Feminine Feminism

Feminist: The ultimate "F Word".
Lord, you should see the size mens' eyes get when I say the simple phrase "I'm a feminist."
Holy hell.
Seriously? Look it up.
It means you're not any better than me, and I'm not any better than you.
You know, equals.
I just heard you exhale, didn't I?
I read a pointed critique of Beyonce's latest video, Video Phone, featuring Lady Gaga, recently. If you watch the video without thought, well, it's a Beyonce video. She's running around half naked, as Lady Gaga always seems to be. She sings, dances, shakes her hips. Nothing new, right?
Perhaps.
If you read the critique, though, and then watch it, you catch a few more things than you might have otherwise. Her body language, mannerisms, even her words- 'Yo, shawty, what your name is?'- do nothing to suggest or imply that she is anything less than in complete control of everything- and everyone- around her. There's no mistaking that Beyonce is comfortable with her body. The ageless debate, though, is whether or not nudity and sexuality can be used for, rather than against, the feminist 'movement'. Can a stripper be a feminist? It's a tired debate, to be honest. The thing is, the more I pay attention, all the women in this world who have really knocked people dead, who have really gotten ahead of the game, never once denied their sexuality. Not all of them flaunted it, but all of them accepted and worked with it. Beyonce is comfortable with her body, though she's one of the few artists I can't recall any sort of sex scandal or video tape about off hand. Even if there was, though, she's not the type to let it get to her- because, after all, she's in control. Oprah, who I think has done an outstanding thing by making such a name for herself, also, well, in my humble opinion, really isn't incredibly bright. I've never been too impressed with anything she had to say, but the woman focused on what she knew for sure: her fellow women. Her entire fortune is founded on the fact that she is a woman. She never denied it, or held it back, or shied away from the fact. These are the successful women of our day and age, and I think we all have a lot to learn from them. These women are successful not in spite of being women but because they are women.
Who doesn't want to make it big because of who they already are?