"The Best of Times"

I always revert back to Charles Dickens and “A Tale of Two Cities.” His quote, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” reverberates in the many conversations that were opened in this discussion board. It also reverberates in the many research studies that I have plowed through for my final proposal. The consistent theme of binary, dichotomy, either/or thinking always shows through. This comes through once again in the stories of three generations of women. What was interesting was the fact that Nancy lived a life of privilege until she married. The story does not tell us much about Nancy’s personality but it does tell us that she married a man strong and controlling. Why did Nancy let this man take her children?

Gillian is brought up during 2^nd wave feminism but it seems that both gender and social class interfere with what is defined as having agency. Where did this agency come from? Was it self- defined? I did not see any kind of subjectivity except her eating disorder (an attempt to have some control over her life in some small sense?).

Kim’s “taken for granted notion” of feminism also suggests that she too has agency. What is missing from these stories are the essence of subjectivity and agency.  These girls grew up with the skeletal idea of feminism and tagged onto the “ideal” of what feminism might mean. However, unless this notion of “being all that one can be” is actually taught and girls are socialized into a culture of equality, subjectivity and agency will always be illusive. Possibly that is the consequence of social movements, the skeletal framework is put into place but it isn’t enacted upon until there is more meaning, understanding, and dialogue to build upon the framework. What is missing perhaps is the “resistance” that was mentioned in yesterday’s blog. These women resisted in a sense some of what was told to them but in a sad defense, they acted as culture dictated to them. Definitely, the consequences of difference also comes into play. Social class affects gender. Gender affects social class. It is intersectional and important not to dichotomize the two.  “According to what Walkerdine et al. suggest, working-class and middle-class girls become ‘each other’s Other’ (2001) existing as cautionary examples of what you could become by transgressing the regulatory framework” (55).

Therefore what I read from this is that there continues to be that sinister regulatory mechanism regardless of time.  For instance McRobbie mentions “that there is a “new sexual contract” taking shape in which women conform to the regulatory powers of the fashion and beauty industry while simultaneously renouncing any critique of patriarchy. Has the experience of being a girl seemingly changed while the regulation of femininity takes on newly pernicious guises or has feminist scholarship come full circle” (61)? This is a strong statement and I can’t agree with it more. Are we in “the best of times?” Yet once again there is the stranglehold that overcomes or subdues even the strongest of personas. I firmly believe that girlhood is on a positive path, but it needs to defy or resist objectification by consumerism and introduce agency in the form of understanding economic power and be willing to accept the responsibility of that power. Unfortunately, I have to end with this question. Can we teach our girls that responsibility? "The best of times" are still to come, I think.