Have you ever noticed that a kid’s brain is like a sponge? And that when you expose said kid to something unsavory, she’ll sop it all up and spit it back out at you?
When I was growing up, my brothers and I would instantly and effortlessly memorize all the lines to whatever movies we had watched, and then regurgitate entire scenes of dialogue at inopportune moments – dinnertime, church, weddings, you name it. We had a clear preference for the melodramatic pre-battle pep talk. Our favorite was the speech given by the illustrious Bill Pullman, of Spaceballs fame, to pilots about to fight aliens in the art piece, Independence Day. You no doubt recall this scene: Bill Pullman and his mop-top hair are perched atop an army-green truck flanked by fighter jets. In a devil-may-care combination of everyman style and leadership flair, he is sporting an impeccably matched dress shirt and tie underneath a leather bomber jacket, and his index finger is hooked jauntily in the waistband of his flat-front dress pants. He is the definition of tool. In what was probably intended as a moment of American movie magic, President Pullman somdomizes a poem by Welshman Dylan Thomas, then shouts unnecessarily into the handheld microphone of a bullhorn: “Today… we celebrate… our independence day!” The crowd goes wild.
Laugh if you will, but the speech raises an important question. President Pullman points out that the group assembled before him would not be fighting against “tyranny, oppression, or persecution,” but rather for their lives. The character argues that the “petty differences” that have divided humans (you know, petty things like tyranny, oppression, and persecution) must surely cease to consume us now people are united under the common threat of aliens. And as we all know from Katrina or the war on terror, nothing stops oppression in its tracks quite like a common threat. The independence day President Pullman speaks of, then, is simply one more day free from death. Call me a downer, but – what kind of shitty independence is that?
Honestly, what good is independence? Freedom from what? To do what? Here at Engyne, we’re going to talk a lot about “the independent woman.” But why do we, as women, want to strive for independence? Let’s really think about this – because clearly, independence doesn’t necessarily mean something awesome.
When we talk about independence of the person in political theory, my field of study, we talk about autonomy. For a long time, autonomy was understood as radical freedom from the kind of “burdens” that make participation in public spheres – places like the workplace and politics – difficult. Feminists in the 20th century pointed out, however, that this notion of autonomy – the “radically free” person – was paradoxical: those “radically free” men were capable of participation in the workplace and in politics solely because of the work of women. Without women to raise children, press those suits, clean toilets, make food, take minutes – in other words, keep the world functioning – men wouldn’t be able to participate in these public spheres as they did. It’s not that those burdens didn’t exist; it’s just that men got out of having to take care of them. This notion of autonomy, then, was premised on at best an omission, and at worst a dirty, exploitative lie – the denial of the dependence of those in the public sphere on those in the private sphere. Autonomy got a bad reputation among feminists – it was seen as perpetrating the lie that humans aren’t all dependent on someone; a lie that swept the hard work of billions of women under the rug as “unpaid labor.”
Truth is, we’re all dependent on others to various degrees in our lives. We’re dependent on our parents as children, dependent on our children when we’re older, and dependent on a multitude of people in the in-between years – employers, the state, tech repair. Autonomy, this independence of the individual, didn’t seem to make much sense or be a useful concept.
Feminists eventually began to reconsider their rejection of autonomy. Because let’s face it – sure, it’s important to admit that no one is radically independent of others, but dangit, sometimes you really want out of a specific situation of dependence. As much as men during the height of the division of labor were dependent on the work of women, women were dependent on men in a more frightening way – a man could make do if his wife left him because the work of women for men was systemic; somewhere, there would still be women to take his notes, serve him a meal, press his clothes. If a woman found herself divorced, however, there was no preexisting network of men there to pay her rent, help her feed the kids, give her the good credit or legal authority to buy a new house.
Things are different today, sure. But we as women still need to be mindful or our autonomy – our independence. Think you’re in a relationship with a great guy, and you’re gonna move into a great apartment together? Do you think it will be great paying half the rent if that great guy moves out? Think you can share your finances with your partner because what’s hers is yours and yours is hers? Well then, do you think you’ll be happy with all the purchases she makes with money that you worked your tail off to earn? No matter how great the guy or gal: people make mistakes, relationships fall apart, accidents happen, and no one completely agrees with someone else about how money should be spent.
Financial independence is a big issue, for anyone, but especially women. If you consider yourself an intelligent, independent minded woman, check your bank account and insurance – and make sure you have in there the means to be fiscally independent if push comes to shove. You want three months rent in there should something unexpected happen, like job loss or an injury; you want enough insurance to cover days you’d have to take off of work in the event of such an injury, too. You should also know how much money you spend a month – honestly, a real, accurate budget – and be able to cover a few months of expenses out of savings, too. And this is no-touchy money; it’s emergency moolah. When you’ve just graduated from high school or college, saving up around four thousand dollars to not touch it, and then spending even more money on insurance, sounds like the last thing you want to do – or are even capable of doing. Well, TRY.
Why? It’s not just because fiscal independence is a good thing. It’s good in its own right, that’s for sure; but there’s something else. Fiscal independence enables us to think about who we want to be, and work towards becoming that person. Autonomy, as feminists have shown, clearly can’t mean radical freedom from others in our actions; it can mean, however, the freedom to think for ourselves, to decide what we value, and try to act on those values. In this sense, autonomy means the freedom to create our own identities. To be who we want to be. It’s very difficult to have that kind of freedom, however, when you’re consumed with troubles over late rents, job loss, a relationship that has ruined your plans or forced you to move. Sure, you can try to find yourself in even the most abject poverty; some even find that being removed from material things helps them to better understand who they are and who they want to be. But for most of us, practically speaking, worrying about how to pay for the groceries this week is going to impinge on our attempts at self-determination. It’s going to make it hard to think about who we want to be and what we want to do in life, and will make it much more difficult to achieve those goals.
So, as women, you and I should be concerned with fiscal autonomy, but for a much bigger reason than money alone – because we want to decide for ourselves who we want to be, and work to become that person. That kind of independence is worth celebrating, whatever the day.
And on a closing note – make sure you tell all the awesome young women you know the same thing. Young women, even awesome ones, sometimes forget the importance of independence when they first start getting very serious about relationships. Romantic relationships inevitably involve a certain degree of interdependency, and this can often be an exciting and wonderful feeling. But don’t forget to remind your awesome sisters, daughters, nieces, and friends that the closeness that the interdependency of a relationship brings is only made sweet when it’s contrasted with the resolute independence of each participant in the relationship. Don’t feel comfortable having that conversation? You can still be a good role model. A kid’s brain is like a sponge. Give the awesome young women you know something good to sop up.
That’s positive social engyneering.
