The Feminism Wars
Feminism in the Age of Celebrity is a tricky business, with Emma Watson and Beyonce doing as much damage with their silly feuds as they do good by striking the pose, says Emily Hourican. Lucky for us, here in Ireland, we have very clear targets
Are Beyonce and Taylor turning women off the struggle?
We should all be feminists. That, taken from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2013 Ted Talk, is the line that appeared on a series of Dior T-shirts last year, snapped up and proudly worn by heaps of celebrities, including Rihanna and Natalie Portman.
And, of course, we should all be feminists. Indeed, many of us are. The problem is — maybe has always been — what exactly does a feminist look like? Now, I know Benedict Cumberbatch and Barack Obama, among many others, have tried to answer this via the time-honoured medium of T-shirt slogans, but, good intentions aside, it’s not that easy and may even be getting harder.
Actually, Irish feminists may be lucky. Let me explain. Ok, it’s tough to live in a country where our reproductive rights are the property of other people — indeed, of old-fashioned, male-dominated institutions; where 93pc of childcare is done by women (the worst record out of 37 countries recently surveyed by the Overseas Development Institute, including Iraq and Algeria); where the gender pay gap is over 14pc; and our very Constitution patronises and squashes us. But what this kind of blatant sexism does provide is a series of clear and visible targets; a number of giant ‘Xs’ to aim at.
There need be nothing woolly about Irish feminism. ‘Repeal The Eighth’, for example, is a rallying cry being heard by thousands, a cry that cuts through any amount of vague and uncommitted discourse like a red-hot knife through butter, slicing efficiently through all the tedious ‘Well, I don’t call myself a feminist, but …’ type stuff.
Which is not to say that the women’s movement in Ireland is any kind of fairy-tale sisterhood, all happy-clappy and braiding each other’s hair. There is plenty of dissent, many differing priorities, even a fair bit of antagonism over who is getting it ‘right’.
But there are also clear and common goals. Common enemies and indignities. And that is always very galvanising, whether we’re talking the anyone-but-England rule in sport or modern feminism. Where the women of other developed nations may be humming and hawing around where exactly to put their energies, Irish feminists have plenty of wonderfully obvious attack-points.
Magical thinking
And what’s interesting is just how much more effective it is when there are real and glaring targets to hone in on, rather than relying on the magical thinking of celebrity-feminist inspiration.
For a while, it seemed as if celebrity endorsement might work for feminism in the same way it worked for cosmetic and fashion brands
that young women would take to active, committed feminism because Rihanna and Beyonce declared themselves in favour. Except they didn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact. A study done late last year — a proper study involving 6,000 people and two years of research — found that celebrity involvement is actually making women’s rights seem like a trivial matter, and causing people to care less about it. Only 20pc of people said they cared more about gender equality issues due to a celebrity’s involvement, with many more (30pc) saying that Taylor Swift’s involvement in any feminist issue made them care less about it.
Now, that may just be the specific effect of Taylor Swift but, on balance, I think not.
Beyonce rocking out in front of a giant lit-up sign spelling ‘Feminist’ is somehow not having the desired effect either. Even Emma Watson getting pious about how “feminism is about freedom”, or Amy Schumer saying that anyone who is not a feminist is “an insane person”, are not quite cutting it.
And frankly, this is as much because the celebrities have blown it, as it is because young women are starting to realise that there is a limit to how much Natalie Portman or Sheryl Sandberg, no matter how well-meaning, can ever really identify with their lives.
The problem one of them, anyway is the way in which celebrities have fallen into the trap of trying to out-feminist each other.
Yes, we should all be feminists, but right now some of us think we are ‘more feminist’ or ‘better feminists’ than others. Perhaps some always did
Camille Paglia versus Naomi Wolf, anyone? but recently we have