Feminism and White Oleander
....shtml). This can be a double-edged sword, as Ingrid’s strength and resilience are two of her most admirable qualities but they also prove to be her ultimate downfall. Her steadfast refusal to show any weakness or dependence on men leads her to be a tough, headstrong, independent woman but also drives her to commit murder. Amazon feminism’s refusal to recognize any difference between men and women can also be problematic, if not downright foolish. When the American Society for Reproductive Medicine published a series of advertisements warning women about menopause and the negative affects of age on fertility rates—which, according to statistics, many women had the wrong impression about—many feminists harshly criticized the campaign (www.reason.com/0210/fe.cs.youve.shtml). NOW president Kim Gandy was quoted as saying, “ ‘We don’t need to see a ticking clock every time we pass a bus’ ” (www.reason.com/0210/fe.cs.youve.shtml). By warning women of a simple, indisputable fact, the organization was exposing weakness and “conforming” to gender roles in her eyes. One could easily imagine those words passing through the lips of Ingrid Magnussen herself. For many women, feminism is about choice, specifically the resources and ability to make life and career choices without conforming to “societal standards” (www.ou.edu/womensoc/feminismwomanism.htm). Throughout White Oleander, Ingrid shows that she is unwilling to conform to anyone’s standards when making life choices, and refuses to sacrifice her individual freedom (but not, ironically, her legal freedom) for those choices. She makes a conscious choice to have a child, or at least claims she does, but takes little responsibility for her daughter once Astrid is born. This not only showcases her unwillingness to give up her uber-feminist lifestyle, but her fear that doing so would force her to conform to patriarchal standards of what motherhood is supposed to be. A less extreme, and more humorous example of this, is Naomi Wolf’s book Misconceptions, which, in one excerpt, riffs about the lack of stylish maternity clothes (www.reason.com/0210/fe.cs.youve.shtml). Motherhood may have forced her to “mourn the loss of the young woman (she) had been” (www.reason.com/0210/fe.cs.youve.shtml), but Wolf refuses to accept that youth is usually a sacrifice people—both men and women—make when deciding to become parents. As Astrid comes of age, she too begins to develop a feminist mindset, though hers is decidedly different than Ingrid’s. Her brand of feminism is not a reflection of her selfishness or self-righteousness, or a callous attempt to keep her individual freedom at the expense of others, but an indication of the struggles she’s been through and the hard lessons she’s had to learn. At the beginning of the novel she is m...