I spent the weekends of my summer break watching every episode of every season of “Sex and the City” with a friend. What struck me immediately was that I was watching an inadvertent dramatization of everything wrong with feminism. These four so-called “independent” women were successfully living in New York City, acquiring every luxury they could afford (and some they couldn’t) and complaining about their utter lack of male companionship all the while. But for all their longing for love and adoration from a man, these lonely women, crass and annoying, were acting like men themselves.
The label “feminist” should be changed to simply “womanist” because there is little femininity left in this female dogma.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for everything, and there was certainly a time for women to battle inequality for the greater good. Thank feminism for the following: hoopskirts and corsets have vanished, the opportunity of education allows all to flourish under its umbrella and the unalienable right to vote provides every U.S. citizen with a say as to the direction of their country. Certainly the social belief brought not only women, but also all of mankind, out of a dark era and into a new, enlightened one.
The problem relating to third-wave feminism is the way in which empowerment has altered the demeanor of women. Now that we have asserted that men and women are equal, women are becoming increasingly ill-tempered and mannish. This Feminist 3.0 version of woman berates any man who dares open the door for her; she sees “no point” in improving her appearance; she doesn’t cook or bake or nurture; but, worst of all, she laments that there are no gentlemen to be found and no romance to be had.
I can’t begin to express what is wrong with that hypocrisy. The lack of gentlemen stems directly from the lack of ladies.
The strength of a woman is undermined when women begin taking on roles they are not meant to play. Cinderella transformed to see her prince; Penelope waited faithfully twenty years for Odysseus; and Scarlett O’Hara escaped poverty using not only her shrewd business head, but also her invaluable womanly charms. Though fairy tale, fantasy and fiction, these heroines are admirable focal points that should be used to keep the modern era from crumbling to its foundations for lack of noble, feminine women.
Modern militant feminism has hurt the female agenda more than it has achieved milestones. It has taken the beauty out of being a woman and replaced it with something cold.
Like Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte of “Sex and the City,” a woman who does not act like a lady will not win a prince charming or a gentleman. The double standard applied to men is ridiculous. Gentility is a two-way street.
Women: either raise your own quality, or lower your standards.