She's Beautiful When She's Angry

I had the opportunity to watch a special screening of She's Beautiful When She's Angry, a documentary about the Second Wave Feminist Movement (more info about the film HERE). If I could, I would buy it on DVD and screen it whenever possible, because it explains why I self-identify as a feminist. The title seems to reinforce the stereotype that feminists are a bunch of "angry" women, but don't be turned off by it--I think it was a deliberate choice by the producers to use this word, and refers to the fact that the movement united angry, fed up women against an excessively condescending patriarchy.

The film was deftly edited, and allowed movement women to speak for themselves. There wasn't a narrator to tell you how to think or make the connections between scenes, and yet the film came together in one coherent narrative. Kudos to the producers for also giving a balanced portrayal of the strengths and weaknesses of the movement, what it accomplished and what it failed to do. If there was one glaring weakness about the film, it would be that it was silent on the issue of full-time homemakers. This shouldn't be a surprise since much of the movement was about getting women out of the home, and ignored how some women wanted to stay at home (hence the strong backlash by more conservative women and failure to pass the ERA). Perhaps this is one failure of the movement that even feminists today are still not ready to discuss.

Still, the film reminded its audience of how much good came out of it, positive changes that women in America (including me) take for granted today because it seems so commonsense. Yet, if it wasn't for the Feminist Movement...

• Women would be solely defined by their sexuality and relationship to men, e.g. you should only dress/ act to please your man, not yourself; your needs need to revolve around your man. 
• Men would consider it their prerogative to rape women, and doctors would still blame victims for it. (A fight that is still ongoing)
• The medical field would continue to be all-male, and male doctors tell order women how to think and feel about their bodies. 
• Pharmaceutical companies and doctors would not be held accountable for selling harmful birth control pills with insane levels of estrogen.
• No one would highlight how Miss America and beauty pageants objectified women (reminds me of John Oliver's brilliant commentary about the pageant).
• Women wouldn't realize that they can speak out against street harassment 
• It would be totally acceptable, even expected, for job postings to still have "good looks" as a mandatory requirement, while having a brain was optional. 
• Women would be limited to secretarial positions or menial labor jobs. Glass ceiling? What's that? 
• Disgusting male professors won't be charged with sexual harassment for telling his graduate student, "If I don't f*** you, I will f*** you." True story related by one of the interviewees in the film.
• I won't be able to blog. Who cares about my opinion? I'm a woman so I should shut up. 

Why am I a feminist? Because I want to follow in the footsteps of these women who raised awareness about these issues. I'm not saying that I agree with their entire platform, and even feminists fought among themselves (hence the inter-movement divisions as seen in the film), but I can still recognize and applaud their courage to organize and speak out. And because of them, I live in a society that is safer, more accepting of women in powerful positions, and where women have more control over their bodies.