In a piece I wrote for The Nation this September, I argued that mainstream feminists’ continued erasure of young activists was paving the way for conservative appropriation of the movement:
Part of the reason Palin and her cohort are so successful at positioning themselves as the “new” women’s movement is because we fail to push forward and support new feminists of our own. This is not to say that younger women aren’t at the forefront of the movement””they certainly are. But their work is often made invisible by an older generation of feminists who prefer to believe young women are apathetic rather than admitting their movement is shifting into something they don’t recognize and can’t control.
One example I mentioned was NARAL Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan’s assertion in Newsweek that it is only older women who are fighting for reproductive justice.
Now, lo and behold, leaked excerpts of Sarah Palin’s new book reveal that Palin is making the exact argument (down to same Keenan quote) I feared in my Nation article:
Recently, Newsweek published an article in which NARAL president Nancy Keenan described her fellow abortion-rights crusaders as members of the “postmenopausal militia.” She noted with concern that the youthful enthusiasm in the abortion debate seems to be on the pro-life side. Upon seeing the swarms of hundreds of thousands of participants at this year’s March for Life in Washington, DC, many of them motivated equally by religious faith and concern for human rights, Keenan said: “I just thought, my gosh, they are so young. There are so many of them, and they are so young.”
Indeed, they are. They are young and their ranks are growing, and the girls and women among them are not buying yesterday’s orthodoxy about the inextricable link between abortion and women’s liberation. No matter how many times the feminist establishment tells them to sit down and shut up, they show no signs of doing so. Let the debate over the true meaning of feminism begin.
Awesome. Never mind that the majority of employees at NARAL are under 35, or that the pro-choice movement and the fight for reproductive justice is without a doubt one built on the work of young people – the reality of feminism today will continue to be misunderstood, misused and co-opted if powerful feminists insist on repeating the played out line about apathetic young women. For years, I’ve read it in the press, I’ve heard it at conferences, in organizations and even in casual banter – young women take their rights for granted and aren’t taking up the cause. Enough. This is pure laziness. Young feminists of all genders are fighting everyday and working their asses off for the movement – if you don’t see them it’s because you’re not looking. And now – because of this untrue but oft-repeated sentiment – it’s not just young feminists who are being hurt, it’s the whole movement.
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12 Comments
So….an online petition to fire Nancy Keenan?
Jessica as a 26 yr old woman who who identifies as feminist… thank you so much for rising above the misconceptions. Most of my generation is considered apathetic – male and female. Regardless .. I can’t even begin to explain how hard I try to break sexist habits deeply imbedded in our culture. Im talking smalmml scale at work, in relationships ..whatever. I see and call mysoginistic bullshit because of the roads that earlier feminists paved. Girls like myself need support. We need mentours and role models. Ive heard the most influential provocateurs of the 60s/70s
trivialize their youthful enthusiasm and radicalism. It bothers me deeply. Fresh eyes bring fresh ideas. Let’s learn from eachother. Much love JV.
I think Nancy owes Shelby Knox (or a writer even younger!) a substantial grant to make sure that she can get her book on young feminists published….and SOON.
@Anon and Shannon – As much as the Keenan quote disappointed, IMO this really isn’t about her. The problem is the larger stereotype that young fems don’t exist and the way that this attitude functions in the movement…I may write another post about that altogether, come to think of it.
Thank you! As a 22-year-old feminist I have become increasingly frustrated with older generations of feminists calling this generation apathetic and self-absorbed, thereby rendering the work I do on a daily basis much more difficult precisely because it creates that invisibility factor. It becomes so much harder for me and any of my peers to try and tell the Sarah Palins of the world that reproductive freedom is not about abortion but choice; and not just choosing whether or not to have an abortion but how, where, when and why we decide to have sex or not, or how, where, when and why we decide to use birth control, and how much access we have to even making that decision in the first place. It is so much harder to tell that to the Sarah Palins of the world when the women of the movement I love so much seem to have thrown in the towel on this generation.
Also, it’s important to remember the anger factor in activism. It’s easy for us who are pro-choice to get complacent, especially those of us who were toddlers (or not yet born) during Roe v. Wade. We don’t have to get angry or fight for a right we already have–but anti-choice folks are angry and therefore are more willing to go out and make a lot of noise. I think many of us are thinking beyond reproductive rights and often forgetting how precarious they may just be.
You know, I was discussing this issue with a professor recently, this recurring moral panic in U.S. culture over “Those young’uns are lazy, rock ‘n’ roll-obsessed degenerates who are probably going to ruin the country in a few decades.” The panics happen in the broader culture, in education with each new generation, and apparently also in social-justice movements like the feminist community. A lot of young women are apathetic, but so are a lot of people in general. This is a problem in the broader culture, not with young feminists alone: We live in a culture of political apathy and consumerist distraction, and this has undoubtedly affected young women’s perceptions of what’s going on. What was the number, something like only 11% of young people voted in this past election? Low by any standards. (Perhaps understandably; people are disillusioned with the system.) When England and France talk about raising the retirement age, strikers shut down the whole country. When the U.S. talks about raising the Social Security age to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy, we bow our heads in acquiescence like good little minions – not an uprising to speak of. European activism puts us to shame. At least they pay attention.
In any case, we need to recognize how general cultural apathy affects feminism, and there’s really no reason to put the blame wholly on young women’s shoulders. I think any of us who are activists on a regular basis need to recognize we’re in a minority – older-generation feminists included.
Age aside, I think it’s important to explore how feminism has become a dirty word, and how to change that.
Well stated. I also think that when we limit our definition of feminism by saying that it’s simply about equality, we open the door for nut jobs like Palin to co-opt the term.
The young women of today, Palin says in your extract, “are not buying yesterday’s orthodoxy about the inextricable link between abortion and women’s liberation.” [Your link to the extract appears to be broken, BTW] Palin’s way of casting this is rather menacing, with an edge of self-righteous deceit, which appears to be a specialty of the radical right-wing Republican Christians. She casts the “hundreds of thousands” of pro-life marchers as heroically resisting “the feminist establishment” in the name of “religious faith and concern for human rights.” She then issues a direct challenge to debate “the meaning of feminism.” If it weren’t for the recent Tea Party victories I would still be laughing at Palin, but I realize that her spin is perfectly calculated to appeal to the economically displaced lower-middle and lower-income mostly white “bands of patriots” who want to “take back their country,” and would certainly hand the government over to Palin if allowed to.
Feminism, as bell hooks says, is a fight against sexism, and sexism can appear even in a female form. Feminism upholds the freedom of each individual woman to make decisions about her own sovereign body as she chooses. Within the womb, human life is still within the woman’s body, and it is still her body. I support the right of women of any faith to do with their bodies as they will, with the exception of cultural practices which encourage women to self-harm. I will resist any attempt by any religion to take over the reigns of government in order to impose its values on our democracy. I believe that the rights of all are protected by the separation of church and state, and the polity is also thus protected from civil war. All of our rights have been questioned or supported by one religion or another at varying times: that is not a case for putting right-wing fundamentalists of any faith in charge of the government! Some white Christians, for example, believed that slavery for black folks was just how God had set it up; others today still believe in the inherent inferiority of people of color, people of different faiths, people with diverse sexualities, people who are women and all men who seem like women!
We must go together, or we will not go at all. Upon the separation of church and state depend the equalities of all peoples within our territorial boundaries, citizens or not. Upon it depend women’s rights, and the rights of people of color, and the rights of people of diverse sexualities and genders.
I quite agree with you – older feminists and younger feminists must stop sniping at each other if we are to move forward, now, together, when it is so urgent to do so. So your attack on Nancy Keenan is misplaced; and her exhaustion is evident. To protect women’s sovereignty over our bodies, to protect our mothers, our children, our lovers, and ourselves, from unabated free market white supremacist patriarchal militarism, it is a matter of urgency that we direct our rhetorical energies against the radical right-wing fundamentalists who would take power, and towards the spread of progressive thought throughout the American heartlands. Thank you for your wonderful prose, which is doing both!
@Cat Thanks for your thoughtful comment; really well said. But I do take issue with you characterizing this post as an “attack” on Keenan. As I’ve said, this isn’t about Keenan – but about the erasure of young feminists across the board – by orgs, other feminists, the media, etc. Yes, I’m pointing out that quotes like Keenan’s have real life consequences for the movement, but I respect her work and NARAL as an org – holding folks’ accountable for what they say isn’t an attack…
“Feminism upholds the freedom of each individual woman to make decisions about her own sovereign body as she chooses. Within the womb, human life is still within the woman’s body, and it is still her body. I support the right of women of any faith to do with their bodies as they will, with the exception of cultural practices which encourage women to self-harm. I will resist any attempt by any religion to take over the reigns of government in order to impose its values on our democracy. I believe that the rights of all are protected by the separation of church and state, and the polity is also thus protected from civil war.”
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