Shulasmith Firestone and I would
probably not have been friends. Beyond her relative disdain for men, which I
find myself as one of, she just is not really the kind of person I could ever
see myself getting along with. Her methodology and manners both seem uncouth and
extremely rude at times, things that I do not find particularly endearing, and that
is ignoring some of her more radical social views.
I don’t know if I self-identify as a
feminist, as I am not a member of any sort of feminist organization, but I am
completely behind equal rights for women. I have met many men of similar
opinion on women’s rights who dislike the term feminist, because they associate
with incredibly radical, man hating, “feminazi” type people, and at first
glance Firestone seems to be this kind of feminist. A lot of her ideas are a
little hard to swallow. Yes Ms. Firestone, the family structure of your time
period did contribute to the lower social position of women by limiting their
options for the future, but is destroying the family structure in its entirety
really the best choice of action? Some women actually enjoy being mothers as
crazy as that apparently is, and I’ve read far too much dystopian fiction to
really trust in the idea of raising children in a collective. There are a lot
of ideas from Firestone that when only glanced at really seem bizarre and kind
of insulting to both men and women.
While it is pretty easy to get off on
the wrong foot with Firestone, her goals are not really the things that I
criticize her on. What Firestone wants is the complete freedom of choice and
equality for women in the political and social arenas of life. The time period
she lived in was remarkably sexist. I mean being booed off a stage is one thing,
but being booed off the stage with rape threats is just unacceptable. Given the
time period and her restrictive orthodox Jewish upbringing, I cannot really
fault Firestone’s more aggressive approach to her goals. Firestone was a person
who challenged the entire social order of the time period head on, something I
could never bring myself to do. Like I mentioned before I support equal rights
for women, and if the equal rights amendment came back around to be voted on I
would be for it, but that’s really the extent I would get involved with things.
Simply stated while I believe in a great many moral endeavors, I really lack the
passion needed to actually help them succeed. Firestone did things that I could
never fathom doing myself with an admirable level of passion for her beliefs.
Do I even have the right to criticize her methods when I myself would never
carry out any alternative actions?
I find Firestone’s attitude to be a
little abrasive, and I doubt I would ever be able to hold a conversation with
her. She is can rude and has many obtuse sounding ideas that have me shaking my
head slightly, but under all those superficial things is a remarkable woman who
accomplished more than most do in their lives, because she threw herself
passionately into her beliefs. I certainly cannot be her judge when I could not
do even half of what she did.
