A clinic on "feminism"

Gave one last evening.  We were at a Concordia Alumni function at The Ranchmen's Club where I met several mid-forties "feminists".  Dressed very conservatively, sporting sensible (read ugly) shoes, they feigned interest in talking to a "poineer" of The Movement:  moi. 

Boy, did they get their money's worth.  I entered university in 1965, when The Movement was just getting underway.  Mine was the first generation to deviate from our mothers' paths to pursue careers.  Mine was the first generation to experience social, sexual and personal freedom -- with all the joys and sorrows that hazardous path entailed.  Back then we definitely worked both sides of the street, I told them.  We were women, but we did everything the men did.  We had real power -- heck, we had all the power.   

"You women today have disenfranchised yourselves.  You are missing the "woman" part of the women's movement," I said.  "You can never be men, so quit trying.  Embrace what it means to be a woman as we did, stop being insulted every time you receive a compliment.  Don't greet every advance a man makes with an hysterical 'harassment' charge.  Take it as a compliment, for G-d's sake.  Get over yourselves and enjoy being women.  That's what you are missing these days.  You have emasculated men to the point where you hate them," I added for good measure.

They were slack-jawed.  I went on to recount my days at Maclean-Hunter, where every day was an episode of 'Mad Men'.  Wine, women (and men) and song were the order of the day and man did we have fun.  We weren't "exploited".  Far, far from it.  If you were good at what you did, you got ahead regardless of gender.  It had nothing to do with "political correctness".  No one had ever heard of the term.  We earned our own money and did what we wanted -- be it traditional or revolutionary. 

I still do whatever I want.  Some days I'm "Nancy Griffith", some days I'm "Mrs. Marley-Clarke", some days I'm "Nancy at the pool", some days I'm "Nancy the blogger", some days I'm "Tommy and Lillian's daughter", some days I'm "Susanne and Gene's mother", some days I'm "Reed's Grandma"....it all depends on the situation.  We have so many advantages.  Men can't give birth, for example.  "Mothers" have great status in society.  Why do you think so many loser teenage girls have babies?     

"You have lost your way, gals," I said last evening.  "You have bought into the 'women's lib' camp and it has done you no good whatsoever.  You have let slide the femininity that gave you all the power.  You just don't get it and it's a real shame."

One woman, a law professor, asked me to come and speak to one of her classes next time I was in Montreal.  I just may.