All change in life stems from a guiding
force, in my eyes Shulamith Firestone failed to become such for her cause even
though it seemed within her grasp. Today our world has seen leaders that have
gathered their people together and changed the world. Such charismatics would
become the face or center stone of their causes and become symbols or active
leaders. Most notably among those who have become such are MLK Jr, Rosa Parks,
Mahatma Gandhi, and Simone de Beauvoir of feminism’s first wave. In the begging
of their work, some at least considered her the American Simone de Beauvoir.
For
all appearances, as the second wave, Firestone and the others should have had history
and at least some resources to draw on. But then, it may be that the first wave
had a clearer goal in mind for themselves. It was stated that their forces so
often formed into different groups that they killed each other off both internally
and externally. It seems that they didn’t even have an understanding of the
previous feminism movement, being unable to name the previous leaders of the
movement while seeking to talk with Alice Paul. It seems few women had
researched the first wave as Firestone had.
What
was that world, where perhaps there was no guiding light? A catalyst, which Firestone
was considered, is as often explosive as helpful. Firestone grew up in a restrictive
orthodox home, where it seemed everyone but her sister was against her. Her
father chastised her almost endlessly over the role she was expected to take,
her mother was everything she ever represented about the then modern role of
women, and even her brothers would strike her. Really I cannot fault her for heightening an
idea of sisterhood while in the movement. It’s very possible that any attempts
to become the voice of the movement would have been seen as “having male
hormones” and would have destroyed any attempts at collaboration from the get
go. They would exist as a sisterhood and destroy anything that conflicted with
that. This is quite possibly what led to her exodus from the group.
As
a leader of the group I feel that she failed, and likewise her people failed
her. But the facts are there that even if she couldn’t become the charisma of
the movement her actions had influenced many women in the second wave and
beyond. In Firestone’s eulogy her sister Tirzah struck back against her brother’s
lamentations. “With all due respect, Shulie was a model for Jewish women and
girls everywhere, for women and girls everywhere. She had children – she influenced
thousands of women to have new thoughts to lead new lives. I am who I am, and a
lot of women are who they are, because of Shulie.” There is no doubt to those
that know of her, that whatever the faults of her and her movement, she was a
force of change for many women, and she carved her name into the annals of
history.
An article in the guardian about sisterhood and Trashing
