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NEWS & LETTERS, March 2002
Column: Woman as Reason by Jen Ainbinder
What's feminist about 'Turbo
Chicks" TURBO CHICKS: TALKING YOUNG
FEMINISMS is a well-intentioned, bloodless book that sets out to be “fantastic
in its diversity, fair in its process, and that would embody what we feel about
young women, not-so-young women, young feminism and the need for sharing across
women’s movements.” The editors, Allyson Mitchell,
Lisa Bryn Rundle, and Lora Karaian, all hailing from York University’s
graduate program in Women’s Studies, have gathered together a diverse
collection of essays from a diverse group of Canadian girls and women. While
giving a forum to those who are often not provided with one, and embodying a
democratic process in writing and editing are both admirable goals, these goals
do not make this a feminist book. The editors and many, but not
all, of the writers seem to feel that if one is a strong young woman with a
strong personality and a strong sense of self, then one is automatically a
feminist. Each writer gives her own definition of feminism, and while some of
the writers believe that feminism or women’s liberation is a political
movement, too many of the writers treat feminism (never mind liberation) as a
question of identity alone. For every Julie Devaney who
states that “women’s liberation has to be an active theory, a theory that is
based on women’s struggle at the same time as it inspires women to fight for
change,” and who goes on to advocate for solidarity among those who challenge
systems of oppression, there are five like Angie Gallop who believes that
feminism “is about balancing honesty with compassion in your daily
interactions with the people and ideas that surround you, and it is about
listening and stretching your mind to honor the realities of the new people you
encounter.” Too much of TURBO CHICKS is
this cloying blend of decontextualized postmodernist subjectivity and new age
spiritual self-revelation. TURBO CHICKS becomes a
theorized book-length version of Bust magazine, touching on all of the big
issues (race, class, porn) but coming to all the conclusions that we
expect—racism and classism are bad, and porn is bad when exploitive, but it
sure is interesting and fun sometimes! The questions of what is specific to
Canadian feminism, and of how Canadian feminism has challenged the unilateralist
views of U.S. middle-class feminism get lost in the effort to be fair to every
person and every viewpoint. If you are planning to write a
treatise on the failures of contemporary “feminism,” than TURBO CHICKS is a
valuable resource. Otherwise, leave the book on the shelf. There are better
books to read. The reason that I've been so harshly critical of TURBO CHICKS is not because I believe that we need a monolithic movement that tolerates no dissent and welcomes no new voices and ideas. What we need, desperately, is a vision of freedom for all women. We need to understand that INDIVIDUAL freedom is nothing without a common freedom for all of us. I am alternately distressed and enraged when women, young and old, equate freedom with the right to wear a baby-doll dress or spike heels–that our choice of apparel should be confused with our basic needs of food, safety, shelter, power over our bodies, and the right to do the work we choose! That the power to be who we are, to own our lives is subverted into the power to look good! Some feminists even refuse to lay out a political and philosophical vision for fear of being hegemonic. I invite all who read this to write to me, care of News and Letters, with your vision of freedom. Our movement is disoriented, but it does not have to stay that way. |
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