A couple of weeks ago, the New Statesman published an article by writer Laurie Penny in which she calls out the pretty-in-pink brand of feminism that has been inundating my social media feeds lately. The message would have us believe that one of the most pressing issues for women today is to avoid falling into the trap of the North American beauty-ideal, and instead encourages us to feel beautiful at any X — where X represents your shape, size, weight, shape of your nose,
OF COURSE this is a simplistic reduction of a larger message, and OF COURSE it is a laudable goal for every person (provided you fit within society's narrowly prescribed ideas of what it takes to be attractive in the first place, i.e., relatively young, relatively white, and not too fat). I, like most women and a growing number of men, continue to struggle with my own self-image, so yes, there's work to be done here. However, the sheer abundance of the "beautiful at any X" messages is starting to irritate me. They are a reduction of feminism to a lowest-common denominator (maybe an honest attempt to improve feminism's brand appeal to all the don't-call-me-a-feminist feminists?). The reality, though, is that by making the message about how beautiful you feel, the message is still about beauty, effectively underlining and contributing to the hypervaluation of beauty in our culture rather than diminishing it, which is, presumably, what the message is trying to do. Worse still, by co-opting the airwaves, the beauty message takes attention away from more pressing women's issues. Sexual violence against women, institutional cover up of sexual violence and sympathy for the perpetrators; online trolling, misogyny, and incomprehensible levels of harrassment; and victim-blaming, more victim-blaming and victim-not-believing are just one slice of the big ol' patriarchal pie that women are served every day here in North America (women's struggles in other parts of the world are too big and broad to give a fair sampling of here).
Certainly, cultural beauty ideals can't be completely eliminated from the agenda. They intersect with the sexualization and objectification of women's bodies that contribute to violence against women, so it's not entirely fair to isolate these issues from one another. But still. As Penny notes:
"Rather than fighting for every woman’s right to feel beautiful, I would like to see the return of a kind of feminism that tells women and girls everywhere that maybe it’s all right not to be pretty and perfectly well behaved. That maybe women who are plain, or large, or old, or differently abled, or who simply don’t give a damn what they look like because they’re too busy saving the world or rearranging their sock drawer, have as much right to take up space as anyone else.
I think if we want to take care of the next generation of girls we should reassure them that power, strength and character are more important than beauty and always will be, and that even if they aren’t thin and pretty, they are still worthy of respect. That feeling is the birthright of men everywhere. It’s about time we claimed it for ourselves."
Amen.
P.S. Thanks to the Miss G Project, the next generation of girls in Ontario high schools will soon be able to explore a range of gender-related issues as an official part of the provincial curriculum. Starting in September, gender studies will be offered to all Ontario high school students as an official part of the curriculum. From the course description:
"This course enables students to learn about the dynamic nature of gender roles and norms; sexism and power relations; and the impact of representations of women and men in the media, popular culture, and the arts. Students will analyse a range of gender equity issues, including gender-based violence and workplace equity, in both Canadian and global contexts. Students will develop and apply research skills and will design and implement a social action initiative relating to gender equity."
I can't wait to see this course in action!
