The New Victorians: A Young Woman's Challenge to the Old Feminist Order
By Rene Denfeld
Allen & Unwin, 1995. 339 pp., $19.95 (pb)
Reviewed by Carla Gorton
Critiquing "establishment" feminism has become the recipe for guaranteeing publication for young up-and-coming writers in the United States. Rene Denfeld, cashing in on the trend, adds her new paperback to those of Katie Rophie, Naomi Wolf and Christina Hoff Sommers.
Denfeld undoubtedly speaks to and for many young women today who support women's rights but have not experienced an easy identification with feminism or the feminist movement, and for that reason alone her book is worth a read.
Her attack on anti-sex streams in the feminist movement is valid. However, her claims that "there hasn't been a celebratory book on female sexuality written by a feminist since the mid-seventies" is just not true. A young woman exploring feminist views on themes of sexual liberation would be better off picking up a copy of Linda Gordon's Sexing the Millennium or Lynne Segal's Straight Sex for a more thoroughly researched view than Denfeld offers.
Her style, in contrast to the overly academic theory she criticises, is journalistic, easy to read but ultimately unsatisfying, for it leaves unaddressed key questions such as the origin of women's oppression and how to win liberation, not just a few reforms. She dismisses other feminist writers who have tried to examine structural causes of women's oppression as caught up in purely conspiratorial theories.
Despite its lightweight approach, The New Victorians does strike a chord for young women who have grown up with a more assertive view of their sexuality and their right to negotiate safe sex with partners of their choice.
I only had to recall the response to a graphic I had chosen for a feminist dance this year, which showed a woman in an evening gown, head thrown back, smiling and with her arm draped across her chest. Some feminists were concerned that it was a bit risque to show a woman with a hand on her own breast and that the graphic was too "sexual".
The debate about feminism and sexual liberation is an ongoing one in the movement, and it is not quite as one sided as Denfeld has chosen to portray it in her book. Catherine McKinnon and Andrea Dworkin may have considerable influence but does that justify Denfeld's call for the abolition of women's studies programs at universities because of their so-called one sided promotion of anti-sex feminists?
Denfeld makes some good points when she looks at the effect of broader social and political trends upon the feminist movement and in particular her comments on the reality for youth in the USA. She also raises the issue of men's support for the feminist movement in a less romanticised way than Naomi Wolf.
She mentions activism and the need for an active movement, but most references in the book rely on supporting the electoral ambitions of female parliamentarians or reforms only if the economy can really afford it.
Denfeld is currently touring Australia to promote her book, and I asked her what she meant by activism, when in her book she described rallies as passive and seemed to favour a lobbyist approach. She explained that she did support grassroots organising in workplaces and on campuses and that she was only against rallies and marches if they were used in a token way and not linked to a further plan of action and involvement.
Questioned about her support for Naomi Wolf's "power feminism", she said that she didn't relate to strategies that focus primarily on networking amongst executive and professional women. Her interest is women who are concerned about child-care, job opportunities and reproductive rights.
The New Victorians has less relevance for young women in Australia, where feminist theory has moved on from the "cultural feminism" of the '80s, which saw women as superior, moral beings in ways very closely resembling the stereotype of femininity which it claimed to be opposing. Denfeld admits that the only Australian feminist theorists she has read or had contact with are Beatrice Faust and Anne Summers.
Overall, The New Victorians presents itself somewhat in the mould of Fire With Fire as an argument for a new liberal feminism reliant on just a few more women in parliament and corporations and a little bit more equal rights legislation. Any barriers to achieving women's liberation via this strategy are not discussed, and attempts by feminists to criticise capitalism or sexism as an institutionalised oppression are labelled as extremist and unrealistic.
Denfeld may offer some insights into the views of some young women, but the "old feminist order" is a straw doll to suit her argument. Her calls for an activism that addresses the concerns of a broad layer of women are healthy, but not if we ignore or discredit theory which in the end is necessary to guide our practice.