Money Sex and Power - Essay Example

Money, Sex and Power Introduction A young girl stands in the magazine section of a bookstore admiring the “super model” on the cover. The super model, unbeknownst to the young pre-teen, is air brushed, every flaw of natural design has been artistically brushed away since the reality of cellulite pockets or drooping this and that doesn’t sell magazines – lots of magazines. On the one hand, it is the well documented historical path of suffrage that women have traveled together that allows the super model in this modern day to appear on the cover of a magazine that no one objects to a young girl purchasing, wearing just a few bits of cloth that the young girl can actually purchase – or have her mother purchase for her – at a very high price so as to sustain the “super model” wage earned by the airbrushed model on the cover. Not to mention that the price of the magazine alone is enough to put a dent in a young girl’s allowance – or should. What this scenario depicts, is what is going on in our society. It is an example of how women’s agency has both legitimized women’s rights to be in charge of their image, to use their image as they choose; and how, in the case of the influence it has on young girls in today’s society, this same agency works against women. It is this dual blade of women’s agency about which feminists are concerned today. “As authors Diana Meyers has observed in her books Gender in the Mirror: Cultural Imagery and Women’s Agency1 and Feminists Rethink the Self2, there is both historical and contemporary evidence that demonstrates how women’s agency has advanced women, and as to how that same agency has worked against women sexually, economically and from the perspective of power gained, or lost, by women in society..In Gender in the Mirror, Meyers talks about the historical and contemporary woman as reflections of the male ego, and how the agency of the feminist movement has worked to advance women to the level of contemporary society, working for and against women..3 In Feminists Rethink the Self, Meyers examines how the agency of feminism works against women, and how women need to rethink that agency.4 *”As a number of commentators have observed, feminist theory is now and again marred by aberrant, unfeminist subtexts.”5 Today, as much as ever before, women are a reflection of the men in society. “When women are being reflected back as narcissists enamored of their own faces, they are drafted into service as reflecting surfaces for the male ego. The mirrors that give women their self images lie – they tell women that they are ugly, fat, ungainly, worthless. The mirrors that women are expected to be erase their self images – instead they beam back flattering images of men.”6 While the agency of the feminist movement has brought women to a place and time where women have access to education, sustainable incomes, and control and guardianship over their own bodies and sexuality, that agency has succumbed to the image of the super star, super model, where unless it is a reflection of the male ego, the value of exchange that a women brings to society is under valued and underrated.7 Today, as a group, feminists, especially when Third World women are included in that group, are faced with the complex social conditions in which they had no small role in creating for themselves. As Katherine Mayo discusses in her book, Mother India, women in evolving Third World nations have been left behind, while feminists in the industrial nations have moved forward without enough work towards the economic, social and political conditions that keep women in Third World nations enslaved to the male ego.8 In Tanya Renne’s book, Ana’s Land, the agency of feminism is discussed as from the Eastern European perspective.9 Renne discusses the feminine identity emerging in the former Soviet bloc countries, where decades of oppression and the communist patriarchal society kept women enslaved to the male ego. Renne, again, looks at the historical and contemporary Eastern European woman, and how, especially today, that agency is working both for and against women in Eastern European society. Marcia Mies’s work is used to discuss women and their sustainable role in society.10 Mies provides discussion on the lack of equality in exchange, that is, the inequality of utility versus gender.11 Other written works are introduced here and used in this paper to talk about the historical and contemporary evidence concerning the agency of feminism, and how that agency has worked to both improve and harm the social, economic and political power base of women in America. ONE Where once the road of women’s suffrage was that of securing “moral and social hygiene,” and establishing “equal citizenship,”12 that road has reached a fork, where women today must choose to go left or right. The choice today is one of pursuing a career, or raising a family. There are distinct and obvious benefits to both, but the fact is that a woman’s role as a homemaker has never been valued or compensated for in a way that is equal to the value she brings to the task.13 As a result, many women have delayed family planning, opting instead to create for their selves careers that will afford them the opportunities of the industry for which they have educated themselves. As far back as the earliest suffrage movements in England, women began going for the power of leadership over staying home as homemakers.14 Millicent Garrett Fawcett, president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, in 1877, became involved in national politics and issues that exceeded women’s suffrage15 Both the lure of power and the intoxication of moving amongst powerful people – men – is, for women, tantalizing and the aphrodisiac of life. Unfortunately, all too often women in high places fall long and hard and do not reflect well on women in high profile leadership roles. Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas achieved one of the highest profile positions, one of the most powerful positions that a woman can achieve as provost of King’s College at Cambridge.16 As the story goes, even with the support of people in high places, Dame Judith, a lawyer, with a “brilliant background in law,” failed to overcome the sniping and back-biting in the male environment of King’s College where it was whispered that the job of provost of King’s College had always been and still was a man’s job.17 Still, Dame Judith had a great many supporters who believed that she could, as provost, sort out the many financial problems King’s College was experiencing at the time.18 The problem, as it turned out, was not that Dame Judith was an incompetent administrator rather that she was incredibly independent in her decision making ability, and as such erred by discounting the role of her council member colleagues.19 As is often the case in academic settings, when staff and other administrators are unhappy, that unhappiness manifests itself in the student body. “As Dame Judith tightened her grip on running the college, students rebelled.”20 A rebellious student body is the last thing any academic institution can tolerate. The students had taken to calling Dame Judith “Her Majesty.”21 By the time Dame Judith left the college, it was not a matter of whether or not she could do a good job, because she clearly could. It was a matter, some would say, rather that she was a woman doing a man’s job.22 “A few months into her tenure there was an ugly scene in the dining hall when during a discussion with students about college politics, Dame Judith rose to her feet, shouted, “I have all the power. You have none!” and stormed out.”23 Unfortunately, the Dame Judith scenario is often the scenario as describes the role of women in high places. It is difficult to say whether it’s the power that goes to a woman’s head, her inability to balance it – although in Dame Judith’s case she had a long and successful history of power. It, nonetheless, often the tale of the woman in power bases who cannot maintain that base. TWO It is the agency of the feminist movement that has moved women into a modern era where they can capitalize on their sexuality without facing public censorship. While prostitution continues to be illegal in most countries, including England, the sex “industry” is perfectly legal. Women appear naked in magazines, a billion dollar industry, and in pornographic films, another billion dollar industry. However, the sex industry that generates large wealth, is one where the wealth seldom flows down to the women upon whom the industry depend upon to generate the billions in income. The pornography industry is not one where women’s agency just works against women, it is one disavowed by the agency of feminism. “One exception is early second-wave feminism’s critique of the generic masculine pronoun slang terms for women as chick, girl, and fox. Although the former line of thought has been quite successful in reforming speech and writing, it only scratches the surface of patriarchal discourse. Another exception is the opposition to pornography that Catherine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin spearheded (MacKinnon 1993; Dworkin 1989).”24 There are those – probably men – who would suggest that the feminist efforts towards covering women’s bodies up stems from women who are jealous over other women’s attributes. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and it is, instead, the notion that a woman’s body, her physical appearance, is integral to her identity that concerns feminists.25 “To be sure, gender does not exhaust any woman’s identity and sense of self . . . gender is constitutive of who we are – our personalities, our capabilities and liabilities, our aspirations, and how we feel about all these dimensions of identity.”26 Another concern feminists have when it comes to using a woman’s sexuality to generate industry income, is that of guardianship.27 Guardianship is the patriarchal society’s constraints placed on women, and the pornography industry exploits a woman’s body, her image, and puts the constraint of being identified in that way upon women in the industry. It places control over the women’s body in the hands of the men who benefit from and dominate the industry; as well as those men who constitute the client base of the industry. Still, the agency of feminism has given women autonomy over their bodies. Women now have the opportunity and right to decide when they have children. Here, in choosing when to give birth to another human being, women have the utmost power over themselves and over men.28 Giving birth is something that can only be done by women, and today’s women have the opportunity to control that decision so as not to be imprisoned by the most precious event of their lives. A woman’s ability to choose when she will, or her choice not to, bear children is a break from the guardianship that men have exercised over women since the beginning of the man-woman relationship. It is, today, one of the most important choices available to women, and that belongs solely to a woman to choose for herself. THREE The opportunity for women to be self-sustaining in the modern world is largely dependent upon the income she is able to earn for herself. Unfortunately, it continues to be an area where women continue to be undervalued in society.29 There is little value placed on the contributions that a woman makes to the family unit in giving birth and raising children – an age old feminist argument.30 Even with the choices women have today as regards child-bearing and family planning, many women continue to find themselves in roles of single parents, which means that they are often on the brink of poverty. Even if a woman works and has a family, there is such a disparity in the incomes of men and women that it makes it nearly impossible for a single mother to sustain herself and her family. A recent article in The Daily Mirror, reports that women continue to be behind men in salary equality.31 “The median weekly wage for a woman in full-time employment in Scotland is (pounds sterling) 376, or (pounds sterling) 19,552 a year. A man in full-time employment can expect to earn nearly (pounds sterling) 5,000 a year more, as the median as the median weekly pay for a man is (pounds sterling) 467 a week or (pounds sterling) 24,284 a year.”32 The disparity in income is not just a Western disparity, and the conditions tend to be worse for women in Third World nations. In third world nations where capitalism is the residual condition of colonization, the violence that is required to sustain the instituted growth of capitalism is directed towards women.33 Making this violence possible, and sustaining the patriarchal society of the third world countries, is the other residual effect of colonialism, nationalism. Nationalism is not a gender sense, but permeated the psyche of women as it did men in third world countries that colonized by Western powers.34 As the Western world moved into third world countries the mechanisms of capitalism with factories and businesses that relied upon low income earning workers, women were targeted by manufacturers to fill these roles. Unfortunately, as is the nature of capitalism in a patriarchal society, there is no equality of exchange in the value of the wage versus the value of the task.35 The disparity between the value of the task and the lack of compensation for the value that the worker brings to the task, has served to keep women in third world countries in a state of economic despair. FOUR Feminism has brought women into the modern as an agency that has legitimized women’s rights and brought recognition to the value women bring to society, while at the same time, in many ways, working against them. Feminism has delivered women in the modern era with many opportunities to choose from for themselves. It is up to women to recognize those opportunities, and to embrace them and continue to contribute to the economic, social an political mechanisms in a way that is creative and productive and brings to women even greater opportunities for success and advancement. There is a much greater distance to go to if women are to secure for themselves the opportunities that will continue to advance them, and to gain and to maintain the equality for which they strive to secure for themselves. Women have yet to achieve the power bases in society from which to emerge as a force in the world. There have been moments in history, in time, when women have indeed occupied those roles, and have been very effective in those roles. Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of England, is hailed as one of the former great leaders of the free world. Indira Ghandi, former Prime Minister of India, is likewise equally hailed as a great leader and credited with bringing India into the modern world. However, there have not been enough women or experiences on a political level to facilitate the goals of women and to advance women to an even playing field with men. Women must achieve even greater heights as a united force in the world community, because it is only through women, who are interested in bringing about better lives for women, that we can assure that women will achieve equality. The stark reality of the situation is that money is power, and if women are to move beyond being the beneficiaries of the state, they must rely upon each other to ensure that academic opportunities are available to women around the world, including those women of Islamic traditions. Only by having access to education and training are women going to rise above the poverty and constraints of Third World countries and fulfill their own capabilities and contribute those capabilities to a world economy that will create even more opportunities for women. References Afshar, H. (Ed.). (1996). Women and Politics in the Third World. New York: Routledge. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108323669 Bystydzienski, J. M. (1995). Women in Electoral Politics: Lessons from Norway. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27441809 Crawford, E. (1999). The Womens Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928. London: UCL Press. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103321244 Going Short, Women Caught in [Pounds Sterling]5000 Pay-Gap Scandal. (2006, November 21). The Daily Mail (London, England), p. 8. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5018106083 Kittay, E. F. & Meyers, D. T. (Eds.). (1987). Women and Moral Theory. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101470707 Kittell, E. E. (1998). Guardianship over Women in Medieval Flanders: A Reappraisal. Journal of Social History, 31(4), 896+. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001349361 Mayo, K., (1927), Mother India, Harcourt Bruce and Company. Meyers, D. T. (1997). Feminists Rethink the Self. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=8961224 Meyers, D. T. (2002). Gender in the Mirror: Cultural Imagery and Womens Agency. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105077076 Mies, M. (1996). Women and Work in Sustainable Society. The Ecumenical Review, 48(3), 354+. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5000407127 Renne, T. (Ed.). (1997). Anas Land: Sisterhood in Eastern Europe. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98142244 Tantrums, Snubs at High Table and the Downfall Her Majesty; She Was Once Named as One of Britains Most Powerful Women but Dame Judith Mayhew Jonass Tenure as the First Woman Provost of Kings College Cambridge Has Ended in Humiliation. (2006, January 13). The Evening Standard (London, England), p. 18. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5012456382 Tickner, J. A. (2001). Gendering World Politics: Issues and Approaches in the Post-Cold War Era. New York: Columbia University Press. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100077193 Walby, S. (1997). Gender Transformations. London: Routledge. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107464859 Waylen, G. (1996). Chapter 1 Analysing Women in the Politics of the Third World. In Women and Politics in the Third World, Afshar, H. (Ed.) (pp. 7-24). New York: Routledge. Retrieved March 14, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108323685 Read More