Is our women's lib movement hijacked?

Lionel WIJESIRI

Few nights ago, Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar for Best Director for her heart-pounding Iraq war drama, The Hurt Locker, and when her name was called, she became the first woman to ever receive the honour. Competing against Avatar director James Cameron, she was also the first woman to ever beat her ex-husband for an Oscar! But a bonus surprise came when she was ushered back to the podium to accept the night's most prestigious prize - the award for Best Picture. "Now that's some sweet revenge!" one might say.

Six days before the award ceremony, in an interview, Kathryn Bigelow said, "...I come from the art world, or that's where I was creatively, aesthetically and intellectually formed and informed. Certainly at the time I was there, there was never a discussion of gender per se. Like, this is a woman's sculpture or a man's sculpture.

Female filmmaker

There was never this kind of bifurcation of particular talent. It was just looked at as the piece of work. The work had to speak for itself. And that's still how I look at any particular work. I think of a person as a filmmaker, not a male or female filmmaker. Or I think of them as a painter, not a male or female painter. I don't view the world like that. Yes, we're informed who we are, and perhaps we're even defined by that, but yet, the work has to speak for itself." Do I disagree with Bigelow? No, I fully agree. This is the ideal we are striving for. The question is - are we there yet? Can women compete in creative and commercial fields beyond the styles and topics held in esteem by male colleagues?

These are thorny questions which have no easy quick answers - at least, no easy answers and what are being taken by women's rights movements, women's liberation movements or feminist movements (or whatever name you call them).

What is feminism?

Let us confine ourselves to call them feminist movements. The first question a novice would ask is elementary.

What do we mean when we talk about feminist movements? Is it the 1970s 'second-wave feminism' of equal rights, or the 1990s 'third-wave feminism' of gender anarchy? Is it the 'red-state feminism' of anti-abortion, and standing by your man, or the 'blue-state feminism' of education, choice and community volunteerism? The term 'feminism' is only a century old and its definition was conflicted and controversial.

But however we define it, feminist movements seem to be in trouble. With each passing decade, feminists have become gloomier about the collapse of solidarity and more pessimistic about the apparent gap between professional and working women. Some old-timers blame the media for this situation, and think that another revolution might come if we tried harder.

No question that feminist movements, at least as far as Sri Lanka is concerned, has achieved remarkable things and has greatly improved the quality of life for women - challenging the archaic notions that we have held on to for too long that have abused and oppressed women for ages. Our women today definitely live a freer, better life than ages ago.

Then, what went sour? I believe there are three reasons for the failure. First, a mass movement requires a clear goal, like the vote, one significant enough to unite people across the dividing lines of race, class, age and nationality and galvanize them to take time away from their own problems to work collectively.

The goal must be concrete and attainable, even if it's complex or contradictory. Secondly, a movement also needs charismatic leaders who can channel the desire for change into productive coalitions. But the problems facing women in Sri Lanka today are neither readily addressed through legal action, nor sufficiently unifying to override individual priorities, affiliations and loyalties.

Thirdly, tactics and messages of feminist organisations are wrong for the times; they use strategies that were appropriate in the 1970s without understanding the need to be re-examined. Contemporary feminism needs to rethink its socialist roots and accept women's real power and leadership, especially in fields traditionally regarded with ideological distaste including politics, the financial sector, big business and even the military. Instead of insisting that all problems are political and need to be met by government support, women can become more entrepreneurial and devise practical solutions to key problems.

Achievements

Early feminist movements had a vision in which men and women were treated equally by both society and the state. In their vision, a woman who wanted to be a doctor or a bricklayer should have the same right to choose as anyone else. If she wanted to be active politically, either as a passive voter, or as an active campaigner, she could be and should be allowed to do so. Furthermore, women should be accorded the same levels of medical care as a man would normally receive and also be given equality over matters of tax, income, inheritance, property ownership, education and other things traditionally held to be a male preserve. By and large, all of these things have been achieved. Women have never had such great opportunities as they have today and have never been afforded greater protection in law.

However, in some cases women have been given too much opportunity and legal protection and the equality balance has swung too far in the opposite direction. Among some feminists this has raised the cry that men are now 'getting a taste of injustice and if they don't like it, it is bad luck!' The tragedy is that this type of vengeful attitude is so common and the dangers inherent in such beliefs and attitudes are many and should not be taken lightly.

I believe that feminism today is a movement that has been highjacked by some organisations with vested interests to such a degree that is has become a dangerous political philosophy. The reason for this danger is in the way in which it has permeated the political thinking of so many governments. This permeation has brought the state into areas of family life that are not just intrusive and unwelcome but are also deeply damaging to the very idea of family itself.

Hope

The question that troubles most people who look into the boiling miasma that feminism has become is, "Is there any hope?" I believe there is! Since late 1990s' radical feminist movements are in the process of self destructing. So confused has it become today and so self mutilating that is no longer attractive to any man or woman with half a brain. The feminist theory of 'patriarchy' - a male conspiracy to rob women of rights in order to subjugate them - has become so discredited as to be laughable.

The ordinary man and woman in the street are so preoccupied with just paying their bills and surviving day to day, they have no time to indulge in conspiracies against each other. They never have had the time. Neither did they ever want to.

Opposite sex

These people often hold attitudes about the opposite sex that are wrong and inaccurate but this is based on a lack of understanding and not some terrible dark conspiracy designed to rob half of the population of their rights. So the only conspiracy that exists today is the one carried by the radical feminist movements in their confused heads.

Radical feminism is rebellion, plain and simple. It is a rebellion that is destroying our society. And it is a trap into any woman is liable to fall, if she is not on her guard. The crying need of the times is for women to be well taught about the roles of husbands, wives, and children, and to put it into practice; to understand what true womanhood and true manhood is all about.

Human nature being what it is, we just never get the right balance. Not wanting women to be the virtual slaves they are in various Middle Eastern countries, Western society has swung the pendulum so far in the other direction that 'freedom' for women means license to live lower than animals (in moral sense) if they want. Which would we rather have? Women as virtual slaves or women fornicating, aborting their children and using their acquired power to grind men underfoot? Frankly, the intelligent average Sri Lankan woman doesn't want either extreme.