The 21st century woman is undoubtedly more liberated than ever. She has access to money and education, political freedom, an unlimited choice of careers, sexual and even spiritual liberation. But, ironically, this abundance of freedom has left her more exhausted because she is now immersed in unlimited responsibilities. So how liberated is she really?
According to Stephanie Vermeulen, women today are too busy to be concerned about equality issues and feminism. Whether they are mothers, career women, sisters or aunts, women are more anxious about maintaining their marriages or relationships, cooking dinner, changing nappies, looking subtly sexy in the boardroom, cleaning the house and consumed in finding anti-wrinkle creams and diets that work. Unfortunately none do.
It is easy for women to believe that they do not need to make equality issues their priority because they seem to be in a better position than their mothers and, in many cases, they are. However, if a woman has at some point been ashamed of her body, felt guilty about the effect her career is having on her children, has had to fight for maintenance or had to pick up things after her husband, then perhaps the system has not changed since her mother’s era.
Vermeulen confidently attacks systems that “stitch-up” today’s woman: Magazines, cosmetic companies, religious texts, patriarchal societies, tradition and the media. These hegemonies all define whom the woman should be — except the woman herself. What further makes her book an asset is that her analysis of “The Liberal Woman” is supported by extensive research.
It is an analysis of what constitutes “woman” historically all the way to woman in contemporary times. The journey becomes a catalyst in understanding the political, social and psychological difficulties faced by women today.
Her analysis is enlightening, at times indignant, even disturbing and in some cases even humorous. The humour is brought about by her tongue-in-cheek style, which allows the female reader to laugh at herself. There are interludes within the book in which Vermeulen rewrites eminent fairy tales giving them a 21st century cynical twist. The tales function as allegories emphasising ideas discussed in the book as a whole. A majority of her findings are based on academic material, which Vermeulen transforms into accessible information that anyone can comprehend.
Not only does Vermeulen pose bold questions (“Who said this Creator has a penis anyway?”), she also provides women with solutions. The irony is that these solutions are innate to women, yet women constantly suppress them because in most cases, the solutions require them to put themselves first as opposed to their child or husband.
So the next time you purchase an expensive anti-wrinkle cream consider this bit of bitter truth from Vermeulen: “Whether you accept them or not, wrinkles speak volumes about how you have laughed, wept, loved and loathed. Certainly any realistic beautician, independent of sponsoring a cosmetic house, will tell you that no amount of cream will wipe off the life-experience etched on to our older faces.” Why in the world would you want to wipe this beauty off anyway, unless someone convinced you otherwise?