A reader pointed out that my Girls Gone Wild example in my preceding post (about being a “Bad Feminist”) could be construed as classist since I’m obviously speaking from the perspective of someone who’s had the privilege of reading feminist texts and doing some self-reflection on the topic. Not all women are in the same position, so who am I to judge their choices, right? First off, let me acknowledge that there are certainly some women who truly enjoy voyeurism and subsequently may choose to be on Girls Gone Wild for reasons that have nothing to do with men. (Let’s just leave aside the fact that they’re inadvertently catering male sexual preferences.)

Nonetheless, those  women are obviously in the minority. Most girls who partake in this kind of stuff are copying behavior that is propagated in popular entertainment. None of these choices exist within a vacuum. In other words, thousands of teenage girls did not independently come up with the idea to make out with their female friends on camera and in front of groups of leering men. Obviously, this stuff is learned and encouraged.

While I think it would be classist to expect all feminists to regurgitate to me the contents of The Second Sex, I don’t think it’s classist to expect people to do some self-reflection about how free their choices really are. It’s not enough to simply proclaim oneself and one’s actions “feminist”. Making decisions without regard to gendered expectations is one of the most basic tenets of feminism, just as believing in god, for example, is the only universally agreed-upon prerequisite for being a Christian. Not to rely too heavily on this analogy but one doesn’t need to read the Bible to believe in god, but almost everyone would concur that if one doesn’t believe in god, one most certainly cannot identify as a follower of Christianity.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments!