Feminism is about choices

Re “Bitter ashes of burned bras,” Opinion, March 18

I think Elizabeth Wurtzel’s ideas are strange. Would an actual feminist portray a woman choosing to raise her children properly over the supposed opportunities of corporate grind as “opting out”? And excuse me, but the “unsexy wing of the women’s movement”? I think it’s obvious that women evolve beyond their randy youths faster than men do. Why do we have to be called unsexy?

This writer may be conflicted over whether she should be the madonna or the whore, but I’m having no such internal argument. Women like Wurtzel denigrate what women do and then bemoan the loss of the perky boobs they once allowed to be shown in every half-priced bookstore in America.

It’s true, something has gone wrong with the “Girls Gone Wild” thing. But if I look over the top of my paper for only a moment, I see what women are up to: I see real art, healthy families, strong friends and even business leaders.

We have a long way to go in areas of our children’s schooling, healthcare and day care. Now is not the time to portray the feminist movement as over. Now is the time to keep our priorities in sight as we vote.

Beth Donnelly

Austin, Texas

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I have news for Wurtzel: This is 2008, and women can accomplish whatever they set out to do. Women were put into boxes in the 1950s, and now Wurtzel is disappointed that they don’t want to be in her box.

Did it ever occur to her that women who opt out to raise their children do so because it brings them more fulfillment? Maybe that doesn’t advance her agenda, but I thought feminism was about women making their own choices. I had a career before I had my son, and frankly, I don’t miss the workforce one bit. Yet she calls that ruining my life. What arrogance.

I’ll tell Wurtzel where she and her feminist lot went wrong. Instead of embracing women’s unique qualities, they decided to be just like the worst of men. So, yes, promiscuity, casual sex and “Girls Gone Wild” are the new “world that feminism hath wrought.”

Robin Mearns

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Wurtzel writes, “Feminism, which was meant to be fun, has lately started to seem so sour.” What fun? The modern feminist movement was fun for me for about a week, although at 58, I can’t remember which week that was.

For me, it turned sour right about the time it lost focus on such important issues as equal pay for equal work and became a haven for every manner of wigged-out agenda.

The movement allowed itself to be co-opted by the strange and the strident, including women who wanted to eliminate “man” from the language, women who abused men for such acts of civility as opening a door and women who browbeat other women for wanting to be wives and stay-at-home mothers.

Ultimately, I abandoned the feminist movement because its proponents had no sense of humor.

Perhaps women younger than I chose never to embrace it for the same reason.

Shannon Carreiro

San Diego