Bucking Tradition Doesn’t Play Well

Jane Fonda confesses feminism is a bad word in the South. But isn’t it a shame, she told an Atlanta audience of 1,600, that people don’t understand there’s more than one way to be a feminist?

Feminism clearly wasn’t a bad word to the record crowd that turned out last week to hear feminist icons Fonda and Gloria Steinem at the annual fund raiser for the Atlanta Women’s Fund.

In the South, where “feminazi” is a part of the conservative lexicon, women lag behind the rest of the nation in attaining recognition in nontraditional fields and in landing top elective offices and lucrative spots on corporate boards. As a native Southerner who values family traditions, I am saddened by the pervasive anti-feminist backlash.

I find it particularly offensive that the Christian right, which has a strong regional foothold, espouses the mistaken notion that feminists are anti-family. Although every movement has its extremists, feminists come in all varieties of lifestyles. Like Baptists, union members or Kiwanians, feminists aren’t homogeneous, don’t wear one label, aren’t just a check-off box. Some feminists are nurturers and some aren’t; some enjoy being mothers and homemakers, and some don’t. Some have high-powered careers and some reject that lifestyle. One thing was clear at last week’s event: They are of all races and economic levels.

Steinem’s definition of feminism is simple: “the principle that women should have political, social and economic power equal to that of men.” Why is that principle so threatening? Because it entails change - and change comes hard, especially for Southerners. Loving tradition is at once our strength and weakness. It’s weakness when it inhibits equality.

Despite the wide variety of women who adhere to feminism, the stereotypical thinking that feminists are radicals lives on. Fonda said she finds it hurtful, for example, that when she’s on husband Ted Turner’s arm, dressed in formal attire, someone will inevitably whisper, “See, she sold out,” meaning that a feminist wouldn’t care about looking appealing and feminine. Steinem says even female beauty, though, is defined by the males in power. In poor cultures, heavy women are valued by men; in rich cultures, thin ones are.

Despite her tempered approach, Fonda is still viewed as a radical by many. Certainly, she could have picked a less difficult setting than the South to push her agenda: the prevention of teen pregnancy, the enhancement of girls’ self-worth.

But her efforts are surely needed in Georgia, where the teenage pregnancy rate is among the highest in the nation. She devotes countless hours to her organization, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, and to personal mentoring of young girls - in city ghettos and poor rural communities.

But her goals need voice in the conservative Georgia Legislature, where next year she will lobby again for them: more teen health clinics; expansion of after-school programs; retention of the state law that protects the privacy of females of all ages regarding medical decisions relating to pregnancy prevention. A bill to abolish that privacy for teenagers will be introduced by conservative legislators.

Fonda’s effort is exactly the message feminists should be passing down to a new generation of Southern girls: There are obstacles but you’re not alone.

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