Fascinating Research

Words matter. As a writer, I’ve very aware of that. There’s a subtle yet important difference between, for example, “girl” and “woman.”

One word that I’ve shied away from in the past few years is the word “feminist.” I’ve heard that younger women can’t relate to it. I’ve heard they don’t like it. They believe in equal rights for women, yet the word is so…so militant.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is 38-year-old Nigerian-born writer. She has encountered negativity around calling herself a feminist. When she was promoting her novel in Nigeria, a male journalist told her she should never call herself a feminist since feminists were unhappy women. They would never find a husband.

She decided to call herself the Happy Feminist.

Then a woman from academia told her that being a feminist was not part of Nigerian culture and that being a feminist was un-African. So then Adichie decided to call herself the Happy African Feminist.

Finally, after other’s advice, she was the Happy African Feminist Who Does Not Hate Men And Who Likes To Wear Lip Gloss AND High Heels for Herself and Not For Men.

Ridiculous? Absolutely. Because we have these preconceived notions about what a feminist is.

I wonder, though, how feminism got to be such a negative term. Is this another case of the number of nasty slang words for the female anatomy and the ,much fewer nasty words for the male anatomy? Is this a case of society subtly discouraging us women from advocating for ourselves?

Yes, I wonder.

Less than a month after the United Kingdom decided to drop feminism from the politics in their A-level courses, every 16-year old in Sweden will be given Adichie’s book We Should All Be Feminists. This book is based on her 2012 TED talk.

Notice that it’s not every 16-year old girl. Boys are included too. Because advocating for the rights of women is also important for men.

Maybe in the future the “F” word won’t be considered a dirty word.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/17/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-extract-we-should-all-be-feminists

Image courtesy of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

It would be a huge disappointment…(to) go back to sexy girls who are too young to have accomplished anything.

~Jennifer Zimmerman

Are we seeing a shift from ogling women for how they look to appreciating women for what they accomplish?

I hope so.

The Italian tire maker Pirelli is known for its exclusive pinup calendars. For over 40 years the company has hired top-notch photographers to produce pictures of women in various stages of undress.

The 2016 calendar will be different.

Photographer Annie Leibovitz called women who were shocked to get a pinup request. Agnes Gund, a 77-year old philanthropist said in the 12/3/15 New York Times, “That’s odd. What’s that got to do with someone like me?”

“I thought it was a joke,” said noted author Fran Lebowitz.

This calendar will celebrate women who have created something notable in their lives. Age and race weren’t a factor. Yoko Ono is October’s woman for October, and Ava DuVernay, the director “Selma”, is the woman for July. Other women include Shirin Neshat, Iranian artist, Kathleen Kennedy , producer, Patti Smith, singer, and Serena Williams. Amy Schumer is one of the few scantily clad women, and joked that “she didn’t get the memo.”

Speaking about the tire manufacturer, “You have to give them credit for being bold,” said Mellody Hobson, the president of a $10 billion management firm and June’s pinup photo.

Bold, yes, but it’s also generated by monetary interests, as the number of women buying expensive cars needing high-end tires is increasing. Like other women, I’ve seen pinup calendars in a gas station bathroom and a company break room, and I didn’t enjoy it.

Are we at a new place, where our women heroes are based on the lives they create, not on how they look?

Time will tell.

Image by Brandon Carson. Reproduction rights listed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/. Image unaltered.

“Be the best you can be. That does not mean Botox and plastic surgery. Bah!”
~ Sue Kreitzman, age 73

The two sisters in my mother-in-law’s assisted living home have their hair done, their lipstick on. I wondered why they wore makeup to just dinner with the other residents. I wondered why they wore makeup to just dinner with the other residents. Over the days we visited, my eye would seek them out. They seemed more vivacious, somehow, more happier, than many of the other occupants.

Studies show that animals the groom themselves live longer, my female gynecologist tells me. I see younger women on the street with hair and makeup done.

Do we lose something in our older age?

Our culture certainly doesn’t support beauty and grooming in older age. I searched the internet under “elderly women grooming” and got search results about clipping a senior person’s toenails. That’s basic maintenance. My search of “elderly women dressing” came back with tips on how to dress up like a stereotypical elderly woman. The images even had little girls with their hair in buns pushing a walker. This is the image of an elderly woman with panache? Is this what I have to look forward to?

I did find an article online by the British paper Telegraph, which profiled six fabulous women aged 73 and older. They were fabulous because they all had a distinct style, forgoing traditional granny clothes images.

Yes, some of them made really bold fashion choices, ones that I would have to work up my courage to wear. But one woman, Lady Trumpington, at age 91, wore traditional clothes that conservative younger women would wear. Leather coat, anyone?

Looking good doesn’t need to break the bank

Cost for wearing bold clothes wasn’t a factor, even. Bridget Sojourner, 75, got all her clothes from thrift shops as she survives on a minimal budget. Her most expensive recent purchase for about $6.00 was a pair of Doc Marten boots.

All these women had picture-perfect makeup. But I suspect that they look good every day of the week. Sue Kreitzman says about getting older, “You will get stronger, smarter, have lots of fun, and you will become amazingly influential and beautiful – inner and outer beauty.” So much for my notions of getting older.

You still have to fight some expectations by the rest of society. Lady Trumpington is the oldest woman in the House of Lords and has fame on YouTube. When a colleague was speaking to the House about World War II veterans getting older and pointed to Lady Trumpington, she calmly gave him the British form of the middle finger.

I say her attitude it correct.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10312670/Meet-six-fabulous-women-aged-73-and-upwards-redefining-what-it-means-to-be-old.html\

Image: The Heart Truth (Carmen Dell’Orefice, Red Dress Collection 2005) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons