Lisa Maria Hogeland's article, "Fear of Feminism: Why Young Women Get the Willies," uses the term "Noah's ark" when describing the mindset many young women may have when choosing a committed lifestyle
of a feminist. "
When you live on Noah's ark, anything that might make it more difficult to find a partner can seem to threaten your very survival." What Hogeland simply means is that women have to be mindful to the idea that when becoming a feminist it may be difficult when finding a partner, mainly of the opposite sex. For the ideal feminist, it is hard for a woman of such dominance (strong willed) to find a man who will tolerate and except her lifestyle or beliefs, the way
our society has been programed is that the man in the family or relationship is
of dominance and the woman is submissive. For a feminist, this would cause a
great deal of conflict of interest. For a relationship to work there both
partners must support each other: it would be very difficult for a man to
except a woman as his partner if he truly did not support beliefs and
intuitions. Of course, as a man, having high political affiliation or holding a
job or career that is portrayed to be dominated by males, it would actually be
very intimidating to entertain a relationship with a feminist because for one,
it could hurt their reputation, which would hurt their chances for
opportunities such as a job promotion. Just as Hogeland stated, “The fear of
political reprisals is very realistic,” as this statement was directed towards
feminists, the same would apply someone who chose to affiliate themselves with
a feminist, or more so a male choosing to be in an intimate relationship with a
feminist. For a man, it would be a whole lot easier to just avoid that whole
situation entirely. If a feminist were to settle for a man of less self-worth,
who demoralizes women, or for the most part, can ignore the issues that women
face in the battle of equality, it would be settling for less, which inevitably
loses creditability and makes their position in the women’s liberation movement
transparent. For women who have experienced men’s violence first hand, may have
a more motivated choice to choose the lifestyle change of a feminist.
Unfortunately I feel that many of these women are waived by
society as holding a grudge against all men for the actions of one, making
their motive just the outcome of an emotional experience. Much like the process
in selecting the jury for a trial, if any of the jurors have had any emotional
or related experiences to the trial, they are removed from the jury because
those individuals’ decisions may be influenced by someone else’s actions,
impairing their judgment to make a fair and educated verdict. For young women
in this case, their creditability may have a higher ceiling, thus having a
greater impact on society as a feminist. Hogeland makes a strong argument about
the fear of feminism, which I believe is undoubtedly a real issue that has been
hindering many young females from becoming potential feminists.
The famous poster above was a great advertisement created by J. Howard Miller during World War II to promote women joining the workforce. The relevancy is that although the image serves its purpose in the advertisement, it also shows a masculine side of a woman while flexing her bicep. The way our society is today, even more so the way it was during the 1940's, many men may find it intimidating to partner with a woman who can out perform them in a physical presence.
