The bunny who stayed with us

http://articles.boston.com/2012-04-06/opinion/31293068_1_porgy-and-bess-dubose-heyward-novel 

This short, sensitive editorial on a favorite childhood book inspired some thoughts relevant to our class. It turns out that the book is "sometimes criticized for being imperfectly feminist" because "the heroine doesn't succeed all on her own." Despite the fact that I had never considered the story through a feminist lens, I immediately felt defensive of its feminist integrity. Feminism need not always adhere to one of a select group of approved narratives. The author comments that there is a "new kind of strong heroine showing up these days in books and movies. Princesses rescue themselves. Women pick up bows and arrows and prove that bloodshed is no longer just for men." This reminded me of a point in MissRepresented where the speaker referred to something along the lines of the 'fucking femme bot' that we see in movies today. Is that what would be considered 'perfectly' feminist? We cheer for the young woman on screen who roundhouses a dozen men in a row with her combat boots, but I really feel this is a sort of knee-jerk response that should be thought about more critically. We need to remember that the feminist fight is against the system that gives men undue power, not against the men themselves. For one thing, if gender relations are approached as a battle, no one will win. But maybe more importantly, why would we want to approach gender relations as a battle? Why can't women and men engage in dynamic and mutually beneficial partnerships? The same double standard that makes our reactions to a female shooting men on screen different to a male shooting women on screen also colors the way we look at sex. While it is undeniably a welcome reversal to see a woman using men solely for her own sexual gratification, is this truly empowering? I admit that it feels a little like much deserved vengeance, but once I put my own resentments aside, I can see that objectifying men does not help the feminist cause in any meaningful way. In both cases, we are just seeing a perpetuation of a damaging force (violence in one, sexual objectification in the other). I think it is giving women too little credit to assume that they cannot maintain their own volition at the same time that they seek advice from others--who, naturally, will happen to be men now and again. In the book, the protagonist overcomes numerous obstacles to achieve her goal, and I fail to see how getting a little help along the way disempowers her or in any way devalues her accomplishments. (And yes, we are talking about a bunny).