Feminism is like the hydra — every time you cut off one of its heads a couple more grow back. Some older feminists are horrified by the new growths that have replaced their own cherished brand of feminism. Charlotte Raven, writing for the Guardian, deplores the image of the modern woman, which she sees as excessively sexualized and narcissistic.
To Raven, artificially augmented British sex symbol Katie Price epitomizes the new woman:
Katie Price’s currency is as high today as when she published her million-selling autobiography in 2004. She has generated much outrage in the last few years, but it is nothing compared with her influence. Her narcissism no longer seems so aberrant. Women’s belief in specialness and a concomitant sense of entitlement has inflated in line with Price’s most famous assets.
Two new exposés of the dehumanising effect of the Price worldview feel like too little too late. The fantasy world described in Natasha Walter’s Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism, where appearances are everything, has already come to pass. Today’s young women are right to think they will be judged on how they seem, rather than who they are. In this context, Kat Banyard’s promise to tell “the truth about women and men” in her new book The Equality Illusion is the promise of a horse-drawn plough in the machine age. The truth is no longer enough; she needs a promotional gimmick.
In a recent study of 1,000 British girls (admittedly by a mobile entertainment company), quoted in Walter’s book, 60% said glamour modelling was their preferred career. A quarter said they would consider becoming lap dancers. By all measures, the value map has shifted in Price’s favour.
Raven does something one very rarely sees any feminist do: she takes responsibility, and admits that “thinking women have turned their backs on feminism.” This bit of introspection marks a turning point for the old guard, which is increasingly uncomfortable with the monster it has spawned.
However, despite her regret, Raven still can’t bring herself to admit that second wave feminism itself was a failure. Instead, she blames corporate culture and asserts that women were simply being manipulated by pervasive branding.
Her biggest fear, it seems, is that women are losing that asset that got them so far in the heady, early days of our own sexual revolution: permanent victim status. However, the image she returns to is deeply conservative, which raises interesting questions about what truly motivated feminists in the first place:
If awareness returned – if modern woman were no longer disassociating from her pain and victimhood – all her decisions would be different. The things that hurt us would never seem “potentially enjoyable”. We wouldn’t wear silly shoes, blog about our sex life, worry that our babies are upstaging us. Most importantly, we’d resist the temptation to caricature ourselves. We’d lose the Nigella-esque pinny, the Price-esque lash extensions; the Belle-esque pose of erotic empowerment would seem inhibiting. We’d recover our desire for the missionary position with the person lying next to us. In every sphere of existence we’d be free to choose normality.
