At my last therapy session, Debbie asked me a bit about my fiction writing — particularly, whether it is based on real events in my life.  I have never written fiction that has any relation to actual things that have happened to me, which may be one reason why I am such a slow writer; there aren’t any shortcuts for me.  However, the philosophical and emotional subtexts in my fiction are always related to issues that are important to me in real life.  The first novel I wrote was about how people reinvent themselves under restrictive or oppressive circumstances.  The novel I’m (kind of) writing now is about my perceptions of women’s enslavement; since it is set in Victorian England, the reader has the option to pretend that I’m not making observations about modern life.

I went on to tell Debbie that while certainly there have been improvements in how women are perceived, and the opportunities open to them, my opinion is that women’s liberation hasn’t done much more than set the bar impossibly high.  120 years ago, an intelligent man expected a woman to be beautiful, pleasant, a decent mother to his children, and an acceptable household manager.  These days, an intelligent man expects a woman to be self-actualizing, educated, goal-oriented, entertaining, politically aware, financially stable, capable of raising his children by herself after he divorces her … and still, he expects her to be pleasant and beautiful — and beautiful by modern standards, which are impossible for many women to attain.  Despite the fad of tight corseting, the Victorians at least had some idea of what a woman’s body naturally looked like, as any observation of Victorian erotic photography will prove. 

Debbie laughed at this, and said that based on her own experience of being a middle-aged single woman, she felt I had a point.  Or possibly a series of points. 

In my opinion, the greatest problem with the liberation of women is that men aren’t changing at the same rate of speed.  The second greatest problem is that intelligent women tend to think they would like to have an intelligent man as a partner.  Guess what?  The self-identified “intelligent” guy is the one most likely to still be emotionally stuck in high school, trying desperately to date the adult equivalent of a cheerleader, because he’s never gotten over being a science geek who never took Barbie Bouncetits to the prom.  You’re better off with a guy who is smarter than he realizes, or who doesn’t advertise himself as intelligent.  In the long run, social and personal interaction skills will make you happier than how bright he thinks he is. 

My casual observations would suggest that the third greatest problem is the ways in which women undermine themselves.  Women would not be enslaved to fashion, for example, if they didn’t buy into it.  If every woman everywhere in the world voluntarily stopped accepting the fashion industry’s idea of how women should look and dress (an industry run primarily by men) then we would be forced to take women on their own merits … and perhaps more importantly, women would be forced to take themselves and each other on their own merits.  Although I work a great deal from home, I do occasionally go into a main office, where there are a lot of women who hang around in the common area where I have to stand in order to make photocopies, etc.  Fully half of their conversations revolve around their weight, their diets, their clothes, or other women’s weight, diet, and clothes.  It is amazing to me how women voluntarily perpetuate the images and stereotypes that keep them enslaved.  The enslavement of women is a massive industry, as is the exploitation of women.  There are very few products that are not sold with sexualized images of women. 

No, women are no longer the legal property of their husbands; but womankind is the sexual property of every stranger who opens a magazine.  Women are degraded and insulted by every television program and film that mates an average-looking guy with a gorgeous woman, but never does the reverse except as a joke.  Female liberation is undermined and moved backward by every television program and film that mates an intelligent, ambitious woman with a lazy man-child.  And yet, we are encouraged to think that such things are funny. 

I don’t think they’re funny.  I think they’re evidence of the fact that as a society, we’re deteriorating rather than progressing.  

And if you’re concerned about women’s rights, I might suggest paying attention to the recent popularity of films that have a subtle anti-abortion agenda, particularly Waitress, Juno, and Knocked Up.  Single parenthood is no laughing matter; neither are one-night stands that result in pregnancy, and neither is teen pregnancy.  Do you think I’m taking all this too seriously?  Ask yourself, then, what message you are intended to take away from these films.  Entertainment has always been propaganda, and it always will be.