Quote:
Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze
You seem to be judging second-wave feminism anecdotally rather than historically, perhaps through the experience of encountering older feminists in the field. I don't know that that's fair to the history-changing work of feminists of that generation, who did more for the rights of women of color than (in my incredibly humble opinion) we've done since. Besides which, many feminist activists of that time were working-class.
The tendency to compartmentalize issues of gender in the context of one's own class goes far beyond the second wave. Second-wave feminists made the exact criticism of Virginia Woolf that you've made of Russ. Additionally, you can't look at any political movement in terms of the academics who survive to teach it -- academics who are usually the last ones in the pool. Many, many second-wave feminists were not Caucasian. Audre Lorde was a second-wave feminist.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze
You might also look at the unsympathetic depiction of men in the context of that generation's feminism. They felt they had to overemphasize gender issues, and exaggerate male behavior, to make their ideas recognizable and therefore credible. Freedoms we now take for granted weren't in place when that book was written.
|
All fantastic points!
Anecdotal judging second wave feminism: True. Right on the point. Most of my exposure to this topic has been through academia and the Women's Studies department, and I have very mixed feelings about them.
About labelling Russ second wave...not saying other kinds of feminism didn't exist at the time, but Russ doesn't address any other kind of feminism. Not that Russ had to, a person can't deal with all issues, but it is a kind of feminism that is relevant to a subset of people at a specific point in time. It's valuable, I enjoyed the book and thought it was engaging (gave it 4 stars on Goodreads), but its lack of finesse and scope is a limitation in terms of how it could connect to other people. Just coming from a 22 year old, non-white, non-American female reading it in 2011.
I guess I'm not really judging it as a political book, but as a speculative fiction book with social commentary, and I'm assessing it in terms of how a reader in 2011 enjoys it now. I'm glad it was published and read, and I'm glad the little book stood up through the times, and I'm sure it was very relevant, but it just didn't age very well. I enjoyed it heartily, and I think other people will too so long as they keep historical context in mind. I admire Russ and I'll be looking to read her other fiction.