Without irony: Why female march is serious
Text: Anna Narinskaya
About three years ago I met with Anna Holmes, the creator of the site Jezebel.com, which in many ways can be considered the ideological progenitor of the resource for which I am writing this now. My idea was to talk about how the feminist agenda is changing in conditions of winning consensus gender equality, achieved, albeit with many reservations, in the United States. That is, in the situation of "postfeminism", about which my advanced friends here in Russia love so much to say.
On the proposal to speculate about this, I received what is called "angry", but in truth, I simply resented: "What about postfeminism, when it is obvious that we will always try to take away our victories, erase them? Here are the abortions, let's say, legalized in 1973, but there are still people who are trying to abolish it, and female wages on average are still lower in the US than men’s, and the idea that a woman is an object under a man’s subject has not gone away, though perhaps not so often now announced out loud. And although, indeed, there is an opinion that now a “softer” time has come - of fighting the gloss culture and talking about a woman taking on her natural body - basic things will always be at the forefront: equal rights at all levels. And you should never stop fighting for it ! "
I will not hide, said then - in a trendy cafe in Williamsburg - the tirade seemed to me too heavy, suffering from a lack of self-irony. And in less than a few years, the rightness - first of all the intonational one - of Anna Holmes was fully confirmed, or rather, manifested, and my semi-sarcastic doubts crumbled into dust.
Women's powerlessness turned out to be a metaphor of powerlessness in general
There is no irony taste in the feelings that I feel when I watch the “Women's March” broadcasts in American cities. There is a pure feeling of admiration and partly envy of how solidarity and serious ("bestial serious," if you will) attitude towards themselves and their rights allowed the feminist, women's agenda to become not only noticeable and important, but unifying.
On this march, the women's protest turned out to be, so to speak, an umbrella brand. The protest of all those who opposed Trump in general was "presented" as a protest of women, on whose rights the new administration could politically attack and had already acted stylistically. A person who allows even in private conversation "grab them by the pussy" is not only "not the president" of these women, but also "not the president" of all those who feel their rights violated (due to race, sexual orientation, foreign accent) , and those who feel the society where these rights are violated as unfair. Roughly speaking, women's powerlessness here turned out to be a metaphor of powerlessness in general. And in order for this to happen, a woman as a subject should take herself and be taken by a large part of society quite seriously.
The women's anti-March march is the apotheosis of seriousness and at the same time proof of its vital necessity today. No, not the seriousness of the performance (which included both pink pussy hats, Madonna’s orange trousers, her “fuck them” and the slogans “Freedom of Melania”, and quotes from Princess Leia “The place of the woman is in resistance”, and the seriousness of the approach. The infringement of our rights, even a hint of this infringement, is vitally important, and we must treat this accordingly, without soothing banter, without brushing it off, without self-deception. And only such an approach can bring to the streets of the country two and a half million people - a number that cannot be ignored (or, more accurately, that only a fool or a dictator can ignore).
And if you talk in the style of the site Jezebel, which, according to its founder, "uses the themes of high life and fashion as entry points for discussions about more important things," then you should say so. Seriousness is the new black. In today's world, changing politically unpleasantly, and in communication, it is incomprehensible (the “reusable” online existence of statements leads to the erosion of all nuances and ironic meanings), only a direct statement becomes apparent and effective.
"Women's March" is a similar statement. This is not new. So modern.
Cover: Getty images