In recent years, I typically hear feminism characterized as “equal rights” and “equal pay.” I don’t find this framing overly descriptive. It is prescriptive, sure, but what does it mean? I also think it’s a little watered down–perhaps a response to the Backlash to the Feminist Movement, we (feminists) have tried to make feminism less threatening and more reasonable by this characterization of “equal rights” and “equal pay.”
But surely, when women were getting together in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, frustrated by their lack of purpose, their objectification and degradation, they wanted more than “equal rights.” A good starting point, most definitely–how can one be a person, feel like a person without the right to vote, work, get an education, own a bank account, travel unaccompanied, and so forth? But these are signifiers for the signified, for what women really wanted: equal power, equal attention, and equal respect.
In this sense, it’s easy to see we still have a long way to go.
So, when I ask myself, what makes art feminist, particularly erotic art, I’m looking for those things. Are the women respected as people, not just as things? Are the women powerful? Are women the focus? Are their wants the focus, or at least half of the focus of the art? Do the women have agency and intelligence? Are they empowered to make choices and act on them in accordance with their will?
I think a lot of films from the Golden Age pass this test: Superwoman (1979), Garage Girls (1980), and Body Girls (1983), just to name a few. But last night I finished one that taught me a new approach to feminism: love of women.
The premise of Center Spread Girls (1982) is this: The woman who heads a Playboy-style magazine is being coerced by a religious conservative “morality” committee to close down. A former center-spread girl, now an attorney, convenes eight other formers (all also successful in their own lines of business) to help convince the committee members to change their positions (by any means necessary). Each woman (sometimes assigned in teams of two) is given a target and given the freedom and trust to resolve the issue. And each does.
Now, of course, the premise of the film and the fact it is an adult film imply that the women are going to use their sexual prowess to convince, blackmail or otherwise expose as hypocrites the members of the committee. Wouldn’t that be easy to show? But that is not what happens. Each team takes a unique, strategic approach based on their assignment–appealing to the ego of one, the sensitivity of another, the wife of another, and the loving, romantic side of yet another. Each woman is demonstrated to be cunning, outwitting or winning over her opponent with tact and grace.
When things look dire–it is a true film with a “things fall apart” moment in the third act–the women work together and come up with yet another plan, then another, to ensure their beloved mentor does not fall prey to these hateful men’s scheme. It was inspiring and moving to see these women working together. There was no woman-to-woman conflict, in-fighting, jealousy or betrayal; it was all support and teamwork. What a vision for what women can be.
Women in the Lifestyle, in my experience, demonstrate these kinds of relationships are possible in real life. It’s rare for me to experience felt-competitiveness or bitchiness in Lifestyle settings; indeed, this is my favorite part of being in Lifestyle settings. No subtle put-downs. No back-handed compliments. Women celebrate one another and the men celebrate us too. Everyone is told how beautiful they are. Everyone gets to be awesome in their own right. It’s sincerely supportive and loving. It’s empowering, healing, and trust-building. Anyway, back to Center Spread Girls.
This, to me, is a true feminist film. One that, yes, passes the Bechdel Test 1000 times over, but, more than that, dares to imagine more, and show its possibility on screen. A vision of women who are confident, loving, fragile, intelligent, sexy, empowered, giggly, conniving, pleasure-seeking, seductive, passionate, fearful, and ruthless. In one word, this filmed showed women who are whole.
We know a whole generation of women who want to be more like men because of how we’ve been treated and because of the dominance of the male. We sill live in a male-dominated society, there’s no doubt about that.
To me, it’s more about balance. It’s not about running off, putting on pants and entering the corporate world because I found a lot of women who have done that moved way over into the left-brain and that’s not what we’re after. What we’re really after is harmony and peace that comes from the balance of the two.
Kay Parker, Golden Goddesses by Jill C. Nelson
And I think this is what Feminism is really about, when we aren’t trying to make it more palatable: respecting women–loving women–enough that we get our respect and keep our power while being allowed to be whole. To be mothers and sexy and respected at the same time. To be professionals and be able to feel and use our intuition, and to be recognized and appreciated for that skill. To be aggressive and assertive and not compared to a man. To be allowed to be ourselves, however that looks, and still be a woman, and still respected. The ability to be whoever we are and be celebrated for it.
Maybe this is a vision that lovers of patriarchy cannot understand because men haven’t yet accomplished this level of liberation for themselves. Can a man cry without fear of being called womanly? Or are men too, still confined by rigid boxes and disrespected and dis-empowered when they do not conform? Ah, what a paradox. So much they have to learn from women–feminism could introduce a new level of equality indeed, for women and men.
What is feminism to you?
I think it is to be completely oneself. To just express one self, no matter what that is. That would be the definition of being a man too.
-Serena, Golden Goddesses by Jill C. Nelson
May you be celebrated and whole,
Honey <3
