Young Women and Feminism in the Lady Gaga Age

Whenever the F word comes up among a group of intelligent young women, someone will say she doesn't consider herself a feminist. And someone else will, without variation, say something to the effect of "We don't need feminism anymore ... do we?"

This response represents the negative side of the Girl Power movement, and is what author Susan J. Douglas tackles in her new book, Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism’s Work is Done, excerpted at In These Times. Douglas cleverly deconstructs the media messages that signal women have arrived: Clinton and Palin, women television heroes kicking butt, and new role models for young women who just don't give a fuck, like Lady Gaga. These signals represent what women have been fighting for, right? Equal life, liberty, and the pursuit of bedazzled leotards.

Yet Douglas opines, and I agree, that women aren't actually treated as equal to men. We still make less money and have less power -- and the modicum of power we gain we are allowed only through our bodies, which have always been the preferred feminine currency for lots of men in power. "Enlightened sexism sells the line that it is precisely through women’s calculated deployment of their faces, bodies, attire, and sexuality that they gain and enjoy true power," Douglas writes. "Power that is fun, that men will not resent, and indeed will embrace."

It's this fun, sex-fueled power that is perhaps the most confusing for women my age. We grew up in the 90s and embraced Girl Power, the idea that women can do anything -- if we harness our own abilities. We came into our own as young women with the help of six seasons of "Sex and the City," a show that claimed limitless, easy sex was the best personification of feminism. And we heralded trash-talking, tattooed rebels, like Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, and now Lady Gaga, as the cool girls of our generation.

We've confused the ability to be sexual without (as much) fear of slut-bashing with real power. Yes, you can participate in the no-pants trend and point to fashion or fearlessness, but should you ever be raped, it'll still be your fault because you deigned to wear something some man thought was sexy at some time in your life. Yes, femme heroine Beyonce can record "If I Were A Boy" and sweep the Grammys, but black women still only earn about 67 cents to every dollar a white man makes.

In short, women have traded one set of feminine stereotypes for another, gaining few instances of real power in the process. I love the originality of people like Lady Gaga (and other quirky girls that have come before her), but I don't think that my generation should confuse the right to amble about sans pants with the right to be an equal person. And in that regard, we still have a lot of work to do.

Photo: Domain Barnyard