An Airport Reflection

Check out an essay from Kristal that I posted over at feminsting. An excerpt:

They were interested in fashion, and topics such as weight gain, designer
brands, drinking, and parties. Oh, and they hated long flights.

Their conversation got me thinking about women and power. Maybe I was being
too hard on the girls, but I wondered: with the myriad of options available
to them in this day and age of possibility, achievement and access, why were
they missing out?

Why hadn't any of the things feminists had been writing and speaking about
(and living) actually translated into their lives?

Of course there are pea-brained young men out there too. But there was
something about these two women that was especially unsettling: perhaps it
was their profound vulnerability, I thought, in a world that will so quickly
leave them behind.

Or maybe it was the fact that they seemed so disinterested in their own
potential -- their own present, as well as future power.

Or maybe I was just a 40-something old fogy, witnessing that perfectly
normal phase that so many young people go through as they struggle to find
their way into adulthood. I've been there. Maybe they'll pull it together
eventually, I thought, and find their own unique passions.

And when they do, I hope that feminism will be there -- ready to help make
the journey beyond fashion and fake eyelashes, into true power.