Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Bourgeois feminism... posted by Richard Seymour
Terry Eagleton described Lady Macbeth as a "bourgeois feminist" in his book on William Shakespeare. By this, he meant the kind of 'feminist' whose goal was to liberate women so that they could be just as callous, aggressive and cynical as men. Indeed, Washington is awash with these revolting creatures. The carefully groomed Hilary Clinton, for instance, carefully grooms an image as a liberal feminist, a fighter for the deprived against the depraved. Yet, the evidence suggests that she is as venal and self-serving as any other Clinton. There are scores of others just like her, always ready to flutter a handkerchief on behalf of feminism, then make the case for cutting welfare to single mothers. And then there are the carpet-bomb feminists, those who would rather see a woman's brains plaster the walls of her house than see her trapped in a stuffy burqa. It's a matter of dignity, you know?From Rana Kabbani :
The fighting feminism on its For Women Only programme puts institutionalised western feminism to shame. All that manufactured outrage over the burka, which rose to a climax precisely as bombs fell on Afghanistan; where are the cries of outrage now, when Iraqi women are being incarcerated and raped in US dungeons, where tens of thousands of their menfolk are also being held; when they are being starved, denied drinking-water, bombed, buried alive in the rubble of their homes, maimed and killed? It will prove to be America's dirtiest war by far, and the one that destroys forever its sense of purpose and pride.
The rape and abuse of women prisoners at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere is probably giving Saddam a few chuckles, but where are the feminists? Where is all this liberal crap about emancipating women with war? Those who agonised about support for war on Afghanistan ought to have listened to these women , and they should listen to them now. As usual, the most vigorous and effective defense of the particular comes as part of a universalist demand for emancipation.