Very Katie Roiphe, which is not a good thing. Karen Lehrman Bloch A fresh look at today's feminism. Critiques some of the harsh political ideology that undermines female autonomy. Very interesting. Karen Lehrman Bloch In the Lipstick Proviso, readers will find a feminism that promotes women's interests without locking them into any particular role -- not the traditional role shunned by Second Wave feminists, nor the role those feminists tried to replace it with. Lehrman points out the irrationality of a lot of Second Wave and even some Third Wave feminism, basing a lot of her points on research that feminists ignore (the studies to which she refers are listed in extensive endnotes). She also describes the gap between what the most outspoken feminists espouse and how women live their lives and aspire to live their lives. Another theme Lehrman comes back to repeatedly is that women must do what is best and healthiest for THEM -- women should be active agents in their lives, not simply following the herd, no matter which herd that might be.
Even though the book is now over a decade old, I found myself nodding along with a lot of Lehrman's points. While a few discussions suffer under the weight of time -- mostly, the discussion of date rape fails to consider the mind-games offenders will play with their victims -- research subsequent to the book's publication often boosters its arguments.
For those who call themselves feminists, yet feel put-off by the feminism of the previous two generations, this book is a winner.
Karen Lehrman Bloch
Many women today prepare for a big meeting by reading a stack of folders and applying lipstick. They order their male colleagues around, then wait for those same men to help them on with their coats. They have higher-status jobs than some of the men they date, yet they never call men socially or ask them out.
What's going on? Why such seemingly contradictory behaviors? Have women completely failed feminism--or has feminism failed them?
In The Lipstick Proviso, Karen Lehrman--hailed by the New York Times as the sharpest of the new feminist thinkers--shows that women today are failing neither feminism nor themselves. Rather, they've entered a new stage of feminism, one in which the personal is not political, differences between the sexes need to be respected, and courtship, chivalry, and the nuclear family don't have to be jettisoned just because they existed before the sixties.
Thirty years after the women's movement liberated women from narrowly defined roles, Lehrman argues, we are finally beginning to see which traditionally feminine behaviors are more deeply rooted in biology and which are more heavily influenced by culture. Lehrman asserts that the result--whatever it is--will not undermine feminism as long as women still retain equal rights, opportunities, and responsibilities. Dispensing with the outdated notion of sisterhood, Lehrman offers women a lipstick proviso: women don't have to sacrifice their complex individuality in order to be equal.
As the first book to move beyond a critique of orthodox feminism, The Lipstick Proviso sets a radically new course for the future of the women's movement. While there's still much political work to be done, Lehrman argues that women should now focus on the personal sides of their lives. Women can't rightly be called autonomous if they stay with abusive or even emotionally challenged lovers; say yes to sex when they really mean no; overeat or undereat to hide their sexuality.
With wit and grace, Karen Lehrman offers in The Lipstick Proviso a way to complete the feminist revolution, and clearly establishes herself as the definitive voice of the next generation of feminism. The Lipstick Proviso
