Putting the Ass into Astronaut: The Crash Landing of Performance Feminism
"It's a Woman's World" except nobody is buying it. If I’ve put that awful song in your head. I’m sorry.
This week saw an all female crew launch into space and expect to come down to thunderous applause and recognition about just how far they’re pushing women’s rights. Despite their safe return to Earth after 11 minutes (and, er however many millions of dollars) the mission crash landed. Spectacularly. As Marina Hyde put it:
Doing it for the girrrrls?
Whilst the accolade of first all female crew looks good on paper, the privilege of space travel and ‘taking up space’ is only for some. Namely the mega rich. This stunt isn’t really anything new except perhaps the first time a bunch of all female space tourists punched a hole in the atmosphere so they could become ladies that launch for 11 minutes.
Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963, and since she was solo, I guess technically the first all female crew. But they’re Russian and the media is not great about talking positively about Russians right now.
Perry et al’s ‘very important mission’ did not prove to anyone that the girls are as good as the boys. In fact, as one Guardian reader pointed out:
Lauren Sánchez, Katy Perry and their companions were no more “crew” of the Blue Origin than my family and I were crew of the British Airways flight from Marrakech to Gatwick on Sunday as we returned from holiday.
Dan Stacey
This trip was simply performative feminism to soothe the egos of the mega privileged when we’d probably respect them more if they just owned the fact they’re wealthy enough to fuck off to space when they’re done trashing Earth. To kiss the ground and claim it’s all for the good of the planet and womankind, whilst the Nasa Archives are scrubbed of female achievements, scientists and staff, is beyond satirical.
Six women going up in a space ship that just looks like a big dick is not feminism. To claim that you’re doing it for the good of all women is even more misguided than passenger Katy Perry’s god awful song It’s a Woman’s World. Yes, women can go to space, yes we can, shock horror, actually do all the things men can do. This is nothing we didn’t already know. The phrase ‘behind every great man is a great women’ is well known for this reason. Only, as Australian poet Luka Lesson pointed out:
It’s not that behind every great man… it’s that in front of every great woman is a mediocre man.
and tbh, we’re not buying this ‘It’s a woman’s world and we’re lucky to be living in it’ bullshit anymore. We’re not grateful for the airtime and backhanded compliments of being strong enough to do it all. Why should we?
Performative Feminism Hurts Real Feminism
Despite my glee at seeing the stunt flop and the world see through the feeble attempts to justify a joyride into space, performative feminism is damaging to real feminism. The widespread media coverage, positive or negative, insidiously spreads the image that girls are ditzy, hollow and vain enough to go to space and then claim ignorance about how their actions impact others.
Amongst the discussions before and during the flight were topics such as how multifaceted women are to go to space and wear lipstick. You can do anything now babe, thank us later! Not to mention the very real problem of how eyelash extensions will hold up in zero gravity.
“Space is going to finally be glam!” exclaimed Perry in the prelaunch media tour. My question is why be glam in space when you could be Sigourney Weaver taking on xenomorph after xenomorph? Also, taking glam to space? ET would like a word:
The overwhelming message here is that this is the first time ‘real women’ have been in space. Not those smart science types, but the pretty girls we all wish we could be.
The current backlash to female empowerment can be seen through the rise of the trad wife, the return of heroin chic as a desirable aesthetic and the very real, very dangerous, rollbacks in female healthcare. Not to mention red-pill misogynistic beliefs pushing the idea of men and women of ‘high value’.
The vacuous and tone deaf content of the conversations inside and around this space tourist day trip only further the idea that women are hollow and silly. The overwhelmingly negative response, whilst pretty valid, will also be used to ‘prove’ that women cannot be taken seriously. Their wants are vain and superfluous. Remember that time we sent an all female space flight into orbit and all they could talk about was themselves? This is why women shouldn’t get the high stake, demanding and important jobs. They’ll only leave glitter and eyelashes everywhere.
Down to Earth
As Amy Keen wrote on Linked In, I don’t think this is a win for feminism.
Call me naive, call me negative, but a time when women are increasingly unsafe all over the world, having their human rights stripped and safety threatened, the 1% flying to the moon just wouldn’t be my priority.
When they returned to Earth to boos rather than cheers, the Blue Origin passengers declared the backlash as sexist. This is another example of how misusing a word takes away its meaning. Call everything sexist and eventually it becomes meaningless. The attacks on the trip are not because this is about women, its because its, as one friend said to me, ‘despite the best PR that money can buy, they couldn’t foresee how much of an enormous fart into everyone’s face this would be perceived as’. I can’t help but wonder if this is how out of touch and disillusioned the French monarchy were shortly before the Revolution.
As means of defence, passenger Gayle King declared that the whole event was a “freaking journey”. Anyone else getting echoes of the self help term that is oftened used to excuse shitty behaviour? Sorry I was a twat, I’m just going through some stuff right now, it’s part of my journey. This is the same woman who, whilst apparently on a mission to benefit all of womenkind, declared “I’m so proud of me right now”, proving the point that this was never about advancements in the name of the human race. Just the not-so-cheap-thrill of a few.
Despite the no doubt pre-scripted revelation and insight that “we’re all in this together, we’re so connected”, it’s clear that this whole debacle was only ever about a few, very wealthy and very privileged, individuals. To bill it as anything else is nauseating and offensive to the rest of us.
“We’re putting the Ass into Astronaut!”. Yes, you are. Just not quite in the way you think.