Chilean President Michelle Bachelet's Legacy of ... Hen Parties?

Why does an article that purports to be about the empowering legacy of a female president begin with "hen parties" in sex shops? A recent Guardian article on the end of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet's reign scores points for feminist clichés and faulty logic in just about every single paragraph, starting at the top.

I won't bother dissecting the painfully ironic use of the term "hen party" within the first 100 words of an article supposedly about questioning of gender stereotypes -- I'll just say symbolism doesn't seem to be Oliver Balch's strong suit. For him, fondling dildos and purchasing Penthouse bunny ears are signs of increasing gender equality. Teenage girls in mini-skirts and crop tops are proof of a cultural shift in which "the role of women and gender stereotyping are slowly beginning to change." (So now they're not precious virgins anymore, they're Playboy vixens?  Sounds like progress.)

Moving onward, it's as if this article were the final exam in a course on feminist clichés. After a few paragraphs about increased numbers of women in the workplace, Balch sums this point up by saying: "Chilean woman might not be burning their bras but they are certainly loosening the shoulder straps."

Because we all know that, just like donut = cop, burning bra = feminist. Page 297 of the Book of Tried and True (and Tired) Stereotypes. But I like how the lovely "loosening the shoulder straps" takes that nudity-and-sexual-suggestiveness-as-liberation logic just one step further -- and comes off more as male fantasy than anything else.

Speaking of male fantasies, Balch applauds the fact that "even the organizers of the local Miss World contest claim to be 'feminists.'" Imagine! A model claiming to be a feminist! Can you think of anything more absurd? Aren't feminists all big, fat, hairy, scary lesbians? Meanwhile, Chile gets the crown for South American Country with the Lowest Number of Working Women.

The article goes on to acknowledge that, um, besides all the mini-skirt wearing and Penthouse bunny-ear purchasing, women might not be so well off. Attempts to make the morning after pill freely available were shot down by an all-male constitutional court. (Balch could have added that abortion is also illegal and that domestic violence is a serious problem.) And women make up a bare 13% of parliament and 38.5% of the workforce.

Of course, these statistics are actually women's own fault due to their fear of being "masculinized." Balch quotes the female head of a bank lamenting that women create a glass ceiling for themselves by preferring dinner with their kids over working late at the office. Poor women. If they weren't so scared of letting themselves be just like men, ditching family for work, they'd probably get somewhere in life. The author, who clearly takes his task of deconstructing gender stereotypes very seriously, neglects to point out even in passing the ones riddling this picture.

In the end, Balch concludes that all this dildo-based liberation is just some "urban, middle-class preoccupation," interviewing a Mapuche Indians woman who declares (as she symbolically stirs  her husband's stew) that the man is the head of the family and deserves respect. Well. 'Nuff said. I'm sure that the 90% of low-income Chilean women who suffer from domestic violence feel similarly.

How is it that this kind of thing still gets published? The comments had a world of more useful information than the article. So, in honor of those that called the article out in the first place, I leave you with the words of a commenter called "terria" who summed the piece up quite nicely:

"I found my gspot because a woman was president..."

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons