Enlightened Sexism

I've often thought the very things that Douglas discusses here. We are told that we can be anything, but we clearly cannot, and we are clearly still held to standards far more exacting than men are. The idea that feminism is bad continues to surprise me a bit; I was raised in a feminist household, around feminists, and until I was in my teens I truly believed that it was just settled that feminism was a good thing that helped women.

Douglas refers to the "seductive message" that we are given, the one which claims women have achieved full equality. It is seductive. And empowering. It's empowering to say, I'm as good as a man and I can do anything a man can do. The problem is, it's bullshit. The first part isn't true in society's eyes, and the second part isn't true in society, period. It makes us feel good, but it makes us complacent, too. We need to keep fighting for equality, and believing that we already have it discourages that fight.