Wannabe Feminist

Amy Richards, Soapbox, Inc.

Shortly after Monica Lewinskys tryst with Bill Clinton consumed our headlines and
welfare deform rolled out in the United States, the Spice Girls came to fame
with their catchy song Wannabe. Many feminists cringed at these scantily
clad girls named Posh and Baby for misrepresenting feminism. To mark its
twentieth anniversary, the song was recast in a short music video proclaiming
what girls really want: equal pay, quality education for girls, and freedom from
child marriage.1 Weeks after I saw (and promptly loved) the video, I
coincidently met its creator, Kate Garvey, and learned how explicitly political it
washer goals were to raise money, create laws, and hold governments
accountable. Miraculously, popular media was affirming who I was and what I
want for girls and women.

Meghan Trainors catchy song No, Beyonc quoting Chimamanda Adichie,

Transparent awakening America to trans people, and Charlize Theron
demanding pay equity could only happen as a consequence of an increasingly
feminist-infused world. More people identify as feminist today than ever before,
and more people have found ways to challenge what we have otherwise been
told was inevitable. That said, Im not naive; I know that change happens too
slowly, that success brings increased resistance, and that celebrities shouldnt be
household names any more than those on the front lines of feminism, such as
police chief Val Demings or NASA scientist Ellen Stofan.

In the wake of this newfound appreciation, I read Andi Zeislers We Were

Feminists Once and was dismayed that it would assert that there was ever more
feminism than there is today. Zeislerjust like feminismis at her best when
helping to make sense of what we have been told to watch, read, think, or do.
Before feminism, womenor any marginalized groupwerent even afforded
the opportunity to challenge or reflect upon what was presented as a given.
That is perhaps the greatest power of feminismbeing able to vocalize what we
do and dont like. Zeisler fails to name or even own that power as a feminist
benchmark. We still cant fully control what is created, but we now have full
control over how we react to it.

Personally, and perhaps lazily, I just accept these creations for what they are
art reflecting life. The difference today is that feminism has altered what life is,
which has empowered more feminist-minded people to be the creators of art,
not to mention to expand the art forms themselves.

From my perspective, if feminism feels limited, its because feminists ourselves

havent better articulated what it means to be a feminist. If women seemed
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Autumn 2017 Online Volume 43, Number 1
more feminist in another generation, its only because the definition of what it
meant to be a feminist was much narrower. One of the only hints Zeisler gives as
to what defines someone as a feminist comes when she suggests that Daniel
Radcliffe might actually be a feminist if he were to single handedly construct ...
a school for girls in a remote village somewhere using cast-off scraps of Gucci
(124). I actually did go to Zambia a few months ago to build schools for girls and
provide menstrual products, but I wouldm never consider that contribution more
valuable than Geena Davis using her celebrity clout to hold Hollywood
accountable for the number of speaking roles given to women.

After I finished Zeislers book and before I wrote this, I read a New York Times
article that I couldnt stop thinking about: Defining, and Proclaiming, A New
Black Power (Morris 2016). For weeks, I carried around the ripped-out article
trying to understand why it was considered a net positive that civil rights as a
narrative thread had seeped into mainstream culture from Beyoncs
Lemonade to the TV hit Black-ish to the Broadway success Shuffle Along, or, the
Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followedwhereas any
feminist equivalent is almost always considered commodification. The black
people shaping the culture have grown not just comfortable in their blackness
but also defiant in its depiction, insistent in its inextricability from art, reported
the Times. Even referring to these creations as art is progress compared to
feminist critiques, which primarily refer to popular culture, which makes the
thing itself sound predetermined.

The question of comfort really struck me when it came to discerning why

feminism couldnt better embrace popular media the way black power can:
are we comfortable enough with who we are? Feminists have made
tremendous gains, but we have been better at articulating a political mandate
without changing our personal habits. And as much as we have been keenly
aware of the resistance to equality, we have been overly focused on womens
empowerment without dismantling male overempowerment.

Systemic obstacles are very real, and feminism must continue pushing through
those barriersyes, vote, sign an occasional position, and support groups that
work on issues you care about. But changing laws wont necessarily change
consciousness. People are moved by stories more than statistics. Feminists must
get comfortable and embody the changes they have fought for: personally
enact what we have politically argued. Do all feminist institutions offer paid
maternity leave? Does every feminist disavow conventional beauty standards?

Girls gleefully singing No and stating what they really want might sound clich,
but owning ones sense of self hasnt yet been in great abundance. Women in

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society

Autumn 2017 Online Volume 43, Number 1
other generations frequently lamented that you cant be what you cant see;
seeing (and singing) itin all its clumsinesscan lead to being it.

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society

Autumn 2017 Online Volume 43, Number 1