The New Generation Society

Lily Eastwood

NGS member and former journal editor, Lily Eastwood, looks at the confusing cocktail of feminist ideals and female submission facing women of the New Generation.

Feminism is so passé; does the burning bra still prevail as a symbol of women’s rights? Quite the opposite. In fact the bra industry is booming, having grown by 40% in the nineties, and by the early “noughties”, Victoria’s Secret alone had approximately 4,735,000 square feet of selling space. Padded, gel technology and invisible backs – let society cast out She who does not wear a bra and curse the name of She who does not wear make-up. Feminism today is understood only as a choice for those whose natural assets are so unfortunate that even a push up bra and lip plumping gloss cannot help.

Excuse my blunt tone; the term feminist is no more allied with “ugly” than anti-feminist is with “vain”. Nevertheless, the collision of the most empowered females in modern history with probably the most image conscious society ever witnessed, leaves a woman of the New Generation somewhat disorientated.

On the one hand, feminism historically has led to a ridiculous distortion of equality and a mistrust of men. The media and the education system rear us on some very pro-female, and sexist messages. Girls are not unreasonable they are hormonal; boys are not hormonal they are insensitive. The suppressed women of the world have broken their shackles only to play the role of the victim from a higher social position. Women are choosing to be belittled and pitied from their position as CEO, and subsequently overly demonising the men surrounding them. It is a perverse equality, which sees both genders being downtrodden.

Nevertheless feminism also offers many strong points highlighting women’s compliance to male authority. A woman’s image, for example, is purely defined by society. All stereotypically attractive female features are historically significant. Any exhibition of feminine curves is an advertisement of fertility and suitability for childbirth, whilst a coy smile is a woman bending to the patriarchal society’s desire for submissive behaviour. My day-to-day body painting and eyelash fluttering define me by my femininity and search for a man.

And shouldn’t modern women be outraged? We uphold our rights to vote, work, and share the housework, but continue to fall back to our submissive roots. Or does outrage only lead to further gender partitions as women continue to play the victim?

The faux-equality so far created by feminism has been a result of the misapplication of the ideology. Admitting inferiority is indefensible by any self-respecting female but by the same token, when equality is so mythical rejecting gender differences is inherently flawed.

Indeed, the arguments for general equality are understood but women’s asserting absolute gender equality remains as elusive as people taking carbon reductions seriously. People are about as willing to holiday in Dorset every year as I am to relinquish my mascara brush. The anti-feminist implications are explicit yet, cynically; I resort to dressing myself along with society because I believe it is naïve to think that people are not judging you on your appearance. Show me the woman who says they have never dressed for anyone else and I will show you a liar.

Nevertheless, while I see no future in the reluctance to reduce your carbon footprint, my disinclination to give up lipstick is not entirely unfounded. There is a big difference between admitting the inferiority of women to men and admitting the differences of women from men. According to scientists, seventy-eight genes separate the sexes. Scientifically speaking, these dictate that men have greater physical strength and women have stronger immune systems, in other words they make the fact that there are gender differences indisputable.

It is these gender differences, whether biologically or historically dictated, which make true equality a façade. Not all women desire overt femininity but the fact remains that our unavoidable disparities make us act differently from one another; accepting this is being realistic. Indeed, it is surely better to be empowered by your differences than cowed by forced androgyny? These disparities needn’t even be clashes; many are complementary in social situations. We did, after all, evolve to live in mixed gender communities.

Careful attention needs to be paid to gender roles in the near future and the women of the New Generation need to accept their share of responsibility for the situation. Issues like equality in the work place and sexual harassment have already been brought into the open and are now disputed by very few people. These are the victories of feminism to date but future triumphs do not have to be compromised by awareness of gender differences.

Wearing a skirt and bringing up a child is not a backward step in the campaign for gender equality unless it is coerced. The true damage to this goal will continue to come from women playing the victim. In reality, when I flutter my eyelashes, I may be partly defined by my womanhood but I am not displaying weakness. I am exploiting my ability to manipulate. It is impossible for men and women to act identically, instead we must be allowed to exploit our feminine traits to our own gain as much as men are allowed to flex their own masculinity to further themselves.

The line between the exploited and exploiters is currently blurred and the final step in gender equality will be the acceptance that men are as socially constricted as women. Enormous pressure is placed on men to be sexually predatory and financially sound, and these obligations are as difficult to deal with as a demand for female submission. The sooner we realise that each gender suffers under its own stereotypes, the sooner issues of men and women become issues of people. There should be as much focus on paternity as well as maternity law, equal discussion of eating disorders in men as well as women, and equivalent acknowledgement of the problems of domestic violence for both women and men.

When gender issues are laid side by side, the true situation will be seen easily. There is only as much of a need for me to burn my bra as there is for a man to burn his trousers and we should both feel as free to wear them, or not.