Shiny Happy Feminists.

I've been meaning to post about Beth Palmer's Editorial piece in Mormon Times entitled "Feminism Equals Happiness" since shortly after the article was published, but I decided to let the Op-Ed's piece simmer in my brain for a few weeks before speaking out.

There are many inaccuracies in the Op-Ed, not to mention false assumptions about Feminism. In the past 20 years, The Feminist Movement has been given the straw man treatment by Limbaugh and others, so much so that Ms. Palmer bought into a commonly held falsity about feminism by stating,

"Like, for instance, its [The Feminist Movement] initial tacit implication that
in order for women to have worth they had to be just like men. "

The quote above is bull. The goal of the feminist movement was to give women equal opportunities. But be just like men? No.

The inspiration of Ms. Palmer’s article was a Time Magazine piece which analyzes (as much as you can analyze) whether or not women are happier during the past 40 years. Ms. Palmer talks about the article and makes the observation that,

"None of which, mind you, is really feminism's fault; it just comes as no
surprise to me to hear that the movement didn't end up being the key to
happiness."

Okay, so she’s asserting her that the object of feminism was to make people happier. That’s an interesting perspective on feminism. Especially since the Time Magazine article she got the idea for her article stated the following:

We looked across all sectors — young vs. old, kids or no kids, married or not
married, education, no education, working or not working — and it stayed the
same," he says of the data. "But there are a few ways to look at it," he adds.
"As Susan Faludi said, the women's movement wasn't about happiness."

I wonder if Ms. Palmer even read the original article completely? Now, I don’t want to attack her, just because I don’t agree with her. She does make some valid points in her Op-Ed piece. She recognized the strides that have been made to even up the playing field for women. However, many women and men I’ve known are hesitant to call themselves feminists because the word has become dirty in today’s vernacular. I don’t fault those who believe that at all. Maybe I’m the one who is confused. Who knows?

But Ms. Palmer goes further to give us her definition of happiness. Now, there's books and books exploring how to be happy. Everyone alive probably has a little different definition of happiness, and that’s totally cool. Ms. Palmer states:

"See, as tantalizing as it may be to think that happiness comes as the product
of a social movement, or a career, or limitless opportunities, it's still not
the truth. Happiness lies a lot deeper than that, and it's very often tied up in
things that have very little to do with us. "

Not to turn a feminist rant into a philosophical debate, but to me, happiness starts with us, not things that have very little to do with us. Happiness begins with attitude, determination and aligning with what you value most with how you spend your time.

*Amelia has a great post about this article.
*MFranti discusses this article also.
Ash had a great post about feminism this week too