DIY Feminism
Edited by Kathy Bail
Allen & Unwin, 1996. 211 pp., $19.95 (pb)
Reviewed by Carla Gorton
DIY Feminism follows the 'zine style of bite-sized articles interspersed with computer-scanned and hand-drawn graphics. Most of the content is less challenging than the packaging leads us to expect.
I suppose that's not surprising, given the state of the world. For conservative governments to be able to take back the gains of the campaigning women's movement — child-care, affirmative action, accessible education, social security, funding for community programs and services — we have to be convinced ideologically that we no longer need these "special" measures. We should all, individually, be able to "make it'.
So admitting that there is still such a thing as "women's oppression" or structural inequality can be labelled as "victim feminism".
But how empowering is it to subscribe to the DIY model? What struck me most was how little most of the DIY Feminism contributors want to change the world. This was a stark contrast to my ideas and experience of feminist campaigning.
While I found it easy to "dip into" the range of articles in the book and enjoyed their personal style, feminism was often narrowly presented as an individual attitude, devoid of any combined action by women to challenge the status quo.
But personally making your way in the world does not equate with women's liberation, as (dare I use the old example again) Margaret Thatcher has demonstrated. Given the debate on these very questions within feminist and mainstream circles, helped along by books such as Naomi Wolf's Fire with Fire, I would have expected a greater depth to some of the contributions.
Quite a few of the contributions still extol the liberal position that a few women getting ahead is the goal, despite the increasing impoverishment of the majority of the world's female population. Lynette Morris' contribution explaining the reality for indigenous women and the effects of assimilationist policies took a different position. Why was it placed at the end of the book?
Kaz Cooke's comment on political correctness is timely and spot on. I also really enjoyed the pieces by Janet English (Spiderbait) and Adalita Srsen (Magic Dirt). Meredith Osborne outlined many of the rights that we still have to fight for and many which might have been partly won but are being eroded.
Yet while many of the contributions are undeniably gutsy, a certain lack of confidence in women's collective ability to change this sexist society was evident.
There is a lot of pressure on all of us today to accept economic "rationalism" and individualism, and even progressive theories and movements can adapt under this right-wing offensive. DIY Feminism, in its eagerness to embrace the "I can be whatever I want to be" attitude, loses some of the vision, anger and fight that this feminist yearns for.