to work, but I'm sure they were going on. Maybe they were figuring their mothers would do it. I also do not remember hearing discussions of what would happen when those children got sick, but I'm sure people were discussing it. Or, they may have just figured that their mother's would do that, too. Because they always had. When you decide to change the way things have always been, there are a lot of variablesI suppose it's hard to be prepared for.
What I brought out of the whole experience was that girls were supposed to be equal to men, and get paid the same. That is pretty general, I know, but I was about 10 at this time. Honestly, I have to say it sounded good to me. I already felt I had been somehow devalued, not to mention being defensive about it, which must have been part of their plan, but it was years before that would occur to me.
Flash forward 10 years, say 1985:
We girls are all prepared to have "careers" and make all this money, only we still don't get paid the same amount as men. We are pissed about this. A lot of us aren't married because we don't feel that we have been indoctrinated to look down on women who feel they "need" a man. We are also of childbearing age now, and oddly, the pill did absolutely nothing to decrease unplanned parenthood. Since we would be working, we would also be sending our children to daycare, where they will get sick, necessitating the missing of work to take said children to the Dr. We are missing getting paid, but we have to come up with extra money for the Dr. and the pharmacy.
It occurs to me that this might have a little bit to do with the fact that we don't make as much as men. Most of the men have a wife, mother, sister, someone to do this for them. Free. I'm pretty sure that's because no women actually trust any men to take care of small, sick children. In any event, those damn men hardly ever miss work.
Madonna arrives on the scene as a pop culture icon.
Everybody starts getting boob jobs.
Oh, and anti-depressants are everywhere, and you are not to feel bad about taking them, either. It's not your fault you're depressed.
I wonder if this was what the bra burners had in mind. I think they are doing it wrong. I solidly stand behind their RIGHT to do it wrong, however. I mull over the fact that boobs have been the biggest source of money coming to females since........there have been women with boobs. I think some things never change. I think someone needs to GET REAL, but I am no longer sure whether it's "them" or me.
Instead of the ERA passing, we got something called "affirmative action", which was supposed to be good not just for women, but anyone of "minority" status. I vividly remember having a discussion of this with grown adult (around 40 years old) at this time. The adults were against it, because they said it would end up with people having to hire people because of their gender or color of their skin, which would be bad. I said that that was just silly, it was to keep people from holding any gender or color issues against you. They said "GET REAL", they are going to tell us who we can and cannot hire! I said that would be stupid. NO one would ever hire a people who weren't qualified, that would be stupid!!! Then, I am pretty sure I stomped away in a rage, as teenagers are wont to do. They probably rolled their eyes and lamented my lack of vision.
You see, I could not concieve of a time when what I thought of as adults would ever NOT be in charge. I also, and this is a luxury not available to the youth of today, was sure that common sense and justice would always prevail in America.
So, I would like to take this opportunity as an adult to apologize to the adults of yesteryear because I have to hand it to you: YOU WERE RIGHT. You know who you are.
Some kind of war between working women and stay at home moms begins. Also at issue, oddly I think, is nursing in public.
I mean, GET REAL, women have been nursing babies since....women have been having babies. It's what the ever popular and lucrative boobs are actually designed for.
At any rate, now women, instead of being attacked by other groups, feel free to attack each other. I think they are doing it wrong, and suspect their mother's are saying "I told you so".
Flash forward 20 years:
All the old rules seem to have been thrown out, along with most of what you would recognize as music.
The little girls who were raised not to compare themselves to or aspire to be Barbie dolls have steel in their faces, ink from one end to another and instead of worrying about careers, just make sex tapes or become pop stars. Which is now the same as porn, by the way, FCC rules for tv having gone through a liberation of their own.
Thanks, Madonna! (Who wears big caricatures of bra's incidentally. Coincidentally?)
I still do not negate their RIGHT to do that, but I'm wondering what kind of parent (mother) they have (Madonna? No, you may be surprised to know that she is very strict with her children. They don't even watch TV, probably for obvious reasons), and what kind of life this is going to make. I conclude that they are nothing but a cash cow to their parents, who must not be able to conceive of the notion of "nurturing" or "protecting innocence".
We have court cases because, of all the firemen who are eligible for promotions, the ones who get hired have to be black, and none of the black ones could pass the test. What to do??? Thanks affirmative action!
We have women serving in armed forces, despite having children, and soon will have openly gay people there too. I wonder who is raising their children. Not just the women's children either. This being the age of equality, gay people are going to have the right to get a job and leave their children for someone else to raise also.
On the upside, women finally gain a little in the battle to make as much as men. Woot! Woot?
Boob jobs and plastic surgery have reached a saturation point, so begins the long and no doubt painful backlash. Products said to remove tattoos flood the market.
It occurs to me that when you tell kids they can be anything, they believe you. As proof, transgenderism abounds almost as much as diagnosed cases of ADHD.
You can get any kind of drug you want as easily as going to your Dr. and requesting whatever the commercial said repeatedly right before the long and horrifying list of side effects. Except anitbiotics. There remains no black market for them unless you can get some for your pet from a vet. At least, as far as I know. If I hear of any I will be sure to let you know, though (wink wink).
Where does this leave us?
Beats the hell outta me!
All I know for sure, is this: the children have to be taken care of and it's usually the women who do it. I do not mean to take away from what a father brings to the equation. Perish the thought. Children need both a mother and father, working in tandem. One of them needs to be with the child constantly when it is small and cannot take care of itself. Traditionally, this has been the mother, due to the boobs.
We have the right to do just about anything we can imagine now. It pains me to see young girls being encouraged to devalue themselves. And being in some gansta's rap video is not something to be proud of. You can blame drugs, tv, hippies, almost anything and be a little bit right about how we got into this mess, but it seems pretty clear to me that nobody has been taking care of the kids for the last several decades. That cannot and should not be taken lightly. I think everybody should do whatever makes them happy. I just always assumed that personal dignity would always be the natural, unanimous choice of women. I think they're doing it wrong.
What have we gained?
What have we lost?
When are we going to get real?
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