Female sexism
Picture this urban scene: Two groups divided by gender. The young women, many representing various ethnic groups and cultures, are angry and hurling taunts at an equally angry and culturally diverse group of young men. Verbal and symbolic insults are directed at one group repeatedly by the other.
One young woman is singing, "... talkin' 'bout your friends". She has a nice, even fetching, voice. She grabs a push-broom and pretends it's a stage microphone while singing at it. Suddenly she straddles the handle, not unlike a child who imagines (s)he is riding a horse. She squats so that her crotch meets and presses firmly against the broom handle while simultaneously applying a sexually suggestive pelvic thrust to it.
There is more. After some less erotic antics, she unties her hair and it falls magnificently down around her sepia shoulders. Out of nowhere, one of her protesting sisters steps forward, pulls off her jacket and throws it angrily into the group of young brothers.
Neneh Cherry, still singing and seductively gyrating to a smooth hip hop beat, goes her jacket-throwing sister one better. She bends down, reaches beneath her dress and removes her panties; she then hurls them across the imaginary line that separates the groups. They are eagerly caught by a young brother who sniffs them; he stares back wishfully into her eyes and puts his head through the openings while proudly placing them around his neck like a necklace. Then the music video titled "Buddy X", on Virgin Records, fades away.
I found myself wondering why that video was not subjected to the same feminist attacks that male rappers' videos get. I am frequently taken aback by the level of sexism women practise upon themselves.
The June 1993 issue of Elle
magazine carries articles by Patricia Ireland and Sally Quinn, two active feminists. Ireland's view of the feminist movement is exclusionary and elitist. Conversely, Quinn states, "My definition of feminism includes Sally Quinn, includes Gloria Steinem, includes Jane Fonda, includes Anita Hill. And it includes lesbians and gays as long as they don't exclude others."
I like Quinn's inclusionary spirit. If I could, I'd ask her, "Why doesn't the feminist movement protest video and musical presentations like Cherry's, the way they do her male counterparts?"
If I may, I'd like to suggest to the movement's practitioners that one of the best ways to gain strong new support is to reach out to as opposed to alienating and berating, those potential supporters as they struggle in their chosen fields of endeavour, regardless of gender.
For example, too much ado is being made about billboards showing a naked man with his underwear around his ankles. Some in the feminist movement are missing the point. Cleaning up the female back yard relieve the historical weight of hypocrisy.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He is happy to receive letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G2-
51, GD&CC, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]