Abstract

Post-Feminism, R.I.P

The author comments on the April 25 pro-choice demonstration in Washington, D.C. By the most conservative estimates, the March for Women's Lives in Washington on April 25 was the biggest pro-choice demo ever--and it may have been the biggest march of any kind in US history. If justice existed in the mass-media universe, the newsweeklies would now pose the question, "Is Post-Feminism Dead?" Of course, it doesn't, and they won't. But the political reverberations of this groundbreaking event could be significant. The stealth antichoice strategy pursued by the Bush Administration has been premised on the expectation that a gradual whittling away of women's reproductive rights will have little political consequence. The pro-choice movement's response, embodied in the broad-ranging theme of the March for Women's Lives, is to unmask the anti-woman agenda connecting the assault on sex-ed and contraception to the global gag rule to Attorney General Ashcroft's outrageous subpoena of women's private medical records to defend the "Partial-Birth" Abortion Ban. After congratulating the throngs for turning out, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who received a reception fit for a rock star, noted, "If all we do is march today, that will not change the direction this country is headed under the leadership of this Administration." She had a point. So, yes, there is much unglamorous work to be done (including pressuring centrist Dems like Clinton and Kerry to stand up on the full range of issues affecting women's lives). But the importance of the march itself--for networking, coordinating, strategizing as well as morale boosting--should not be discounted.