The XX Factor: What women really think.

Fire in the Belly

Emily, I read that same article about abortion clinics having trouble restaffing, and what stuck out was this quote about my generation from Hope clinic Executive Director Sally Burgess:

Younger women have always had access to abortion care, they don’t fully appreciate the battle that was fought to have it available to them. And more important, I don’t think they know how precarious the option is at this point, even with Obama’s election. ... What I observe for women in their 20s and 30s—there are fewer who really have the fire in the belly for this.

It reminded me of the comments from lesbian separatist Lamar Van Dyke in The New Yorker a few weeks back about the lack of radicalism in young people today as compared with the '60s and '70s. And I still wonder: Is it just boomer posturing, or are we really a generation without "fire in the belly"?

Where Have All the Rads Gone?

It's pretty difficult to argue that gays should not be allowed to see their ailing partners in the hospital, E.J., but your post reminded me of Ariel Levy's article in this week's New Yorker about radical lesbian feminists of the '70s. The feature focuses on Lamar Van Dyke, née Heather Elizabeth, a woman who help found the feminist separatist movement the Van Dykes, "a roving band of van-driving vegans who shaved their heads, avoided speaking to men, and lived on the highways of North America for several years."

At the end of the article, with an "almost incredulous maternal disappointment," Van Dyke tells Levy, "Your generation wants to fit in. ... Gays in the military and gay marriage? This is what you guys have come up with?" Van Dyke's disappointment in the lack of radicalism in the feminist and lesbian movements is something I've thought about. I'm no radical myself, and the idea of "making the National Organization for Women look like an appeasement policy," as Levy says the Van Dykes did, holds no personal appeal. But I wonder if part of the reason the feminist movement is currently so disparate and fragmented is partially due to a lack of radical thought and action.

Van Dyke also says of my generation, "We didn't sit around looking at our phone or looking at our computer or looking at the television. ... We didn't wait for a screen to give us a signal to do something. We were off doing whatever we wanted." Which reminds me of the study Emily Y. wrote about yesterday, the study that claims technology is permanently infantilizing us, ruining our attention spans and ability to communicate. But Van Dyke's fear, that my generation is narcotized by all the screens, is potentially more troubling than accusations of mass ADD.