You have come a long way baby!
Here it is, International Women’s Day. Somewhere in the shadows is that tantalizing ad of Virginia Slims cigarettes created by the Philip Morris Tobacco company in the late sixties. A cigarette designed for women just to remind them that in the march of progress women were right up along with men as consumers. Wow! Golly! Gosh! Every female smoker dashed off to buy a pack of Virginian Slims . The husky Marlboro man for him and the slender cigarette for us. Bonus point, no puckering up line damage around the mouth. Hence the genius at the tobacco company had to be thanked. However in the jungles of Africa the tribal woman who rolled her tobacco in a leaf resembling a splif laughed her head off. She smoked pure tobacco without all the nasty tar stuffed into machine made cigarettes. Nevertheless women had come a long way said some un-travelled joker and it became a catch phrase.
This is a day of marches, processions and UN conferences around the globe. Rightly so. Can you imagine Chinese female toddler have escaped having their feet bound ,maimed and the gait forever crippled. China has come along way baby. So have the brave women of Iran who ripped of their head coverings. Not that long ago Irani women were heavy duty fashion plates heading to Paris. Not so lucky are Afghani girls who cannot attend school. Fifty years ago Afghani girls permed their hair wore short skirts and high heels. They had no need to come a long way they were already there. Not on my watch said the Taliban. Look what happened? Malala got shot in the face for going to school and she has absolutely come a long way. It is a topsy turvy world for some women. There is a delicious rumour that Saudi women can drive. cars. Allah be praised.
The wave, shriek or howl of feminism ripped through the sixties. Germaine Greer, Gloria Steinem, Simon De Beauvoir author of the ‘Second Sex’, a slender reed of a girl called Twiggy and the flower power hippies were noticed. They were all bad girls. Bras were burned, birth control pills were as popular as recreational drugs. John Lennon and Yoko Ono did a public lie in naked in a bed together . Ceramic artist Judy Chicago’s exhibit ‘Dinner Party’ had the vagina painted on every dinner plate. Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Angela Davis vying for top Feminist spots . It seemed the entire world had come a long way.
Then new times and new rules hit everyone on the head. Nasty cigarettes were given up. Smoking is out. Valium is out and Meditation is in. We are no longer binary so ads cannot be just for women. ‘Me Too’ and ‘Black Lives Matter ’ absolutely necessary, keep hammering statistics that women have not come a long way. Look at what happens in the Oscars. All those missing female film Directors?Oops!
it is not time to rest on laurels from the past. That is dangerous complacency but women are shifting life priorities rapidly. New Zealand’s well admired Prime Minister had the ovaries to say she could not handle the top job any more. The fight for Daycare has bent the will of governments who will now subsidize this. Although a grey haired female television broadcaster was turfed her support blossomed. Some foolish male felt the public did not wish to see age. He should check statistics, Boomers are bigger in numbers than Millenniums. More howls of outrage. Margaret Atwood with her mop of silver curls and sci fi treasure of dozens of novels is a sought after public figure at 83. in fact at any given point her mind is sexier than yours. She has not come a long way she was born that way. Joke!
Women in industry, women in politics and women in your neighborhood teaching their children about household chores may have escaped a personal marginalized existence but does one only look at half the world? Here one refers to the European and North American countries. Do those smashing Japanese female Tech executives also moonlight for some Geisha training to keep their men in check?
Equal in all ways imaginable is the utopia of humanity. By and large this has been achieved in many ways, yet there are societies where women will not get their undeniable rights for quite a while. In North American societies women have dodged marriages and motherhood as they insist on selecting men who will submit to the equal in all ways mantra. So both sides are partying alone, drinking alone and travelling alone for recreation. Dating on line has been declared a failure. Everyone lies about their age and multiple physical encounters are exhausting. Its all formula and very little romance. That’s what happens when you have to tick off boxes?
American actress Meghan Markle sat on national television and told the awesome Oprah that the British monarchy had not come a long way baby. So she convinced her husband Harry to decamp. They are both young, attractive and cool so leaving stultifying conventions behind is decidedly coolish. She has assuredly come a long way from her maternal black slave ancestors status. Upsetting an apple cart, even a royal one, is part of a tedious drama at best.
The final question is who gets to decide that women have come a long way. Is is statisticians or social chroniclers like authors of feminist fiction? It’s a trick question so be very careful when you answer this.