Wolf’s new book fights ‘Fire with Fire’
Kerckhoff Art Gallery hosts feminist writer’s book signing
By Nisha Gopalan
Dateless, man-hating women, driven to lesbianism, find solace in
feminism. Or so people think.
In actuality, there exists no standard feminist profile, no
strict feminist political agenda, not even a secret feminist
handshake. And men can be feminists, too. However, the burden of
facing stereotypes often alienates individuals from embracing
feminism.
Feminist Naomi Wolf, in her second book, "Fire With Fire: The
New Female Power and How to Use It," beckons her readers to dismiss
the stereotypes associated with feminists in light of a greater
concern, to establish a society more responsive to the interests of
the demographic majority: women.
The crux of "Fire With Fire" involves usurping "our power as
voters, our power as consumers and our power to just make a big,
stinking raucous," explains Wolf, a Yale graduate and Rhodes
Scholar, in an interview with The Bruin.
"It’s categorically true," says Wolf, "that men hold the balance
of power in virtually every society, but it’s also true, as I’ve
tried to point out (through my book), that women have a lot more
power than they’re using."
"In a representative democracy, you don’t have a situation where
men are holding guns to women’s heads in a workplace," adds Wolf.
"So oppression is much more insidious and double-edged. Yes, it is
important and necessary to look at how sexist structures oppress
women." However, Wolf emphasizes "looking at your resources and
figuring out how to use them."
Wolf suggests that women should manipulate the instruments of
the very institution they wish to challenge.
In "Fire With Fire," Wolf provides some startling statistics
that she hopes will inspire women to assert power. "In the (last)
presidential election," she writes, "women were 54 percent of the
voting public. This outflanking of male voters by females is the
culmination of a trend that has shown women of all racial groups
outvoting men since 1980."
She also draws attention to women’s economic power, directing
the reader’s attention toward the achievements of EMILY’s list, a
national women’s political action committee. "EMILY’s list," says
Wolf, "won women 25 new female leaders for a cost of $6.2 million
in 1992. That money was collected from fewer than 100,000
donors."
While Wolf remains careful to expose these seemingly hidden
powers to women, she also places great emphasis upon including all
women in her feminist theory, thus thwarting prior accusations
 such as the one voiced by fellow feminist bell hooks Â
that she exhibits a bias towards addressing the heterosexual,
white, middle-class, college educated woman. According to Wolf, she
clearly makes an effort to destroy the elitism often associated
with feminism.
Academic feminists now "criticize me for popularizing feminism
and making it accessible by going on television shows, which is
where a lot of women without a higher education get their political
and social information," says Wolf, who made a concerted effort to
compose the book in a manner coherent to essentially anyone.
"A big part of my push is to make ideas which are now held
hostage by an academic environment, available to anyone who’s
thinking." The fact that Wolf has embarked on a speaking tour to
accompany "Fire With Fire," certainly reiterates her intentions to
reach everyone.
She also understands that every woman does not have the time to
turn feminism into an occupation. "Women have enough jobs,
already," she says.
In fact, Wolf deems that idea a misconception about feminism. To
provide a vehicle for women to easily voice their opinions, Wolf
refers to a plan, still in the works, to establish a "legislative
page every month in Cosmo or Glamour that would tell readers what
issues are coming up to be voted on, that affect women."
"You could call up a 1-800 line and a postcard would be sent to
your representative exposing your view about his. That may seem
like a little thing, but millions of women read those magazines. It
only took 3,000 phone calls to the Senate to open the Hill-Thomas
investigation. You could imagine the impact on legislatures knowing
that they were going to hear from eight million women a month on
issues affecting women."
Her proposition, she contends, safeguards women from the
illusion of a commitment as well as the "social ostracism" that
often scares women away from feminism.
"I don’t need to come in contact with you in order for us to
both participate in this. I don’t have to sign any loyalty oaths. I
don’t have to agree with you about abortion rights. I don’t have to
have an anguishing conversation about your privilege relative to
mine, or my privilege relative to yours."
Wolf refers to this rational, action-oriented,
manipulating-the-means feminism as power feminism. Wolf reacts to
strong anti-feminist sentiments, such as those voiced by the
outspoken author and University of the Arts professor, Camille
Paglia, that feminists harp on victimization. While some women have
the right to feel victimized, Wolf feels "It’s just the first step.
It shouldn’t be the end point."
"At Brown University  the young women write the names of
(alleged) date rapists on the wall," continues Wolf to illustrate
her point. "This made them feel empowered at a time when no one was
paying attention to their needs." But Wolf contends that the act
ultimately "reinforced women’s sense that there was no hope."
"I suggested to (these young women) that they organize a drive
to get alumnae to devote money to put it in escrow and say to the
university: ‘Well, you can have this money when there’s a decent
sexual assault grievance procedure.’ And (these students)
immediately said, ‘We can’t do this because that’s elitist. That’s
using capitalism. That’s using our privilege.’ They gave up the
opportunity to scare the administration into doing something
constructive." says Wolf.
"(These women) were more attached to being pure and helpless
than to getting their hands dirty and actually getting things
done," furthers Wolf. "If they were to go from the ladies room to
calling a press conference in the president’s office about his new
program that would make the president sweat bullets, that would be
a move to power feminism from victim feminism."
The idea of women manipulating means captures the central theme
of "Fire With Wire."
Says the optimistic Wolf, "If you could make a T-shirt that
boils down the motto of my book, it’s, ‘Who cares? It works.’"
SPEAKER: Naomi Wolf. Signing copies of her book at the Kerckhoff
Art Gallery. Thursday, Oct.13 at 3 p.m.