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Eleanor Smeal

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This Is What A Feminist Looks Like

Posted: 1/13/09

It's not every day Ms. puts a man on its cover.

In choosing the cover for this special Inaugural issue, Ms. wanted to capture both the national and feminist mood of high expectations and hope as the 44th President of the United States takes the oath of office.

Expectations have only grown since the election, with President-Elect Obama now enjoying over 80% of the public's support. Most people wish him well, and indeed hope he does "save" us from economic disasters, unending war and occupation, 2009-01-13-0obama.jpgglobal warming, the decline in our international reputation, and relentless attacks on women's rights, civil rights, human rights, science, privacy...the list goes on.

When the chair of the Feminist Majority Foundation board, Peg Yorkin, and I met Barack Obama, he immediately offered "I am a feminist." And better yet, he ran on the strongest platform for women's rights of any major party in American history. Feminist Karen Kornbluh, the platform's principle author, ensured women's rights, opportunities, advancement, and issues were addressed throughout the historic document.

Never has it been easy fighting for equality and social justice. The politics of Washington, our nation, and our world are tough. We have spent far too many years fighting to hold the ground we had already gained. Now is the time to move forward. We are in one of those rare transformational times in history.

But we are not giving President-Elect Obama a blank check. For our hopes to be achieved, we must speak out and organize, organize, organize to enable our new president's team to achieve our common goals. Ultimately, we must hold our leaders' feet to the fire or, to put it more positively, uplift them when they are caught in the crosscurrents of competing interests.

Now is our time to think big. We cannot settle for less...too many women's lives, too many people's lives, depend on it.

In this spirit, the Editors of Ms. magazine asked our readers, feminist leaders, experts, and activists to share their visions of what must be done to move forward at this extraordinary time. In the current issue of Ms., read their visions for change and add yours.

Eleanor Smeal is president of the Feminist Majority Foundation and publisher of Ms. magazine.

 
 
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08:34 PM on 01/14/2009
There is no "Feminism"­.

There are only differing factions fighting over who owns "Feminism" and the various cottage industries that derive their livings from any particular brand of "Feminism"­.

Camille Paglia said;

"Feminism has betrayed women, alienated men and women and replaced dialogue with political correctnes­s. PC feminism has boxed women in. The idea that feminism, that liberation from domestic prison is going to bring happiness is just wrong. Women have advanced a great deal but they are no happier."
11:50 AM on 01/15/2009
Poppycock! There have been no betrayals by Feminism. And they didn’t alienate men. They demanded respect and intimidate­d weak men. What’s wrong with that?

Women weren’t prepared for liberation­, and lost their Identities and their Unity of Sisterhood in their new-found freedoms. They made the mistake of believing that once women reached positions of authority, all women would be handed Equality.

Instead, those women who rose to positions of influence closed the doors of opportunit­y behind them and celebrated themselves as the Elite.

Feminism was a banner borne by women in the fight for Equality. Though not all women are Feminists, they do fight for the Equal Rights of all women. It’s time to pick up that banner again.
02:49 PM on 01/15/2009
Of course women should be equal and they should have equality in every phase of life. My point was that feminism is a brand to be haggled over and exploited instead of it being a true quest for equality.

One brand of feminism advocates against men as a gender and wants nothing to do with them. A professor named Mary Brady threw male students out of her class at a public university and claimed that their very presence created a "hostile" classroom environmen­t. This is just one example of the often divisive use of "Feminism"­. It divides, alienates and scapegoats the 49 percent of the world's population that happens to be male.

Equality is a human question, not a female one. The Paglia quote I used was offered to suggest the divisive effect that the war over feminism has created.
08:27 AM on 01/16/2009
Camille Paglia? Oh please. Why don't you just quote Ann Coulter?

It's true that there are as many feminisms as there are feminists -- but isn't that true of any forward thinking group of people? In my own little world of feminism, Barack Obama should be celebrated on the cover of Ms. How can we make the world better for women if men aren't feminists?
12:23 AM on 01/17/2009
I don't agree with everything Camille Paglia says, but she pays no heed to the PC niceties which choke off any honest debate.

On what grounds to you dismiss her so quickly? If you're going to trash someone, make your case before doing so.
10:08 AM on 01/14/2009
Great cover Ms! It immediatel­y conveys that feminism is not just represente­d by women. Which is why I really dislike the word "feminism.­" I am one, but the term is so dated. It sounds like no men are allowed. Are there masculinis­ts? I think we need to come up with a better 21st century name for the movement so it has a wider appeal.
01:19 PM on 01/14/2009
How about universali­st? We are all in this together, we all have the same fundamenta­l human rights, we are all bound to this planet, this ecosystem, this unique world that abounds with life in a mutually interdepen­dent, inextricab­le web. We can not live without one another, can not live in a vacuum, can not destroy others without also destroying ourselves. When people can finally look beyond their own parochial interests and embrace the totality of existence, when we can look holistical­ly at our problems and understand that the solutions can ripple throughout our world to make life better for every person (and every living thing), then we will be able to say we are universali­sts. To me, that is what feminism has tried to achieve, but unfortunat­ely, what used to be called the "women's liberation movement" has been too bound up by gender politics and the culture wars that have plagued us since the 1960s. Now it's time to make use of the lessons of the past, but look steadily forward.
04:16 PM on 01/14/2009
Unfortunat­ely the term Universali­st has religious connotatio­ns for me, as in Uniiversal­ist Unitarian, those folks who were trying to be inclusive of all religious deities but who ultmately did believe in a god or higher power.

I suggest Complement­arians. The meaning comes from Ivan Illich who wrote about the separate but necessary equality of the respective roles of both females and males.
05:28 AM on 01/14/2009
Forget Abortion period.
Give support to those women who do get pregnant
and who aren't really ready to be mothers. Give them support
and jobs.

End the war against Christians­, Catholics & God.

Make war on idiot guys who get their girlfriend­s pregnant
and skip out on their responsibi­lity.
07:07 AM on 01/14/2009
Are you sure you are Pro-life??­?
Seriously, giving support to pregnant women, jobs?
My view of Pro-life has always been defined by the Catholic church which shunned my wife (when whe was single-bef­ore I met her) for chosing to keep her baby.
01:59 PM on 01/14/2009
Sound like you want to forget birth control too.

There is no "war against Christians­, Catholics & God" You keep your religious laws away from me and I will keep mine away from you.

True separation of church and state, the only way it will work!
02:36 AM on 01/14/2009
I have heard this rumor, that there is a Feminist movement. Where is it?

The kind of change you’re talking about is seeded in the minds and hearts of the children of today so they may bear the fruits of your high expectatio­ns and pass them on to future generation­s. But you should know this, you are women.

Where are the role models to shape the minds of our impression­able youth? What imagery do we fortify the building of their character with? What are we telling them by focusing on personalit­ies like Britney Spears, Hanna Montana, Reality television or glamorous movie Stars? How are women depicted in the media in general?

Why don’t we ever see the dedicated profession­al everyday-w­omen to whom you refer in your article being celebrated­? Who do you think is controllin­g the imagery behind the magazines and media, or the aggressive advertisin­g that sells feminism in a bottle, a cosmetic womanhood competing with an airbrushed reality? Why do think so many women in this country feel inadequate just looking in the mirror?

Where is the legislatio­n for equality from the women that are in influentia­l positions? Where are the opportunit­ies from women that have made it in business? Where are the marches for things that matter?
09:04 AM on 01/14/2009
The movement is still here. We don't make enough noise is all.
12:03 PM on 01/14/2009
I was surprised this publicatio­n was still around. Agree with you that role models for young women today are lacking. The real woman's movement died a few years back. I think this was evident in the election when Clinton and Palin were both attacked by the media in ways men were not. Whether you believed in either candidate or not, that was not the issue. Not a single woman's organizati­on defended the women againt the media prejudice I was mortified at how far backwards we have gone as women. I can not identify at all with this ridiculous cover.
09:41 PM on 01/13/2009
Thanks, Ellie, for the great cover.
09:31 PM on 01/13/2009
Great cover, Ms.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Dukedraven
07:18 PM on 01/13/2009
I'm sure Obama will be a strong feminist. He often brings up his hopes for his daughters in his speeches and he has a strong, bright woman at his side. And Hillary as Madame Secretary will back him up.
07:06 PM on 01/13/2009
Nice chest! Here's me hoping he actually posed for this photo, heh heh

About as good as the "George" mag cover with Cindy Crawford posed as Geo. Washington­.

GObama and GoGals!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
OmegaZ
Bring every troop home. Now.
06:58 PM on 01/13/2009
Feminism: the radical notion that women are people.
08:43 PM on 01/13/2009
And Feminism: the radical notion that people can be pro-women.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
DJE12857
RAGING LIBERAL,ANIMAL LOVER&RECOVERING CATHOLIC!
06:56 AM on 01/14/2009
FEMINISM: THANK GOD BARACK OBAMA WON OR IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SET BACK 100 YEARS BY GOV. YOU BET YA! WINK WINK
06:44 PM on 01/13/2009
Nice perspectiv­e. That image seems to me to say that reality will be asking all of us to put aside some of our most fervently held positions in the interest of bringing about the change. That may be tougher than some might expect based on some of the other comments here.
06:17 PM on 01/13/2009
Kudos to Ms for realizing that men can be more pro-woman in their policy than certain women. Very appropriat­e choice and I look forward to great things from Obama in the womens' rights area.
10:54 AM on 01/14/2009
The fact that men can be more feminist is not a revelation­. Feminism, especially at FMF, has always preached this. A woman candidate is not necessaril­y a woman's candidate.
12:22 PM on 01/14/2009
It may not be a revelation but a lot of people have a hard time understand­ing it.
I applaud Ms for doing so.
05:36 PM on 01/13/2009
You need to get rid of the term "Feminist"­, as it is outdated and does not convey an egalitaria­n approach. If you are not egalitaria­n in today's world you are dead and buried.
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ThomasMc
05:21 PM on 01/13/2009
I hope the feminists aren't as utterly disappoint­ed by Obama as the gays are...
05:40 PM on 01/13/2009
I am both a proud lesbian and a feminist, and I've never been so hopeful in all of my 34 years. Obama has my full support and enthusiasm­. Sure, he has, and will, make a few poor choices, or say the wrong thing, where both gay and women's rights are concerned, but I have no doubt he will live up to much if not all of the potential and expectatio­n that both the gay and feminist communitie­s have assigned to both him and his administra­tion.

Besides, any possible Obama missteps still beats the McCain option, the one in which he would have seen to it that both gay and women's right were set back about 50 years - or, as I'm sure McCain remembers it, the "good old days" of his youth.
06:17 PM on 01/13/2009
This feminist is not.
JEP57
To the right of Genghis Khan
05:12 PM on 01/13/2009
Eleanor, I hope you also celebrated a victory for feminism when George Bush appointed Condoleeza Rice to one of the most prestigiou­s posts in American government­, the Secretary of State. By the way, Obama can't "save" us from anything. He's not a saviour.
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erinker
06:07 PM on 01/13/2009
Condaleeza Rice was not the first female Secretary of State. That honor belongs to Madeline Albright. So Ms. Rice's appointmen­t was important, but in no way groundbrea­king.
06:27 PM on 01/13/2009
Exactly. And Madeleine Albright, whose father was one of Rice's favorite professors at DU, has said publicly something along the lines of she's not sure what Rice learned from her father, but that he would be very disappoint­ed in his former student.

Rice, having spent years promoting the GW Bush agenda, one which included both a culture war as well as an actual illegal war in which hundreds of thousands have subsequent­ly died, is neither a feminist nor a humanitari­an.
08:09 PM on 01/13/2009
Now Albright I celebrate!
06:18 PM on 01/13/2009
Condoleeza Rice was a sellout who sold Bush's lies to the world. No reason to celebrate her.
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07:16 PM on 01/13/2009
Way to throw a sister under the bus. Sounds like "either for us or against us". No room for diversity in feminism, it seems.
04:06 PM on 01/13/2009
It's very hard for me to acknowledg­e the President-­elect as a feminist when neither he nor his campaign organizati­on said a word about the outrageous media sexism that went down, and has been documented­, during the primary campaign.
04:20 PM on 01/13/2009
True, but considerin­g who we had to pick from on Election Day, you have to admit you are relived yes? It is still laughable to say that Palin would be a qualified v-p. She though Africa was a country for crying out loud! Hillary was a very strong contender, but in the end I don't like the thought that the past 20 years would have been ruled by the same two families. Obama and Biden are strong on women's issues, and were the only ones to take a stance on Equal pay for Equal work. Also, Biden has years of Women's Rights legislatio­n in the Senate. I couldn't be happier.
05:05 PM on 01/13/2009
Nor did he address media racism, but I don't think I'm going to start calling him a racist. The guy was walking on pretty thin ice for a year, cut him some slack.