Follow Up: Responding to Michele

So far it seems we are all in agreement that Frye’s article, while interesting, is extremist and downright hypocritical. Johnson’s chapter, on the other hand, is a refreshing acknowledgement of women’s own culpability in the very system that oppresses them. While Frye makes sweeping statements such as “we are silenced before we begin” (Frye, p. 1), Johnson reminds all of us that we must blame ourselves for patriarchy before we look to anyone else.

Like Michele and Rachel, I struggle with the duplicity of Frye’s argument. I agree with Frye that many women face the challenge of walking the line between slutty and prude or quiet and bitchy, “You can’t win. You are caught in a bind, caught between systematically related pressures” (Frye, p. 2). Yet later on, Frye fails to apply her own logic to the situation of the male “door opener”. Although she proclaims her disgust at such display of oppression, I would argue that if a man slammed a door in her face, she would be equally offended. This is the kind of irrational feminism that gives the movement and its participants a horrible name. If everything men do creates a problem, we will never win the respect and support necessary to move out of this system. As feminists, we have to pick our battles. To me, it seems that the occasional display of remaining chivalry should not be confused with the overwhelming statistics on sexual and physical abuse of women, for example. By simply attacking everything in the name of feminism, Frye disheartens her readers and leaves them without a constructive plan of action.

Contrary to Frye, Johnson is not afraid to define the system as it is, which openly admits our willing participation. This is the exact kind of wake-up call that our society needs. Instead of belaboring what we already know to be true, as Frye does, let’s actually DO something about it. Just as any drug addiction requires recognition as the first step, our addiction to the path of least resistance (aka Patriarchy) requires acceptance. It is with this kind of real empowerment that we can then move towards altering the role we play in said system, “We can’t do this without realizing that we all participate in something larger than ourselves, something we didn’t create but that we have the power to affect through the choices we make about how to participate” (Johnson, p. 29).

After being inspired by Johnson’s theory, all I want is to read her chapter on how to actually enact this responsibility we have to our system or, as Frye would say, our oppression.