You probably don't recall my dismay at seeing a t-shirt (pink, of course) proclaiming "feminists wear high heels." That was over six years ago. Now, America's Next Top Model meets gender politics is reaching new levels of...interesting. At the recent McCain-Palin rally, women proudly wore (pink) buttons with the bold message that "Hot Chicks Vote Republican." As William Kristol pointed out in a recent op-ed, don't go to a feminist comp lit class to gauge the pulse of America's post-feminism. Go to book clubs, Wal-Marts and megachurches.
It strikes me that I don't have any trouble going to a distant location and empathizing with all the people I encounter. Everyone from fashionistas in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China to religious hardliners on the Nigeria-Niger border. I will try and try, ask and ask. But show me a Mission hipster who scorns those who don't know that a "New Orleans" is cold-brewed coffee or a megachurch pastor who believes that the Iraq war is a mission from God and I will cringe. My mind shuts down temporarily. I will try my hardest to understand those faraway others, but my own fellow citizens remain mired in mystery.
Feminism isn't a core set of beliefs about work or money or childcare. It is a messy flow of aspirations that stems from the idea that women are not subordinate to men. But I don't know what equality or equity or mutual respect looks like in any particular situation. High heels may or may not be in the picture. Maybe there is something to the "Guns, God, Lipstick" slogan of one Palin supporter. Maybe not. But why should I deride her while justifying the secret pleasure I take in Sex and the City's mantra of Blahniks, Love, Lipstick? Neither trinity deserves much worship, but they are both odd appeals to our desire for solidarity, for something, to answer the pesky question of what matters in life. Whatever it is, you can't buy it at Wal-Mart, but you can't buy it at Macy's either
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