I’ve been hiding out cause I guess i’ve been feeling highly pro active lately. Its kind of a strange sum up of life that happens for me every decade so far 3, where I look at my life, what I stand for as a person on this planet, and what I plan to do with the rest of my time here. Within this massive process of analyzing my life and looking at the minuscule impact I have had in the world compared to the massive impact I envisioned as a child, I ran across a really intriguing article about Feminism, generation gaps, and woman overall in todays American society. Susan Faludi took a peek at the feminist movement with all its generational conflict, historical complexity, and she analyzed pretty much the public feminist movement from the 20′s to our current contemporary times. Certain things in this awesome article really caught my attention for instance: commentary from a young feminist woman (Judith”Jack” Halberstam) talking at the new school about the future of feminism saying things like the following to the older generation feminist  “For people of on generation to be complaining about the next generation not reading them, Give it up!, If You’re not relevant anymore you’re not relevant. Move on”. What does Judith or Jack believe the future of the feminist movement will look like; “What one wants to inspire is new work that one barely recognizes as feminism, what i’m going to call Gaga Feminism”  she literally pulled out a powerpoint presentation with exerts from  Lady Gaga’s video Telephone featuring Beyonce, as she stood giving her presentation at the New School in New York &  she claimed that she believes the future of feminism will look something like what this ‘Telephone’ video inspires. Judith says:” Instead of becoming women, we should be unbecoming women- that category itself seems vexed and problematic’. When the writer of the article sees Judith later Susan Faludi told her she didn’t understand how the future of feminism could be the Lady Gaga Telephone video. Judith said: ” Adapt or Die!” to a 50 something year old writer, Susan Faludi.  followed by her hermaphroditic explanation of the Lady Gaga video and how it dealt with rumors of Lady Gaga’s Questionable sexuality. Judith says, ” She didn’t deny them. She played with them. You have this great moment where the prison guards take off her clothes and say, too bad she doesn’t have a Dick…” I’m thinking this gender studies professor at University of Southern California Judith ‘JACK” Halberstam must have a valid point somewhere about the all encompassing symbolism embodied by powerful pop culture idols such as Gaga, but After writing a book called ‘Female Masculinity’ about hybridized genders, and as Susan describes Judith’s preference for men’s suites and crew cuts my observation leads me to believe Judith may be projecting a bit with her opinion about the future of feminism. Im a true believer in finding ones alchemical balance between masculinity and femininity, I will never mock anyones process in getting to that place if he or she even chose to,  but seriously it’s not cool to speak about  in a condescending fashion,or to belittle the women who paved the way for women like Judith ‘Jack” to be able to have a crew cut, a suit and walk the city streets without getting beaten to a pulp like years ago or still today in towns and counties in America.

The feminist of the 60′s marched with humans rights activist, and the feminists of the era also marched along with the black panthers during the civil rights movement. I don’t believe in death, I believe in transformation, so when someone like Judith comes out & says to the feminist of today that the aging feminist/activist are no longer relevant, it sounds absurd to me. If anything women should absorb the lessons from the past, adapt all the social network technology, media pop culture influence and unite with the aging generation to make change. The answer is definitely not figuratively killing our mothers for not understanding what one believes the future to be. More unity less fighting I say. Besides who really thinks we could solve  the worlds feminist issues with pop icon idolatry, a bit naive don’t you think, I mean it’s an element of the answer not the answer itself. Unless of course you attach pop culture to activism proactively in a business like Live 8, a massive fundraiser with powerful women, like Gaga, Madonna, Oprah, & Angelina backing a noble functional cause like Micro Financing in third world countries created by Mohamed Yunus, promoted & restructured by the 7 Bar foundation. Unless such is the case, I truly don’t see how hot sexy cool videos help women in Africa who don’t even have a tv from getting their private parts mutilated in a tribal ritual at fifteen years of age, or how an awesome female empowerment movie will stop a House wife in India from having acid thrown on her face cause her husband doesn’t want her anymore, Or how An Amazing  concert with no charity or NGO’s ( Non Government Organization) attached will save women in the middle east who are beaten for sneaking off to school for an education & driving a car. How can those videos take part in a movement to save any of the women worldwide oppressed by their own primitive culture, because the evolution from this horrible climate is what I believe feminism to be….

I get that pop culture and happiness, fun sex and play are all part of peoples overall attention spans today, but just cause thats where all the excitement and money is, doesn’t mean it’s the only way, means, or solution, to the great question of feminism. Cause honey you may feel fine today but the numbers haven’t really changed much over the last 30 years. As susan points out in her article: “The primary Hurdles feminism faces are enduring ones. Basic social policies for working mothers are still lacking and sex segregation in the workplace and the attendant feminization of poverty have hardly changed ( the top ten full-time jobs for women in the united states-secretary, waitress, sales clerk, etc.-are the same as thirty years ago, and over the course of their prime earning years women make 38 percent of what men make); male dominance over public leadership is still the rule ( men occupy 80 to 95 plus percentage of the top decision-making jobs in American politics, business, Military, religion, the media, Culture, & entertainment); Sexual & Domestic violence remain at epidemic levels ( nearly 20 percent of American Women report having been sexually assaulted  or raped, and 25% of women are physically or sexually attacked by their current or former husband or lovers); and fundamental reproductive freedom is perpetually imperiled ( mounting onerous legal restrictions; violent attacks on family  planning clinics; and no abortion services in more than 85% of US counties).”

It’s a lot to digest. All I’m saying is in a realm where men have ruled and may keep doing so for as long as they please, all seems great till that very masculine mentality gets to high levels of imbalance & mixes up with capitalism in an uncontrollable spiraling hunger for materialism. My fear is that this American example of capitalistic materialism is slowly spreading in the biggest populations in the world. The East will create a massive thirst for mankind to return to the nurturing motherly nature bound tendencies of the feminine aspect. I only say this cause if the biggest populations of the world come to have a middle class with the same consumption habits as we do  here in America, we don’t have the resources to provide for that level of demand on this planet, nor the cleaning power to heal the air from the pollution it will cause, nor do we have the sustainability plan for such a leap that has already begun to occur in China. All I’m saying is when I see a Bollywood movie reminiscent of the American movie ‘Fast and Furious” in English and Hindi mixed, when I see a T.V. special on how India has opened up a bunch of MC Donald’s,  citibanks & many other western mass consumption venues as in China, and if America, is this  standard set & hypocritically followed by developing highly populated countries around the world, Should American Corporitocracy lead by example with their existing masculine dominated system motto : ” Financial Upper Hand is the only Bottom Line” or should Western Corporitocracy begin a marriage of the old capitalist masculine motto with  a new feminist perspective of ‘Conscious Capitalism’  a term coined by Patria Auberdene. Where corporations look at the all encompassing approach to business, considering environment, resource availability, working conditions, & carbon footprint into the quest for profits and longterm sustainability.

I just hope when the men in power realize balance is necessary, that it’s not too late, for the planet, for our own healthy environment, and for our own psychological well being. Either way women have already begun emulating or craving to either to become a man or serve him, neither of which to me seems like balanced living. I believe people should be happy with themselves and feel complete before they look for a partner in life. So that instead of projecting what you need to feel complete as a person onto your partner you come together with someone once your complete with all your imperfections and quirks accepted by you and ready to merge into another life feeling good.Not like the jerry Mc Guire movie where he says:” you complete me”, instead it’s ‘you make me want to be a better person’ to share life as complete beings wanting to learn from each other, love each other, maybe make a family and die together. Men and Women have been doing this for centuries, some acquiring that happiness and some shooting and missing, but well never stop trying to figure each other out will we?

I feel ‘The feminine concept’ is internal, emotional, nurturing, loving, strong, Accepting. ‘The masculine concept’ is Providing, Reasoning, Creating, Externalizing, Giving, & Destroying. Both concepts are in everyone and one manifests as one sees fit, or  as one may be genetically predisposed to act on. One day maybe a historian or anthropologist like Jared Diamond may say that those tribes that were goddess dominant and left ‘Nature’s Nurture’ the duty of women, were in fact the longest lasting civilization of ancient people without the need for Migration due to exhausted resources.”wow those tribes men from ancient times in south America ancient Africa used to listen to their women on notions of when to stop hunting, stop fighting, and stop chopping trees, those guys who did follow this maternal system of governance had their environment in tact for the longest”. I hope the world can open up to the feminine way cause if we don’t Im really scared for the future, Mankind is one child that needs both it’s parents Mother & Father.