I guess I would be of the age of being a second wave feminist- sort of. Well actually my parents were. My father who was the only member of his family to go to college and my mother who was brought up hearing how girls dont go to college they get married and have babies, made sure that they educated all 3 of their daughters.
The interesting thing about beauty pageants is that we actually enjoyed them growing up. It wasn't until my sons actually objected to watching them did we stop. "if girls are my equal," my oldest said, "I am not going to watch something that objectifies them." I don't know if he heard that in school or he figured it out on his own, but kudos to him for being able to process everything in that statement as a middle schooler. (Those were his words. I have mentioned that I have a very weird kind of memory)
I loved Gus showing such wonderful emotions. I remember as a child watching the nomination of Jimmy Carter and they panned to women delegates crying on the convention floor. And I asked my mother why they were crying and she said that they were just overwhelmed.
Well if grown ass women can cry when a total stranger is nominated to POTUS why wouldn't a son be so proud of his dad when he is nominated as VP. I have to say I object though to people saying that the reason Gus cried was that he is emotionally dysregulated because of his NVLD and ADHD. I think it was a moment of sheer unadulterated exaltation.
Isn't it interested that the political party that derides single cat ladies have no understanding of how proud a child could actually be of their parent. Just a thought.
BTW I think your daughter is beautiful (am I allowed to say that?) and you are wonderful parents allowing her to find her way and supporting her the way she needs. :)
Yes, you are allowed to say she’s beautiful. She is!
Re. Beauty pageants, some feminists later regretted making them the target of their protest. At the time, it seemed perfect. But later—after the pageants had become less “white” and less sexist in some ways—there was regret making something that other women enjoyed so much a target. And beauty is a complicated thing, too.
The historic nature of what Kamala Harris brings to all Americans has nothing to do with her demographics. It is her highly competent, loving embrace of all Americans and what we can accomplish as a nation if we pool all our talents and energy to make life better for everyone. Where every child is given the chance, not only to survive, but to thrive. Where every person matters and the government serves all the people, not just big business and the very rich. Racism has been a blight on this country. A blight that has blinded too many to the cost to everyone of treating others as if they didn’t matter. (e.g. Our educational system is on a par with Outer Mongolia in spite of great universities, and our healthcare system rates 91st in the world in spite of the best high tech medicine.)
Sadly the support for Donald Trump, the convicted felon, racist, misogynist, and sociopath has revealed the dark side of our nation, a nation that touts its Christian roots while supporting dishonest politicians who will never move us closer to a fairer, more just, and freer nation. But only support oligarchs willingly to subvert any honorable institution to achieve their selfish purpose while using gun rights, abortion and climate denial to stay in power.
Kamala Harris offers us a precious opportunity to end the divisiveness, the pettiness, the greediness, the dishonesty, the blindness to cruelty in our society, and honestly work together to solve all our problems to benefit everyone.
I agree. A little confused as to whether you mean this as a response to my post (which it doesn’t seem to be) or just adding your POV. If the latter, that’s fine. But if you think there’s any disagreement from me, you should read my earlier Election Watch posts, which are more focused on Kamala.
It has been painful for me, as it no doubt is for many others, to hear ourselves being reviled for being both boomers and second wave feminists. Thank you for your testimonial, Professor Bordo. Signed, an old but proud feminist.
I’m Gen Jones, born mid-50s. So my wave of waking up and understanding what was happening was mid- to late-70s, with working life starting in the 1980s.
I’ll never forget one of my college friends, whose mother was central to TCU’s English and creative writing departments. This professor’s reputation got many of the best writers as speakers for our annual writing convocations. The joke was, whoever spoke would invariably win Pulitzer or Nobel the next year. Isaac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, James Dickey.
And Robert Penn Warren.
These writers would stay in that professor’s home for the week of convocation. My friend served as taxi driver and personal assistant. One day, Warren told my friend she was a pretty girl, or something dumb like that. My friend drew herself up, and told Robert Penn Warren in no uncertain terms: “I am a woman, not a girl!”
Her mom later told me she’d never been so proud of her daughter.
On the one hand, I wish younger women (and men) today understood what it took to fight our way up through the ranks, what it was like to have our work diminished simply because we were women, to be passed over for a promotion because a guy “needed the money more.”
On the other hand, I hope today’s young women never have to respond to male writers because they are belittled. I hope today’s young women never have to know the disappointment of losing a promotion to a less-qualified man. I hope today’s young women never have to relinquish control of their bodies, their money, their homes because of regressive politics.
If they never experience what we did, we will have done our job and run our race.
I am a long time admirer, Susan, from the days of Flight into Objectivity. So glad to find you on Substack. Haven’t worked my way through all your other books yet, but you are such a vital voice speaking with wisdom and truth. I suppose I am reacting to the way our words become cliches and actually limit our vision of what is happening before our eyes. We are all so entrenched in our own myths, I fear those traditional phrases will limit our ability to reach out to others at this important time.Thanks for all you do. Sumter Carmichael Coleman
Thanks so much, Sumter. I couldn’t agree more about how stale and meaningless so many words and phrases are. And it’s not helped by broadcasters and journalists who grab onto a metaphor and over-use it to death. Have you read my piece on Orwell? It needs updating to include more recent phrases, but it was one of the most popular pieces I posted on Medium. Never did take off here, though. https://open.substack.com/pub/susanbordo/p/if-george-orwell-could-critique-broadcast?r=384ha&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
There’s so much to appreciate here, I don’t even know where to start. Art Buchwald’s lousy attempt at satire, quoted here, suggests to me that the proper approach is to begin with reality and honesty and see if our prejudice can survive. Instead, we begin with prejudice, and honesty and reality are asked to compromise. I say this as a person who was thoroughly packed with prejudice early on, as if my parents were preparing me for a long road trip.
Love that image. Happily, you’ve unpacked that suitcase and discarded the stuff you grew out of. And decided to take the road trip elsewhere.
Buchwald was far from the worst. At least he tried at humor. Somewhere I have a collection, from my courses, of what male (and some female) journalists said about “Women’s Lib” at the time, and without any humor. It’s appalling that it was so commonplace, so accepted.
I’ve been following Harris’ career with interest since summer of 1994 when I saw her on panel discussion in San Francisco- Susan, I sent you something through Kentucky. Edu email address yesterday- do you still check that email or is Substack email address better?
I am a Boomer feminist and proud of my participation in the Second Wave. Thank you for remembering us all.
You’re welcome!! BOOM!!
I guess I would be of the age of being a second wave feminist- sort of. Well actually my parents were. My father who was the only member of his family to go to college and my mother who was brought up hearing how girls dont go to college they get married and have babies, made sure that they educated all 3 of their daughters.
The interesting thing about beauty pageants is that we actually enjoyed them growing up. It wasn't until my sons actually objected to watching them did we stop. "if girls are my equal," my oldest said, "I am not going to watch something that objectifies them." I don't know if he heard that in school or he figured it out on his own, but kudos to him for being able to process everything in that statement as a middle schooler. (Those were his words. I have mentioned that I have a very weird kind of memory)
I loved Gus showing such wonderful emotions. I remember as a child watching the nomination of Jimmy Carter and they panned to women delegates crying on the convention floor. And I asked my mother why they were crying and she said that they were just overwhelmed.
Well if grown ass women can cry when a total stranger is nominated to POTUS why wouldn't a son be so proud of his dad when he is nominated as VP. I have to say I object though to people saying that the reason Gus cried was that he is emotionally dysregulated because of his NVLD and ADHD. I think it was a moment of sheer unadulterated exaltation.
Isn't it interested that the political party that derides single cat ladies have no understanding of how proud a child could actually be of their parent. Just a thought.
BTW I think your daughter is beautiful (am I allowed to say that?) and you are wonderful parents allowing her to find her way and supporting her the way she needs. :)
Yes, you are allowed to say she’s beautiful. She is!
Re. Beauty pageants, some feminists later regretted making them the target of their protest. At the time, it seemed perfect. But later—after the pageants had become less “white” and less sexist in some ways—there was regret making something that other women enjoyed so much a target. And beauty is a complicated thing, too.
The historic nature of what Kamala Harris brings to all Americans has nothing to do with her demographics. It is her highly competent, loving embrace of all Americans and what we can accomplish as a nation if we pool all our talents and energy to make life better for everyone. Where every child is given the chance, not only to survive, but to thrive. Where every person matters and the government serves all the people, not just big business and the very rich. Racism has been a blight on this country. A blight that has blinded too many to the cost to everyone of treating others as if they didn’t matter. (e.g. Our educational system is on a par with Outer Mongolia in spite of great universities, and our healthcare system rates 91st in the world in spite of the best high tech medicine.)
Sadly the support for Donald Trump, the convicted felon, racist, misogynist, and sociopath has revealed the dark side of our nation, a nation that touts its Christian roots while supporting dishonest politicians who will never move us closer to a fairer, more just, and freer nation. But only support oligarchs willingly to subvert any honorable institution to achieve their selfish purpose while using gun rights, abortion and climate denial to stay in power.
Kamala Harris offers us a precious opportunity to end the divisiveness, the pettiness, the greediness, the dishonesty, the blindness to cruelty in our society, and honestly work together to solve all our problems to benefit everyone.
Sumter Carmichael
I agree. A little confused as to whether you mean this as a response to my post (which it doesn’t seem to be) or just adding your POV. If the latter, that’s fine. But if you think there’s any disagreement from me, you should read my earlier Election Watch posts, which are more focused on Kamala.
It has been painful for me, as it no doubt is for many others, to hear ourselves being reviled for being both boomers and second wave feminists. Thank you for your testimonial, Professor Bordo. Signed, an old but proud feminist.
You’re very welcome. It made me feel good to write it. BTW, I’m not a professor anymore. retired now….so it’s Susan.
This boomer second wave feminist thanks you!
You’re welcome!
Hi Susan, Thanks for the eloquent shoutout to the Second Wave.
You’re welcome….fellow boomer!!
I’m Gen Jones, born mid-50s. So my wave of waking up and understanding what was happening was mid- to late-70s, with working life starting in the 1980s.
I’ll never forget one of my college friends, whose mother was central to TCU’s English and creative writing departments. This professor’s reputation got many of the best writers as speakers for our annual writing convocations. The joke was, whoever spoke would invariably win Pulitzer or Nobel the next year. Isaac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, James Dickey.
And Robert Penn Warren.
These writers would stay in that professor’s home for the week of convocation. My friend served as taxi driver and personal assistant. One day, Warren told my friend she was a pretty girl, or something dumb like that. My friend drew herself up, and told Robert Penn Warren in no uncertain terms: “I am a woman, not a girl!”
Her mom later told me she’d never been so proud of her daughter.
On the one hand, I wish younger women (and men) today understood what it took to fight our way up through the ranks, what it was like to have our work diminished simply because we were women, to be passed over for a promotion because a guy “needed the money more.”
On the other hand, I hope today’s young women never have to respond to male writers because they are belittled. I hope today’s young women never have to know the disappointment of losing a promotion to a less-qualified man. I hope today’s young women never have to relinquish control of their bodies, their money, their homes because of regressive politics.
If they never experience what we did, we will have done our job and run our race.
Thanks for the comment, and the anecdote about Robert Penn Warren. The most revered guys were often the worst. I have quite a few stories of my own! I think I tell a few of them here: https://open.substack.com/pub/susanbordo/p/1968-a-memoir-only-slightly-disguised?r=384ha&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I am a long time admirer, Susan, from the days of Flight into Objectivity. So glad to find you on Substack. Haven’t worked my way through all your other books yet, but you are such a vital voice speaking with wisdom and truth. I suppose I am reacting to the way our words become cliches and actually limit our vision of what is happening before our eyes. We are all so entrenched in our own myths, I fear those traditional phrases will limit our ability to reach out to others at this important time.Thanks for all you do. Sumter Carmichael Coleman
Thanks so much, Sumter. I couldn’t agree more about how stale and meaningless so many words and phrases are. And it’s not helped by broadcasters and journalists who grab onto a metaphor and over-use it to death. Have you read my piece on Orwell? It needs updating to include more recent phrases, but it was one of the most popular pieces I posted on Medium. Never did take off here, though. https://open.substack.com/pub/susanbordo/p/if-george-orwell-could-critique-broadcast?r=384ha&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
There’s so much to appreciate here, I don’t even know where to start. Art Buchwald’s lousy attempt at satire, quoted here, suggests to me that the proper approach is to begin with reality and honesty and see if our prejudice can survive. Instead, we begin with prejudice, and honesty and reality are asked to compromise. I say this as a person who was thoroughly packed with prejudice early on, as if my parents were preparing me for a long road trip.
Love that image. Happily, you’ve unpacked that suitcase and discarded the stuff you grew out of. And decided to take the road trip elsewhere.
Buchwald was far from the worst. At least he tried at humor. Somewhere I have a collection, from my courses, of what male (and some female) journalists said about “Women’s Lib” at the time, and without any humor. It’s appalling that it was so commonplace, so accepted.
My mom passed in the 00’s but she would have loved to see the joy VP Harris has brought out.
She took me to marches in the 60’s and called me Ms. in ‘74. She taught me about the beauty pageant and the boardwalk protests when I was young.
Second wave my ass, all y’all were out front.
❤️
I’ve been following Harris’ career with interest since summer of 1994 when I saw her on panel discussion in San Francisco- Susan, I sent you something through Kentucky. Edu email address yesterday- do you still check that email or is Substack email address better?
I check it but often have trouble replying to it. (It gets clogged.) I’ll send you a reply from my iCloud email.