My own feminist self awareness was first awakened when listening to my mother relate her youthful life aspirations left unattained, and it was affirmed when watching films such as Mona Lisa Smile (historical fiction really gets to me). Now, as I wander the streets of SoHo and the Bowery, I can’t help but get caught up in a generation of the past. I imagine this is a similar feeling which some other girls get when they pass Tiffany’s up on Fifth Avenue with a cup of coffee in one hand and a danish or small clutch in the other (although my role models are historical, I admit they are still romanticized in my mind). As I look up at the stacked structure that houses Marcia Tucker’s New Museum there is no denying that the Women’s Liberation movement, and the women of that generation specifically, changed the thinking of un-numbered individuals who would follow.
As I linger, soon I am overcome by a sinking feeling. That awe-inspiring generation is slipping through our fingertips – retiring, aging, fading away. They are leaving us in a world they helped to re-create and guide with wisdom and gumption that seems somewhat fleeting. In recent years our generation has seen Wall Street occupied, and the plight of Children that are invisibly suffering brought to global Fame, but I have trouble seeing the headway being made in a localized or personal way. What is the true cultural challenge that we have been afraid to look in the face and address? What will define us for our children and grandchildren’s sake?
I fear that the relics of our generation will be little more than highly documented absurdities which served as a distraction from the vast amount of neediness that we are over exposed to. I am not only referring to individual emotional neediness (though it is a reality which is often exposed by web-based lifestyles) but also a kind of meta-neediness – the awareness of the world’s tenuous nature. Looking back on the era of the Vietnam War, a horrible time for humanity, there were people working hard to uncover injustices, and there was civilian confrontation with problems as they were exposed. Other than the occasional Kick-starter what do we support now?
“War” may not be waging on women (in the kind of critical sense by which I think of it) but if all my existence amounts to as a female of my generation is a Facebook page with some flattering images (documenting inaction), a blog sharing intellectual musings (which do not inspire), some Pinterest boards (exemplifying a mere sampling of main stream trends)… what real good have I done?
This is why I am dedicating my Polyvore account to Great Women, and to the pursuit of what Feminism looks like now in light of the aesthetic landscape of contemporary femininity. Nay, Feminism doesn’t seem the right word any more… this is a look at contemporary Womanhood and what that will mean for myself and for the future. It is a small gesture, but I hope it will inspire at least one other girl, who may only be worried about picking out a new nail color, to think further about what her aspirations are for herself.
Click here for the polyvore project.