Liberal Pinko Commie Feminazi

I saw the Ibsen play Hedda Gabler last week and as we sat in stunned silence after the curtain fell, my first thought was, "Henrik Ibsen must have hated women."

My second thought was, "When did I become such a raging liberal feminist?? How predictable." Not that I'm qualified to critique either the play or performances, but geez, that Hedda sure was unlikeable. Reflects a bit poorly on the rest of us ovaried ones, if ya ask me.

So I've been thinking about my reaction to the play, and how since college my reactions to most things - news, entertainment, politics, literature, the portrayal of women in the Twilight series, etc. - have become increasingly liberal. When I was growing up in Bryan/College Station (I like to call it "Bryan America" but make sure you pronounce that "Brine"), being called a liberal was a serious insult.

I don't think I even knew what it meant to be "liberal" except that it was bad, or at least un-Christian, which was worse. Remember, this is a town where a friend's mom told her not to tell anyone she (the mom) donated money to the local Planned Parenthood chapter, for fear of being ostracized by other friends' moms. Seriously.

My father's mother was an old school "yellow dog" Democrat, and both my parents fell in the middle and sometimes even on the left of many social issues, but they were by far the exception and not the rule. As a teenager I remember engaging in violent debates with my good friends about their pro-life stances vs. my pro-choice one. (Nevermind that in Texas being "pro-life" somehow never carried over to being against the death penalty, but that's DIFFERENT, ya know.) At UT and in Austin I found many more like-minded people, but outside of Travis County, Texas is still a very red state, and I don't think I really knew how indoctrinated I was until I left.

As an adult I've realized a lot of what I grew up with and defined as politically "conservative" is really more about religious belief - specifically a Southern Baptist fundamentalism that is intrinsically tied to social conservatism (see GWB '00-'08). So much of the brainwashing/morality training I absorbed from my peers and community growing up was tied to what was "good" or "bad." The Devil is real, and he's out to get you. If you don't believe me, just go to Sunday night youth group.


That's a blog post for another time, but good lord, the guilt we were taught to feel: about drinking, going to parties, making out with boyfriends and god forbid even THINKING about having sex. Even before I went to college, and definitely after, I realized the inherent hypocrisy in regulating people's behavior according to very selective interpretation and application of the Scripture. (That'd be the Holy Bible, for those of you unchurched.)
At some point I realized that it didn't make sense to be anti-abortion if you were also anti-birth control and anti-sex education. I know plenty of people who profess to "Love your neighbor as yourself," but only if the neighbor speaks English and didn't have to cross a river to get to the Great State. I guess around the time I made these realizations is the same time I decided if being a liberal was left, I didn't want to be right.

And now here I am having really annoying and self-indulgent feminist rants about the depiction of women and their natures in Twilight and Hedda Gabler. So, in summary, all I can say is: blame it on the Baptists. I do.