Vive la difference...
Why a page for woman, by women? Why is there a need for such a thing? Forgive me if I sound confrontational, but I think it's a useful question to ask. Throughout this university there are services providing for women's needs; women's officers, women's lunches, women's protests and meetings, and, of course, a college admitting only women. It goes without saying that men's lunches, events and groups are much rarer. My college has, admittedly, started to hold men's lunches, which are fairly well attended, if only because the food is free. But it is true that women feel that their identity needs affirming. Having been subjected to marginalisation for so many years, we women are now coming into our own, and boy are we making the most of it ( if you'll excuse the pun). It's as if, being at last allowed to be seen and heard as independent people, we have got intoxicated with the idea.
I'm grateful to my female ancestors who have made my life possible. Just think, a hundred years ago we couldn't have studied in Oxford. And for most of the last century, women who studied here weren't even awarded an official degree. We're lucky to be living in a generation which can take advantage of rights which others had to forgoe. But in our excitement, have we all gone too far?
I am highly sceptical of some feminism, the kind that fosters a personal grudge against men for their oppression of our good selves. The kind that wishess women to be treated the same as men. Yes, we all have the same human rights, the right to respect, employment, and independence, but personally, I'm not the same as my male next-door neighbour, nor do I wish to be. We're different. For a start, I have breasts. I have oestrogen running through my veins. That's a fact that no amount of feminism will destroy. And actually, I'm proud to be different. I know men who are jealous of us child-bearing females. Why be like a man when you are created as a woman?
Creation is a tricky word in this subject area. Where does creation stop and culture start? Some queer theory puts forward the view that, rather than our biology being predetermined and our gender being a development of culture, the two are examples of social performance. That is, that our sexual organs are no more absolute than are our evolved gender roles.
What impact does this have on feminism? It seems to negate it, render it a failure. If we are not a separate entity from men, if our differing sexual organs mean nothing, then why are we worrying about our gender roles? Surely our femaleness is as arbitrary as our feminine-ness.
This theory doesn't hold water for me however. I believe in creation and I even believe the Bible's creation story. I believe God made men and women different from each other. In my opinion woman is not a product of man, even though Genesis says she was created second, but God loves men and women as reflections of his perfect self.
Agree or violently disagree with me as you like but affirm me in this: let us be proud to be women, and take the pains with the privileges, letting men do the same. Only when we embrace our differences will we begin to be one.
Want to write for jezabel? Contact:
catherine.muge@wadham.ox.ac.uk,
nadine.feyder@st-johns.ox.ac.uk.
12th Oct 2000