Girl Power: On Women's Higher Social Standing In A Westernised World

Female empowerment is a theme that pops up often in Western media. Whether it's Nancy Pelosi claiming that that women only recently gained a "seat at the table" in a Washington Post interview or Robin Buckley ranting about how "nobody takes girls serious" in Stranger Things season 4, the voiceless female trope is prevelant. However, I don't see much evidence to support this sensation. Truly, women have always had more power than men, politically and/or socially.

Indeed, there are the obvious examples of powerful women on a global scale. From Cleopatra to Catherine the Great, there's were plenty of female rulers, some of which were ruthless (e.g., Bloody Mary). Granted, the most notable cases of politically powerful women would be described as White by today's standards. Nevertheless, my assertion still holds given the loudest plaintiff's for female empowerment are white (i.e., Eurocentric women).

Further, women's social power is less implicit. Though, it holds more weight given it's ability to influence politics, especially in the west. On one hand, there's what can be described as power by proximity: wive's, daughter's, and even mother's ability to influence men in power, sometimes resulting in malice or atleast ignorance of it. Specifically, a historical example of this is Carolyn Donham, the accuser of Emmett Till. Here we have this woman with, by feminists standards, had no "power" (e.g., couldn't legally open a bank account),yet was able to influence the men around her to carry out a brutal lynching. If that's not power what is?

Of course, the fictional representations of women's power by proximity can't be overlooked, as art imitates life. For example, female relatives of Tony Soprano aren't powerful on paper: Carmela Soprano is but a mere housewife and his sister but a transient drifter. Yet the former persuades (i.e., threatens) a woman to write Meadow a letter of recommendation and the latter gets away with murdering her fiance. Though their power comes from proximity to a male, it's a relationship that's afforded more to women than men in reality.

By and large, the metrics modern (ie, White) feminists use to access power are faulty. Despite only recently gaining the right to vote, etc. women's perceived higher value, especially in Western society, affords them inherent powers that would not be granted to most men: given powerful men are the minority. With that said, thanks for reading and stay pissed.