Erica Gilbert-Levin critiques girlie culture

Erica Gilbert-Levin critiques the tendency of a contingent of Third Wave feminists to advocate reclaiming such "girlie" things as the color pink, lipstick, lingerie, and Barbie as feminist. In other words, liking these things doesn't compromise one's feminism in any way. Girlie culture is called "feminism lite" by some. Gilbert-Levin's critique is full of profound statements, such as this:

By suggesting to young women that it is a feminist act simply to don a "Girls Rule!" baby T or to wear high heels and thereby to "own" one's sexuality (as if wearing high heels or lipstick allows one to own one's sexuality!), Girlies encourage women to substitute commercial "fun" for serious, political feminist engagement.

Indeed, Gilbert-Levin is right to point out that girlie culture is consumerist to a large extent. And she ends with this rockin' clincher:

With so much at stake -- with an antichoice, antifeminist Republican in the White House, with a political establishment that moves to the right at every sneeze, with the gap between the rich and poor growing daily, with a war against women all around the world -- from gender apartheid in Afghanistan to daily honor killings in Muslim countries to genital mutilation in Africa to a sky-high rate of rape and domestic violence in the United States -- Third Wave feminism cannot afford to be defined by the Girlie movement. We have too much to do.

Oh, I should add that I hung out with Erica in Chicago one night in March 2002. She is awesome.