An Unknowing Feminist

A Facebook friend of mine posted an article about the Equal Rights Amendment yesterday, and it got me thinking about the Feminist Movement, or more specifically the “second wave” of that movement.

I was still pretty young in the 1960’s, but I watched the television news stories and read the magazine articles about women gathering to burn their bras and refusing to shave their armpits in a vigorous effort to obtain equality in a male dominated society.

Things were a lot different back then. Nearly every home had a mom whose primary role was to care for her husband and children. A working woman was an oddity. Movies featured women going to college for the sole purpose of finding a husband, and the Hollywood happy ending had them achieving that goal.

I remember dating a young woman in the 1980’s who was studying to become an anesthesiologist because that was her best bet for marrying a Doctor. She dumped me for a med student, and although they fought constantly, she probably ended up marrying him. So the notion was still alive even then.

These days, women go to college out of necessity. The days of a one-income household are pretty much extinct for middle class Americans. They grudgingly enter the work force with the full knowledge that they will be paid less than an equally qualified male, and most will answer to a male at some level. Many choose a career in Human Resources. In that capacity, they may not be able to control the company, but at least they can control who gets in.

Reality television has taken a bite out of the feminist movement in the present day. Women are becoming famous for being young, beautiful, vapid, and willing to strip on demand (or drunken, obnoxious, and cruelly judgmental on the other side of the spectrum).

Sandy Bennett in Happy Bay has faint knowledge of the ERA, but she knows deep within her heart that her role of trophy wife is intrinsically wrong. Displaced at a relatively young age, and with a best friend that enjoys the old fashioned role of caretaker, she finds herself at a crossroad of an unfulfilled existence and an uncertain future, Choosing the latter, she embarks on a journey to self-discovery where she finds danger in her confrontations with males that pigeonhole her into the role of a submissive sex object.

Sandy has some awareness of her physical beauty, but she is not content with simply being beautiful. She longs for love, but finds only companionship. She rails against the stereotype that accompanies beauty and strives for success on her own terms, without complete awareness of either until the book’s ending.

That is why I like to think of Sandy as an unknowing feminist. She is not content with simply being beautiful and the benefits that it can bring. And she finds that reliance on a man is not necessary for self-fulfillment.  She enjoys body freedom with little reservation.  She overcomes the stereotype to achieve greatness on her own terms. And she does so with the assistance of others whose genders are irrelevant.

And although she still yearns for true love, she understands that finding it is part of the journey and not simply the destination.

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