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| In the movie Joy, Jennifer Lawrence plays a single mother whose struggles are fueled by the non-recognition of creativity at home and the absence of economic opportunity outside, all subject to the undercurrents of neoliberal individualism that influence her decisions and help her define her road to success. Photo credit: Joy, the movie |
There are numerous objectives or quests in life, from
individual and societal to national and global, and correspondingly and
arguably there are numerous ways of achieving them. With that in mind, this
essay focuses on understanding the definition of feminism and the various
approaches towards advancing or enforcing it.
The first month of the year highlighted two
approaches to the cause of feminism. While one long unfolding incident in the
Indian state of Maharashtra saw a group of women frame their argument around
the “right to pray” (a socio-political rights approach)
in their quest for practicing feminism, the other was a break from tradition in
Hollywood to depict lone women in their fight for justice with the release of
Joy, a film inspired by the life of Joy Mangano and her struggles as a single mother
as she built her own business empire (an economic rights approach).
While it is imperative to underline that individual
beliefs, life experiences, immediate needs and larger political social and
economic environments prevalent and dominant in the surroundings have a lot to
contribute towards their actions, it would be a mistake not to see how both
these disparate approaches that sought to achieve different goals fall under
the wider umbrella of realising feminism and advancing the cause of gender
equality.
While as individuals, one may be subject to
limitations in terms of what goal(s) among these (social, political or economic
rights) we are able to focus on and correspondingly what road we take in our
struggles to achieve them, as societies and larger communities it is essential
for us to work towards protecting and ensuring an all-inclusive enforcement of
feministic ideals and to perpetually interrogate and adjust the road we take to
achieve those goals. Because to realise feminism in all it’s earnest, equality
needs to be protected and ensured across all realms (social, political and
economic among others). And what road we take to do that may well define how we
look at feminism it self.
But who
or what defines feminism?
For all further references, it is imperative to define
the meaning of feminism as understood and studied by me. Feminism, as its name
suggests, was born as the idea of advocacy of women’s rights. But it has grown into
a bigger idea today. Today it stands for equal rights for all, across all
realms. It’s an all-inclusive understanding and approach towards advocating
equality.
However, as the definition of feminism has itself
evolved and enlarged to encompass more than women’s rights, it will only be
wise to recognise that this definition may further evolve over time. And what
will affect this definition or the realisation of these values are not just
other socio-political or economic factors, but also the approach we take
towards practicing feminism. For the architecture we design, also designs our
perspectives. Since the journey is part of the destination, it holds enough
power to influence the ride and throw up its own set of challenges. In the
words of Professor Nancy Fraser, our critique of sexism may “supply the justification for new forms of inequality
and exploitation”.
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| This temple at Shani Shingnapur, Maharashtra, was the subject of a debate around the equality of rights for women when it comes to praying there. About 1,000 women had together to storm this temple to enforce their rights. Photo credit: The Indian Express |
The two
approaches
So in the two cases described above, while the parent
idea is that of feminism, the goals and approaches to them are part of the
subsets of socio-political and economic rights and opportunity respectively.
Social
solidarity - The Shani
Shingnapur temple issue: In brief, this one’s about a 1,000 women led by Trupti Desai gearing
up to storm a temple in Shani Shingnapur, a village in western Maharashtra. At this temple,
women were not allowed to set foot on the open platform where the idol is
installed. Men, however, could do so, for a fee. Here’s the full story. Though this doesn’t directly
concern the subject of this essay, here’s also a take on if we should even care about temple entry,
and that even when we do, putting it all under the umbrella of the ‘right to
pray’ is not the best thing to do.
So this quest for
demanding equal rights stemmed from the discrimination at a place of worship
and it took a socio-political approach to enforcing it. Social solidarity, something that has long been a characteristic of
the feminism struggle, is what Desai sought in this path to tackle gender
discrimination. The recent appointment of women qazis in Jaipur and their resolve to
bring in a feminine perspective when it comes to pronouncing judgments is
another example of social solidarity being the go to approach to advance
feminism.
Neoliberal
individualism – Joy, the movie: This
one’s a story inspired by the life of Joy Mangano, a single mother entrepreneur whose
home-made mop made her a fortune. Here’s more about the movie. So in this
case, Joy’s story draws from her fight for freedom and opportunity while
struggling with the disappointments of a life curtailed by her modest
surroundings, and complicated by the responsibilities of being a single mother
of three, a supporting child to her divorced parents and a lone bread-earner.
But this story chalks
closer to the path of entrepreneurism, a spirit that’s fostered by the
invisible hand, as Joy earnestly grabs or even creates economic opportunities
that help her build a huge business and rewrite her circumstances. Her quest
for feminism is fueled by the want and need of a better quality of life, and
she sees economic equality and opportunity as the road to it and she fights for
it. This story also goes a long way to show how the quest for feminism and the
path we take to it is also a product of the times we live in. Joy, in the US,
is subject to the undercurrents of neoliberal
individualism that influence her decisions and actions, and while hers is a
story of success, it must also be seen as a success story of capitalism feeding
off the ambivalence of feminism.
What road to take: Solidarity or individualism?
On the onset it may not
seem to matter, but while in the short-term capitalism demands equality in all
respects so as to ensure that the invisible hand thrives, in the long-term
unattended (read: unregulated) capitalism also does have a huge tendency to
fall prey to corruption and thus advancing itself while reshaping what it feeds
off, thereby, in this case perhaps, creating a form of neoliberal feminism.
And while social solidarity may have been the go to
approach for feminists, in contemporary times, the lure of this form of
solidarity has been dominated by the overarching attraction of individual
success stories. It has also been diluted by ideas that exist at the very
peripheries of capitalism and feminism and stand for gender equality but can be
maneuvered to feed capitalism while advancing feminism in the short-term, and
hurting the overall quest for it in the long-term. The “feminist critique of the family wage” and it’s implications
is an example where this complexity can be further observed.
So while in Maharashtra socio-political rights and
social solidary defined their path for gender equality, in the US that quest
was defined by neoliberal individualism for Joy, with each quest being subject
to its context.
Perhaps, another characteristic of feminism then, is that while it advocates equality, it recognises that there may not be a particular approach to enforce it and that the quest and the approach may themselves be defined by the times and the context. And while this definition evolves, it may not be in a strict solidarity or in naively taking neoliberal individualism as the approach that feminism may find its best friend, but perhaps in a new form of balance that may reside between these and perhaps others.
