Patsy Neiswander
Mr. Jennings- 2nd Hour
Honors English 4
November 20, 2013
Stuck between Waves
Brave New World is not a “utopia”. In fact the better classification would be a “dystopia”. The common phrase, “Stuck between a rock and a hard place” really fits where Brave New World is, only in this situation it isn’t rocks. Brave New World is stuck between waves, the waves of feminism. It claims to be the perfect society, the third wave of feminism. Nothing goes wrong in that world, but in all reality everything is wrong and that world is stuck between the second and the third wave. The first wave represents women only being used as housewives. Not being let out of the house, with men being the perfect idea of an individual. The second wave is only a little better than the first. Women have some rights in this wave, the ability to get an education and to have a job. Lastly, the third wave is where today’s society is at. Women are as equal to men as they are probably going to get. How is it possible for them to think that their world is perfect when the ideas of feminism contradict everything they believe? The idea that Brave New World is a “utopia” is false based on all of the ideas of feminism.
The first wave of feminism was a starting point for women. Many people didn’t even know how to act around each other, let alone men to women or vice versa. Women were just assumed to be treated as not equal to men and that is how it stayed. “In 1838, when first wave feminism was still a ripple, when the Woman Movement was yet to be formed and its forerunners, if politically involved at all...” (Kotef 495). First wave feminism, in this time period, was considered a big controversy. In this early nineteenth century, women were looked at differently for their color and religion, on top of being discriminated against just for being women.
“…in the 1870’s to 1890’s, would they also articulate an egalitarian vision, one that could be inclusive of women of color and that envisioned ‘lower races’ as their potential equals, in the future” (Kotef 498).
Brave New World’s “utopia” wasn’t as bad as the time period of first wave feminism. Women were completely degraded in first wave feminism, and Brave New World seems like an angel in heaven compared to the society that women were living in during the 1800’s.
Second Wave feminism started between the 1960’s and 1970’s. While this wave was a step up from the first, women were still treated terribly, and without many more rights than they had in the 1800’s. Women in this time period were able to have some rights. They were able to start looking for jobs, get an education, and even have a small voice in society. While this advancement seemed great, there were still many problems with the equality debate between men and women. “Feminism had failed to adequately address these problems in the past twenty years…” (Fawcett 95). Many people thought that because of the first wave of feminism, society would essentially fix the problems that were showing up earlier on. Unfortunately, nothing was ever done. Instead, the second wave of feminism was created in an attempt to give women more rights. Brave New World is getting closer to being a part of a wave. Unfortunately, this is where Brave New World gets itself stuck between reality and what the “utopia” believes is reality. It is stuck between the second and third waves of feminism, and that “utopia” needs to be changed into a dystopia.
Third wave feminism was a huge leap to equality for women. This wave gave women more rights than the waves that came before it. This is a wave where women have as much equality to men that is physically possible. Women in this wave are able to do so much more than they ever could have done earlier. Women are no longer treated as if they are under the men; rather they are treated with respect just like their counterparts.
Brave New World gets itself stuck between the second and third waves of feminism. Everyone is equal in their society, when really the women are treated worse than anybody. In the third wave of feminism women and men are supposed to be as equal as they will ever be. The society that we live in today is meant to be a part of the third wave. People in our world are as equally treated as is physically possible. Women here are able to have jobs, take care of their children, and they have a say in what is going on in their lives. “This situation, sometimes characterized as ‘post-feminism’, leaves us with the image of feminism mainstreamed and its political content removed or marginalized, the atomization of feminist practice and the widespread disavowal of the feminist label” (Harris 475). Brave New Worlds “utopia” wants to believe that it is a third wave society, maybe even better than a society in the third wave. How is that possible when their society treats women like the second wave? Women in this society aren’t allowed to have children. They are brainwashed to take soma every time they are unhappy, and they are encouraged to have sex as much as possible. Their society is a huge joke, and women are the pun.
“Mother, monogamy, romance. High spurts the fountain; fierce and foamy the wild jet. The urge has but a single outlet. My love, my baby. No wonder those poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable. Their world didn’t allow them to take things easily, didn’t allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy. What with mothers and lovers, what with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey, what with the temptations and the lonely remorse’s, what with all the diseases and the endless isolating pain, what with the uncertainties and the poverty—they were forced to feel strongly. And feeling strongly (and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation), how could they be stable” (Huxley 41).
This is a quote from the Mustapha Mond in Brave New World. He was talking about the pressure that everyone is under in that “utopia”. Being under that much pressure causes the world and even their people to build up stress, and if one were to poke a hole in that stress it all explodes. Women in that society are under an obscene amount of pressure to do and say everything that they are told. This was the exact same situation that the women were in during the second wave of feminism. While the beatings and the physical action against women isn’t as bad as the second wave, Brave New Worlds “perfect” society is struggling to make it out of that wave, and into the last one.
Brave New World needs to get unstuck but one needs to ask, Can that “perfect” society ever really be perfect? Is there any way that Brave New World could reach the third wave of feminism? There is a quote from the novel that shows promise in that aspect. “Everyone works for everyone else. We can’t do it without everyone. Even Epsilons are useful” (Huxley 74). Within this quote there is promise for that society. While Brave New World is stuck now, this quotes gives hope that maybe it can move into that third wave. It makes the reader think about that society as a whole and whether or not they think that Brave New Worlds dystopia could ever become a utopia in the eyes of feminism.
In the end, one can conclude that Brave New World is a cocky society. It thought that its society was “perfect”, when it was actually the opposite. Women were treated horrible in Brave New World. They weren’t able to have children, had to have sex with men, and had to be happy all the time by taking soma. How is that a “perfect” society? It’s not. Brave New World is stuck, but has promise. There is a possibility that its literal dystopia is able to become a utopia with some work. Something that Brave New world is going to have to overcome is the cockiness of the novel. It’s not perfect and it needs to realize that. After that happens, Brave New Worlds “utopia” will be able to move on to the last wave of feminism.
Works Cited
Fawcett, Hilary. "Fashioning the Second Wave: Issues across Generations." Studies In The Literary Imagination 39.2 (2006): 95. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 25 Nov. 2013
Harris, Anita. "Mind The Gap." Australian Feminist Studies 25.66 (2010): 475. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 25 Nov. 2013
Kotef, Hagar. "On Abstractness: First Wave Liberal Feminism And The Construction Of The Abstract Woman." Feminist Studies 35.3 (2009): 495. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 25 Nov. 2013