Six important voices on feminism
Basha Mika
The structures made by men prevent the rise of women. By the way, says ex-taz editor-in-chief Bascha Mika. The 57-year-old no longer wants to play in the gender theater. In her book "The Cowardice of Women" she finds clear words. Yes, "we live in a male-dominated society", writes Bascha Mika, but we blame women, "because we benefit from the system because it is convenient and because we are reluctant to conflict". Women are cowardly, Women risk nothing, women subordinate themselves - and voluntarilyBascha says Mika and should provoke some contradiction. She and her mates demand the courage to resist the self-reliance on old role models. Are women too cowardly?
Bascha Mika: "The cowardice of women", 272 pages, C. Bertelsmann Verlag, 14.99 euros. The book will be published on February 7th.
Natasha Walter
Natasha Walter, 43, was wrong. She thought: The new women are self-confident, free and self-determined. Women who do not want to be dictated by anything or anyone, let alone men, how to dress, how to live. That was in 1998, and Natasha Walter, one of the UK's best-known feminists, published The New Feminism. As I said: she was wrong. Today she says: Sexism is back, "It's as if something has broken through the back door - and we turn around and it's all over and you think, Okay, we'll have to deal with it again." The treacherous on the new sexism: This time, the women mix with themselves. Young, intelligent women, says Walter, are reduced to appearance, and their attractiveness alone is the key to personal success. Are women better today than smart?
Natasha Walter: "Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism", 288 pages, Little, Brown Book Group 2010, 12,95 Euro. "Living Dolls" will be published in February 2011 in German by Krüger Verlag.
Elisabeth Badinter
They breastfeed, as long as possible, diapers come into the washing machine. Porridge from the glass? They prefer to cook for themselves. They do everything for the child, and as naturally as possible. The French philosopher Elisabeth Badinter, 66, the new mothers have buttoned. Women who live in the "dictates of a new naturalism". At the same time, the nursing and eco-friendly species endangers precisely the freedoms that women have struggled to achieve in recent decades. And their own child is secretly becoming "the best ally of men's oppression". Badinter, herself the mother of three children, has long been considered a mother's fright by many. The love of motherhood, she wrote 30 years ago, is nothing more than a feeling of varying degrees in history. Something like a maternal instinct is nothing more than women-suppressing humbug. Are babies the new oppressors of women?
Elisabeth Badinter: "The Conflict: The Woman and the Mother," 222 pages, Beck 2010, 17.95 euros
Dorothee Bear
Dorothee Bär calls it Hinterkopf Quote. "My God, we can not quite without a woman", "well, one, two we still do it". Women who are raised in the CSU without fixed quota, just with the back of the head quota on positions, especially at lower levels. And she is annoyed about the ego-and-so-mentality of young party women. Especially those who are vociferous against a women's quota. "They think, man, that was easy, but in the end they also needed this back of the head to get the chance to prove themselves." Dorothee Bär is 32 years old and Deputy CSU Secretary General. She fights for the women's quota. At a certain point, it just does not go on, she says. Bear says "The older you get, the more feminist you become." And what about the quota that was decided at the CSU party conference in late October? A minimum compromise, local and district associations are excluded. Is it naive to think that women can make a career without a quota?
Marlene Streeruwitz
How much "I" is in my life? How much of it does it tolerate? Do we subordinate ourselves to external conditions or do we insist on an autonomous way of life? It is the daily struggle for autonomy. The Austrian author Marlene Streeruwitz, 60, tells in her new book eleven short stories. Eleven constellations about how and why relationships fail.Despite and sometimes because of the emancipation: a bedridden woman is cheated by her husband, a houseman vegetates next to his successful wife, despite many promises a lover does not want to leave his wife. The stories remain on the verge of decision, ask the question: How much emancipation does my everyday life endure?
Marlene Streeruwitz: "That will not happen to me ... How do I stay a feminist", 151 pages, Fischer 2010, 9,95 EUR. On //wie.bleibe.ich.feministin.org/ you can comment on the stories, contribute ideas, keep writing. And Streeruwitz reads and discusses.
Myrtle Hilkens
And even she dared not say anything. There was a sado-maso film in the background, at a normal party, on big screens. And nobody said that this is a mess. Even Myrthe Hilkens not. The Dutch journalist, 31, speaks of the taboo. As if you were outmoded, prude or bitchy, just because you reject such representations. "Since when is submission an admirable trait?" Hilkens demands a censorship of women of contemptible, violent porn. "We need a second sexual revolution." The first has freed the women, the second has to protect them. "Why do we think freedom means seeing such porn?" Is it a prude to find porno bad?
Myrtle Hilkens: "McSex: The Pornification of Our Society", 207 pages, Orlanda 2010, 18 euros.
