The Lipstick Proviso

In 1997, all but the most unenlightened will grant that women should be considered equal to men, but the big question--What does "equal" mean?--still wants for an answer. According to Karen Lehrman, feminism's spirit of gender equity should be subject to a proviso, namely that "women don't have to sacrifice their individuality, or even their femininity--whatever that means to each of them--in order to be equal." The payoff is that "we no longer have to deny or fear differences between the sexes--even if those differences turn out to be firmly rooted in biology." So, she argues, it's okay if a woman wants to eschew assertiveness in her personal life, prefers take-charge guys as mates, and yes, (pace Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth) wears short skirts and lipstick. Or not. It's all up to her. There is no single personal or political agenda that makes you a "sister." Lehrman contrasts this stance to what she sees as the victim-speak, group-think positions of such feminist icons as Wolf, Andrea Dworkin, and Susan Faludi. Feminism, says Lehrman, shouldn't mean orthodoxy; it should mean freedom.