I would like to take this time to extend my deepest gratitude to those renegades who decorated the Academic Spine with feministic phrases, truths and questions. My favorite was the long list of "what a feminist looks like," which included women and men, old and young, queer and straight.
Whoever spread the word around campus had the right idea. However I was dismayed to see that some other group or individual took it upon themselves/himself/herself to deface these tenets of feminism. Of my four years at this institution, I have yet to see a solid feminist or pro-women force. Now that I do see it, I also see the backlash that comes with it.
From where does this backlash stem? Fear.
The Crayola bandit(s) who felt it was both necessary and appropriate to draw male genitalia and call feminists ugly are obviously fearful of what will happen to their handed-over power if women were to finally gain equal footing.
Think about it. What would happen to all those in power if radical feminists turned the world upside-down? Or if liberal feminists subverted the system from within until hierarchies are flattened? Or if post-modern feminists destroyed the binary gender model? Or if black feminists made the connection between all our oppressions and brought about equality for all? Would you be willing to hand over your power? It is my guess that most will not go down without a fight.
Fear drives the masses to act childishly with chalk in hand. While I could chuckle over the wishful-thinking sized phalluses, what really hit me - no, scared me - was an answer written to this posed question: "When did my objectification become OK?" The answer: "Puberty." Does that mean that as soon as I hit puberty and entered womanhood, my fate as a mere object was solidified?
Well it makes perfect sense. Just look at the media. No, just look around you. Every year women are fighting wrinkles and dark colors, lending themselves to age-defying makeup and the sudden upsurge in the color pink. This patriarchal society wants us to look like, and thus remain, little girls - because girls are easier to control than a group of liberated, freethinking, strong women.
On the flipside, look at pre-pubescent girls as they wear low-rise jeans, belly shirts, and makeup all at the ripe age of 9 years old. There is a very small window where women are "allowed" to exist in this society where we will be "allowed" to get by, so long as we allow ourselves to fall subject to degradation, subjugation and oppression. Again, children are easy to control and less likely to complain.
Kudos to those feminists that tried to educate the masses at UB. They have captured the spirit of feminism, as they clearly must live in a feministic way. It is a brave new world they are trying to create, and I wish them, and all of my feminist sisters and brothers the best of strength.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
