Emma Bernstein and Nona Willis Aronowitz, a couple of Sex and the City types from Manhattan, came up with the idea to go on a road trip and write a book about it in the midst of a liquor-fueled brunch. Aronowitz, who had never ventured outside of Manhattan much before, said the trip was “about discovery and opening your eyes to other people’s realities. It was a perfect coming-of-age thing to do.”
Aside from the fact that America is awash in feminist literature, these girls come off as clueless, privileged little princesses. Stopping mainly in cities, they asked women what they thought about feminism. Interestingly, while in San Francisco, they found that while women knew plenty about feminism, they couldn’t explain how it might be relevant to their personal lives.
This is rather amusing, because San Francisco is chock full of high-powered career women. Lawyers, doctors, professionals of all sorts… For women, it’s a utopia full of culture, nice parks, restaurants and great shopping opportunities. Perhaps this is why they don’t have much time to think about feminism in SF. In fact, knowing San Franciscans, they were probably thinking “how long do I have to keep talking to this annoying New Yorker? I really want to go to that new Italian boutique on the Embarcadero!”
However, even in places where women might feel the need to be “empowered,” our feminist dynamic duo didn’t get such a great reception. The poor women they spoke with thought of feminism as “elitist.” Gee, wonder why? Couldn’t have anything to do with a couple of nosy Manhattan girls driving around and bothering women who’ve got more important things to worry about than “coming of age,” could it?
Although I’m not going to buy the book, I am curious as to how much outright hostility they ran into. Most people are a lot more reasonable than your typical entitled, urban princess, so probably not much, unfortunately. However, I’d be willing to bet that they were more successful in raising eyebrows than in raising feminist consciousness.
