Women's Liberation and the Two Adolescent Movements

• Published in: International journal of social psychiatry 1974-04, Vol.20 (1-2), p.99-108
• Main Authors: Siassi, Iradj, Wesner, David O.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescence/Adolescent/Adolescents; Adolescent; Aggression; Female; Humans; Identity Crisis; Motivation; Movement/Movements; Sexual Behavior; Social Behavior; Social Desirability; Social Dominance; Woman/Women (see also Female); Women
• ISSN: 0020-7640; 1741-2854
• DOI: 10.1177/002076407402000115

3 aims are presented: to describe the women's liberation movement with more truth than deference to parochial interests, to develop a compelling analogy with adolescence, & to suggest that in this particular society there is a similarity between this movement & a corresponding M organization. The movement has no qualifications as to membership, the leadership is very unstructured. The movement does seem to make real advances because of a diffuseness of aim & formless passion for achievement. This is similar to the adolescent who tries many things & is searching & groping for an identity. Some Utopian views of what the movement would like society to be are unrealistic. Many pubescent girls dread the thought of childbearing. The unisex movement avoids the problem of assuming a painful sexual identity. There are 2 principal reasons for the longing for adolescence in the movement: (1) The first is sociological & imputes to society an almost deliberate retardation of the psychic development of adolescent girls. (2) The second is biological & assumes that the mature woman's body is a toy for men. The retaining of adolescence avoids both of these problems. There is a twin movement that has been present in the men's world; that influence which modern technology started & Hollywood consolidated, whose effect is nothing less than the life-long prolongation of adolescence for men. In the present social dispensation, the normal adolescent M is guaranteed a perpetuation of that environment which keeps to a minimum all the forces that incline to maturity. In order for one sex to have little else but fun, it is imperative that the other sex do the cleaning after. Hence, the desire for a complete reversal of roles by militant women's liberation followers. L. DeForge.