Generation f
By Virginia Trioli
Minerva, 1996
Reviewed by Jo Brown
The inspiration for Generation f was the 1995 book The First Stone written by Helen Garner. Garner attacked two women at Ormond College in Melbourne who took the college master to court for sexual harassment.
The furore raised by Garner's book and her subsequent attack on the "younger generation" of feminists have stimulated debate, not only about the use of sexual harassment legislation, but more broadly about the state of the women's movement in the hands of young women today.
Trioli identifies the existence of a new generation of "ambitious and politically sophisticated young women ... working in the law, education, health, finance, the arts, the private sector and trade unions ... applying the principles of their feminisms". This new generation, she argues, may not be as visible as previous ones, but it does continue the struggle. By taking for granted the gains of the women's movement of the 1970s, including the existence of laws against sexual harassment and assault, young women are not betraying older feminists but putting into practice the things that they fought for.
Trioli argues that of course "women have the right to seek legal redress" and accuses Garner of confusing sex with sexual harassment. In personalising the Ormond College case, says Trioli, Garner has ignored the context of power relations that made the incidents more than a matter of unwanted sexual attention. Trioli also exposes the right-wing agenda of those who sprang to Garner's defence, identifying their position with the backlash against feminism.
Trioli puts together a strong case in defence of the new generation of young feminists, which she calls "generation f". Noting that around 70% of young women in a recent survey did not call themselves feminists, she sees this as a result of the negative stereotyping of feminists and of the "era of fading political commitment" in society and among young people.
More significant, she argues, is that a large majority of young women do support the basic demands of feminism and expected equal opportunities and equal treatment. While many older feminists have been demoralised by the apparent failure of their movement to end sexism, young women have grown up with the language and values shaped by the women's movement, and many still have energy and passion to struggle for change.
With the rise of economic rationalist politics in Australia, young women will have a lot to get angry about, says Trioli. The resentment among older feminists that young women aren't doing it "their way" is natural, she says, although she doesn't fall into the trap of reducing genuine political differences amongst feminists to a generation gap.
In her account of the attitudes and activity of young feminists, Trioli concentrates on the experiences of middle-class professional women, and sees the success of women in major corporations, parliament and the legal sphere as measures of the success of the women's movement. In her eagerness to paint a picture of confident, ambitious young women "taking on the boys", she follows the same path as Naomi Wolf and others to focus on individual success rather than collective liberation.
Like Susan Faludi's Backlash, Generation f is a useful summary of some of the facts of life for women today, facts which demonstrate continuing discrimination in the law, the workplace, the media and almost all spheres of life.
Trioli does not, however, provide an explanation of the causes of women's oppression, other than naming "institutionalised male power" and "patriarchy". For her, feminism benefits men because it helps both men and women break from restrictive gender roles and free themselves as individuals, not because it challenges the economic order that oppresses most men as well as creating sexism.
Generation f is very readable and refreshingly down to earth, far from the heavy, academic style of so much recent feminist writing. However, it left me feeling frustrated — to the extent that there was any assessment of feminist activism among young women, it was identified with "radical feminism" and the anti-male politics present at events such as Reclaim the Night.
There was no real discussion of the diverse perspectives of young women active in campaigns to defend abortion rights, stop attacks on education or protest sexist media images, and I couldn't help wishing Trioli had been able to listen to the heated debates at the Network of Women Students in Australia conferences in recent years.
Fundamentally, Trioli is correct to argue that there is still a long way to go for women to achieve equality, and that a new generation of feminists have a lot to fight for. But because she does not address the reasons for the limited nature of the gains made by the second wave, the reader is left with an assortment of strategies for assisting women's rise in the legal profession, government, business and so on, alongside a throw-away comment that radical activism still has a role.
Since Trioli does not identify the roots of women's oppression in the interests of the capitalist ruling class, the reasons for the constant attacks on past gains are not clear, and the need for an independent, mass-based women's movement that links up with the struggles of other oppressed people is not drawn out.
Generation f is a thought-provoking contribution to this debate, but it also highlights the need for young women with activist, feminist and socialist politics to add their voices and provide some of the analysis and strategy that Trioli's account lacks.