Confessions of an Emanze
I am an Emanze. It's my fault the Germans are dying out. I drove the women into misfortune. I lured them, as did Satan once, to the Messiah on a rock and showed them a mirage of the world. "That's all you can have," I whispered, "job, career, children, family, partnership ..."
And now? Women are "drained, tired and often have suicidal fantasies because of their constant demands." Says Eva Herman, a very busy person, "Tagesschau" spokeswoman, talk show presenter, author, music producer, mother of a young son, married four times. Just published her book "The Eve Principle", an already controversial "plea for a new femininity", an indictment against the Emanzen, including me.
Emancients like me can be recognized by the fact that they like to work, do not consider careers to be anything unnatural, to leave their children - if available - temporarily to strangers and, of course, to the double name. When I first married, I was allowed to attach my name to the man's name. There was no thinking at all for me. Why should I suddenly change my name?
So I came to my first double name, which was almost as long as the white mini dress in which I married. From then on, I only used the married part of the name when I needed a new passport. At my second marriage, I was able to put my name in front of you. Only after the new naming rights of 1994 I could do what I always wanted: my name retention. Meanwhile, 20 percent of all couples choose to do so. Too late for me - I probably will not marry a third time. In the meantime, where all possibilities are open, more women than ever take on the name of the man. For example, Verona Pooth, the former field bush. She thinks it is "just beautiful, if they all have the same name - it shows the whole world that we are now a real family, without any ifs and buts".
Apart from the fact that here the "real" family is defined by the doorknob, mother Pooth is in vogue. Families are on the rise. They are now regarded as a haven of survival. Mothers are to save the fatherland. Write about Frank Schirrmacher in his book "Minimum". Because they warm the cold world with all these wonderful human qualities, as they bring with them the birthing - compassion, sacrifice, selflessness, renunciation, empathy.
Emances are rather disturbing. Did not her High Priestess Simone de Beauvoir warn of the "trap of motherhood"? Did not she call child rearing a "true slavery" in which the fathers and society left the women pretty much alone? I remember times when the men admitted that too. If you outed in the seventies at a party as "Emanze", you were quickly surrounded by men. After scrutinizing whether the militant might have to deal with lack of opportunities in the erotic market, the questions came: "Where are women disadvantaged? Tell me, may I still fire you?" If you then, because you still smoked, nicely lit the cigarette and reported statistics on the absence of women in leadership positions, always took one in the round to the decisive blow. From honest conviction came the argument: "You know, the women will never be equal because they have the kids, that's what nature has set up so that can not be changed, will you deny that?" These men all had something of Frank Schirrmacher: professionally successful, domesticated, either from the first woman or a much younger lover, career-conscious and open to new ideas - unless their own comfort was in jeopardy. Incidentally, the most interesting conversations always took place at an advanced hour when the wives of these men began talking and dreaming. Often the sentence fell: "Ah, if the children were not ..."
That was thirty years ago. And the daughters of these wives, who clinked discreetly with their chains, are still struggling to reconcile family and work. A new representative ChroniquesDuVasteMonde study confirms that it's the vast majority of women - 83 percent! - it is at least as important to raise children as to be at work; 88 percent find that the profession is as important to women as it is to men; 53 percent say: Household and family are not enough for a fulfilling women's lives.
They want both. Not because emancipates have persuaded them, but because they have a right to it. They hurry up with their careers so they can get pregnant. They check whether the partner would be good as a father.They are world champions in organizing. If necessary, they also come alone. And if something goes wrong, they look - typically female - the blame on themselves. They are modern young women who know what they want, but anxious to avoid being suspected of feminism. If they find time to speak with demands, they presuppose that they are involved with the women's movement - God forbid! - have nothing to do. Too bad, because then they start again at zero. The first goal of the women's movement was the right to a self-determined life. Women should not have to choose between children and careers. Women should be able to become mothers without incurring disadvantages. And women should be allowed to remain childless without feeling less valuable. Mothers and non-mothers talked a lot back then. They have told of their moments of happiness and their depression. They've found that they envy and regret each other about as often as they do. I remember a clever psychologist who said then, "There are two situations in a woman's life where she will do anything to reach her goal: if she desperately wants to have a child and if she does not want it. "
We dreamed that the daughters and their daughters would pick up the spear where we threw it. But it seems like the offspring have an extra bow around it. Sometimes I wonder what sort of idea they have about the women's movement because they can only think of the word "dogged". As if a gloomy train of drooling women abused by their husbands had crawled through the streets.
The truth is: We had a lot of fun. We made up our lips, flicked our eyelashes, blown up doctors' congresses, blocked elections, occupied houses. We threw tomatoes, baby powder, pork tails. I wore pumps in which I could not walk a step today. We were strong, cheeky, everywhere. I loved the Italian women, who with the slogan "Tremate, tremate, le streghe son tornate!" went through Rome: "Tremble, tremble, the witches have returned!"
And today? The young women are so busy mastering their lives that an important lesson from history, especially the history of women, has been forgotten: To achieve the impossible, the impossible must be demanded, and what has been achieved is lost if it is not constantly defended and always reasserted. The trend researcher Peter Wippermann has noticed that the women are now mostly on the ad pages in the fashion magazines - "naive to lascivious". Equal rights between men and women, Enlightenment elements, the fight for a better world - all this is definitely gone in this "total culture of the aristocracy".
The young generation of women likes it a lot. She does not defend herself against misogyny, which disguises itself as wit and disguise with a cunning wink. "Almabtrieb," said the moderator Jörg Pilawa grinning, as at the Bambi Gala 2003, the German women's football team after their award for the won World Cup left the stage. I wanted to beat him with a cowbell, but then I did not even write a protest letter. I suddenly had the feeling that only I get upset about it.
Oliver Pocher, Young star on Pro Seven, announcing a post called "The Hole", saying, "After that, you'll see a documentary about Jenny Elvers." He was great as a bad boy. The movie had nothing to do with the actress. He only offered the opportunity to call her a "hole." Should you let this pass? Is it worthwhile to protest against such "little things"? Recently I read in old letters, in 1981 a friend wrote to me: "You have to shout when an old man jokes about his old man - always be vigilant, do not accept anything, because the sum of these little things will one day suffocate us."
What good does a Chancellor benefit us when we are shot again in the battle of the sexes and among the snipers are women like Eva Herman. Who bother us with theories that emanate from smell of decay. Should the "Tagesschau" spokeswoman follow her own advice and step down if everything gets too much for her? And she probably plans that too; At least she has announced a break at the "Tagesschau". But I'll bet we'll see her on screen at the age of 60.
And I, as an Emanze, have contributed to her stubborn fight for women's equal rights - also in terms of screen usability - by allowing her to do so. Given. If she at least shut up in gratitude.
To person
Ingrid Kolb, born in 1941, worked for daily newspapers, the "Spiegel" and the "Stern". From 1995 to 2006 she headed the Henri Nannen School of Journalism. In the seventies she was active in the Hamburg women's movement. She says, "Feminism is not a question of faith, but an answer to statistics."
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