The sixties was a pivotal time for women. The Women's Movement attracted men and women. It was about equality and while there are still barriers to a woman's success the sixties generation of women accomplished great strides in equal rights.
The protest marches were reminiscent of the Suffrage Movement which of course brought the vote to all adults in the USA and not just white men.
Sufferage, not different than the Woman's Movement is about civil rights. It is about equality. Today's feminists actually benefit from the struggles of their mothers and grandmothers, but, they still have a movement requiring strong women with clear standards of equality.
There is no requirement for any woman to sacrifice her happiness she finds in her life including looking in the mirror and finding a beautiful person. A beautiful person on the inside can also be expressed on the outside. There is no crime in it. I will say this. The PREJUDICE against women was sexually driven and in order for the movement to be heard they rejected all the so called women's standard issue bra and girdle and make up. The 'status quo' was rejected to make it clear that women were cast into a mold and not an expression of their true selves.
Today, physical attractiveness has become a standard due to 'the profile picture' many place in a public forum. Social media is important as it does exchange ideas and promotes freedom and democracy.
The door is open today to any woman that finds her identity is one seeking equality. It doesn't require membership by burning bras or cinching up girdles or painting on a face no one knows without it. It is an open forum and basically always was. But, in the days of the 1960s movement there was rejection of the sexualized woman of which there was a real purpose.
Feminism is as important today as the past. Women's Sufferage was a huge achievement, but, the sisters weren't finished and didn't realize it until something like eighty years later and the Women's Movement of the 1960s came to the surface in the USA and across the globe. The Women's Movement was occurring in other countries, including the UK, at the very same time. Some countries still didn't recognize women as equal to vote and there are still some today that do not.
Feminism for men was about being free of the burden of 'being that man.' A distant and removed masculinity demanded by the women they dated and ultimately married. The roles of men and women were divided by social walls. Invisible walls, but, palpable just the same. So when men joined the Women's Movement is was as much about being real and themselves in expression by wearing open collars and shoes without socks. The designers of the day catered to the feminist movement with men's wardrobes as well.
Today the hurdles are still real. There are far less women in government than in decades past, there still isn't a woman President in the USA. Britain achieved a Prime Minister long ago. But, the UK was pivotal to freedom movements of the 1960s. There were the Boys from Liverpool that helped change music and self-expression in music. There were great female artists in the USA bringing song and playing guitars to the Culture Movement.
Some of the expressions of the barriers that remain are more subtle, like the women of Wall Street and their struggle for equality and recognition without the sexualized oppression of their peers.
Today, in the USA there is a huge regression of the rights of women in dictating their own rights to own their own bodies. Today, rather than the sexualized oppression exists an imposed oppression by government to limit the choices of women. Just because a woman has a uterus doesn't mean she has to postpone a career or aspiration without the affection of a man, husband or otherwise.
There still remains hurdles to something as obviously simple as equal pay for equal work. Today women are heads of households and during 2008 they were proven to be the sole support of families at times. That reality has to translate into pay equal to that of men and a living wage. Need I mention health care and the importance that plays to women and their lives.
Choice should always be a woman's middle name. There is nothing wrong with valuing life at any stage of development, but, then that is choice. Where it becomes wrong to move Pro-Life movements to a political stage is where women lose their right of 'habeous corpus.' A woman should never be faced with choices that is the best of two bad choices, it should be their decision alone about how they conduct their bodies and the age they decide to to give birth.
Women need to be able to take on the challenges of life fully armed with every possible choice. The way they conduct their sexuality is their own business, their own choice; even if that choice leads their identity to having a female partner.
There are many reasons why feminism is still with us. Given the fact the movement took life again in the 1960s only goes to prove it is always with us waiting to be blossomed into a greater aspect of every woman's life. There is still much to say about feminism and the freedom it brings to both genders.
Alan Alda’s is a lifelong feminist. He’s been speaking out for women’s rights since the birth of Gloria Steinem’s Ms. Magazine, in which he published a 1975 article titled “What Every Woman Should Know about Men.” In this article he coined the phrase “testosterone poisoning,” writing:
"Everyone knows that testosterone, the so-called male hormone, is found in both men and women. What is not so well known, is that men have an overdose… Until recently it has been thought that the level of testosterone in men is normal simply because they have it. But if you consider how abnormal their behavior is, then you are led to the hypothesis thatalmost all men are suffering from testosterone poisoning.”
Alda’s other feminist works include co-chairing (with former First Lady Betty Ford) the ERA Countdown campaign. In 1976 The Boston Globe dubbed him “the quintessential Honorary Woman: A Feminist Icon” for his activism to support the Equal Rights Amendment.
We at Just The Tip dub him a quintessential feminist, and thank him for his efforts on behalf of women.
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