It’s hard not to read a major Oedipal* subtext to Rebecca Walker’s work. It ain’t hard to link the distancing from feminism in her writing to her struggles with her mother, Alice. This dynamic was obvious in a recent column for The Root about Michelle Obama.
I don’t know what Michelle Obama’s so embodying feminist goals that she surpasses them is supposed to mean, especially given the quote at the end of the article: "The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class—it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity." I don’t know what feminism is if it isn’t the cause of freedom, and I don’t know how you surpass that.
Too, Walker’s criticism of feminism’s “monopoly by women over 50” would have been a say wha? moment for me if I didn’t know who her mother was or that she’s has had a very public falling out with her.
In most senses of the words “feminism” and “monopoly”, the claim is totally false. If feminism means the broad movement for women’s equality, I’m counterexample number one, being a feminist and still many years shy of 50. And I know I’m not the only one. What Walker has to mean is that her mother monopolized for her what feminism is, and she’s got issues with her, so she’s got issues with feminism. I can’t think of a nicer way to make sense of her blather on the subject.
Of course this hasn’t hurt Walker’s career, since the powers that be are always delighted to give an anti-feminist woman, better yet an anti-feminist black woman, plenty of airtime. It’s too bad, though, because there are interesting things to say about Michelle Obama. I think Michelle Obama is the bomb and I loved it that she was quoted immediately after the election saying she’d be working to raise awareness of the struggles of working moms. And damn is it something fine to see a gorgeous, regal black woman as First Lady of the United States of America.
But all that wonderfulness doesn’t change that fact that First Lady is a sucky thing for any self-respecting person to have to be. A pure decorative adjunct to a man in power—what could be more antithetical to feminism? Even as I glory at how Michelle Obama will raise the position to its highest function, and indeed to some extent by her very existence open new possibilities for black women and women in general, I’m sorry the position still exists and sorry for Michelle Obama. She’s putting her own career on hold to go sit on a pedestal and try to give her daughters as normal a life as possible while they’re on a pedestal.
Walker’s right that Obama’s response to a question about having to leave a “high-powered and highly compensated career” was graceful (though the bit about her kids coming first was straight from the necessary script of a First Lady). Quite so, one’s whole life defines who one is, with what this culture normally means by career (paid work in the market) being only one part of a meaningful life. But that doesn’t mean it’s right that in our system women married to men in very high positions of power are required to sacrifice their own ambitions.
Still, if Hillary Clinton shows anything, it’s that the crappy job of First Lady just might finally be transformed into a stepping stone to power in one’s own right. And that thought opens all kinds of avenues for fantasy about the future.
*Of course this is not the right word for struggles with one's mother and her legacy of power; not surprisingly, our language lacks such a word.
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3 comments:
When we wipe away the veneer of your personal criticism of the younger Walker little more than a reiteration of 1970's Steinenism's remain. The age of your views and tactic are far more telling than your less than 50's. We are in a new era of change and Walker is one of a number of voices we want to hear more of. And, yes, black women can speak for themselves.
The closest word I can think of is "Electra" complex, but that doesn't seem right.. Walker seems to be letting her personal problems dictate her politics
Good essay. Drawing Michelle Obama into this one-note 2nd wave feminist bashing by R. Walker is just dishonest, when every feminist and non-feminist woman I know loves her, and asking questions and dialoguing on what it means for Michelle to leave her job for her husband's job is not something we have to worry will render us *paralyzed* -- nobody's saying M. Obama should be thikinga bout it, she made her choice-- but why can't we thinka nd atlk about it? R. Walker doesn't reallize how policing she herself is becoming of other women's even audacity to dare *ask questions* she disagress with the focus of -- when she hated feeling that as a kid with her mom. If Obama as President can do more than one thing at a time non-presidents can too. It's not gonna "paralyze" anybody to think about this if they have the notion. Questioning is good, remember? Her attitude seems an attempt to shame people into paralyzation though.
And Glenda? Gloria Steienem said "Childbirth is more admirable than conquest, more amazing than self-defense, and as courageous as either one" so meh. And she married a man too. So again, meh. She was more complicated than all these haters think. Shoot what did Gloria Steienem ever do but go to jail for womens rights and peace, and be an all-around badass? *AND* Ms. magazine puts the 3rd wave movement's magazines to shame when it comes to including women of color. So I hate this myth that 3rd wavers are inclusive of women of color and the 2nd wave was not. I wish. There are more celebrated old school feminists of color than new school that's for sure, and you will see usually white faces and issues in 3rd wave (severely college-degreed)rags and blogs . And *this* black women can speak for her own self too. And I wish the papers would publish more visionary black women writers than Rebecca Walker. And I thought Naomi Wolfe was getting conservative! She's officially a radical compared to Rebecca Walker. And if R. Walker doesn't like the word feminist I wish she'd quit using the tag to get the cool cred it comes with without the backlash that comes to women who genuinely challenge male-hierarchical power structures and how it hurts women.
Whose value system she availed herself of, by the way, on Sarah Palin and her "concern" Palin hadn't fully thought through how her husband would feel to be relegated to First Husband. Gag.
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