Especially for Parents

News and Commentary by Sharon Secor
September 2005

Empowerment, Truth and Critical Thinking

We hear a lot about empowerment these days, a word that has wandered into the common lexicon from the theoretical realm of the humanities, particularly from psychology, sociology and economics. Yet, as often as the word is bandied about, we seldom hear it truly defined. What, then, is empowerment? Is empowerment always a good, positive, thing?

In the literal sense of the word, empowerment is a shift in the balance of power. In usage, it generally indicates a positive shift in a power balance, i.e. for those suffering from racism or domestic violence. The individual who once had his path to achievement blocked by discrimination has the power to progress once the obstacles of oppression - lack of access to education, employment, etc. - have been removed. The sufferer of domestic violence finds the power to seek help or, if necessary, leave the batterer. The more subtle aspects of the word relate to self-esteem, a source of personal power, which is also visible in the empowerment of minorities and women to control their lives and destinies.

Thanks to daytime talk shows, pop-psychology and the self-help movement, however, empowerment is a term that has been picked up for use in almost all quarters of society. George Orwell, of 1984 fame, wrote in that famous book about words and the effect of how words are defined on thought itself. Changing the meanings of words or diluting their meanings almost beyond recognition is an efficient way to change ideas, even ideologies. Hence, those well-known 1984 sentences - Ignorance is Strength. Freedom is Slavery. War is Peace.

In 1984, not only did the creators of Newspeak seek to alter and dilute words, but also to eliminate words and meanings from the common language and, more importantly, the thoughts that could arise from them. They sought to control thought through available language, they sought to reduce language and thus thought to near meaningless babble. Indeed, the definition of empowerment seems to have undergone an almost Orwellian degeneration.

We hear ivy-league feminists, who dabble in stripping for a bit and go on to write articles and books about their adventures, use the word empowerment to describe their experiences. Pro-prostitution activists tell us that ‘sex work’, the sanitized, neutered, preferred term of today, is empowering. ‘Hook-ups’, or no-strings attached sex devoid of emotional context, have filtered down from the college scene to junior high, and are said to empower girls. Pornography is empowering and pornography created by women - well, that’s a double dose of empowerment.

As parents, we are charged with raising our children to be independent, capable and functioning adult people. Part of that responsibility is to enable them to think, to understand the world around them, and an essential part of that is the development of critical thinking skills, something our schools are increasingly failing to teach, and the ability to discern truth.

In truth, so much of what is called empowerment today is not, according to the classic definition and usage of the word. Today’s feminism is rife with examples of exactly this Orwellian slavery-is-freedom false usage of the word empowerment. Writer Ariel Levy offers numerous examples of this in her book, Female Chauvinist Pigs : Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, released in August of this year.

“Only thirty years (my lifetime) ago,” wrote Levy in the first chapter of her book, “our mothers were "burning their bras" and picketing Playboy, and suddenly we were getting implants and wearing the bunny logo as supposed symbols of our liberation. How had the culture shifted so drastically in such a short period of time?”

”What was almost more surprising than the change itself,” continued Levy, “were the responses I got when I started interviewing the men and - often - women who edit magazines like Maxim and make programs like The Man Show and Girls Gone Wild. This new raunch culture didn't mark the death of feminism, they told me; it was evidence that the feminist project had already been achieved. We'd earned the right to look at Playboy; we were empowered enough to get Brazilian bikini waxes. Women had come so far, I learned, we no longer needed to worry about objectification or misogyny. Instead, it was time for us to join the frat party of pop culture, where men had been enjoying themselves all along. If Male Chauvinist Pigs were men who regarded women as pieces of meat, we would outdo them and be Female Chauvinist Pigs: women who make sex objects of other women and of ourselves.”

“How,” asked Levy, “is resurrecting every stereotype of female sexuality that feminism endeavored to banish good for women?”

And, how do such things, I wonder, fall into the category of empowerment? If we look at empowerment as a positive power shift, then where is the change? Have men begun to appreciate women’s humanity or are there now merely more sex objects for his viewing pleasure? Even if we ‘choose’ to objectify ourselves - porn star breast implants, pole dancing and lap dancing lessons, stripper wear in our wardrobes - there is still no power shift, because the end result is still the same.

Youth culture is full of such stereotypical, pornified imagery, often presented as liberating, rebellious and empowering. From the world of hip-hop to the cinema to literature to fashion, the porn influence is present. At Hot Topic, which is, according to its web site, “a mall-based chain of retail stores that specializes in apparel, accessories, gifts, and music for teenagers,” a teen can buy a leather-look bunny - and I do not mean rabbit - costume, Pleaser brand stiletto heels, thigh high fishnet stockings, and an assortment of adult-world thongs, corsets, and other lingerie. With stores in all 50 states and Puerto Rico and on-line purchasing, girls from all over the nation can look like porn stars.

But, it is not just popular culture that presents the pornified woman as the ideal and calls her liberated, empowered. College campuses host sex worker fairs, student run porn magazines and clubs. Making pornography on some campuses is not an infraction of the rules, but a homework assignment. In California this year, a Career Day speaker talking to eighth graders included exotic dancing among the well-paying career options he chose to discuss, and included a brief discussion of the monetary value that could be expected for each couple of inches of breast size, according to a January 14, 2005, Associated Press report. Like Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in a column from June 14, 2004, I fail to see how “behaving like a man's sex slave [is] a form of empowerment” and I resent the twisting of language and the manipulation of ideas in the effort to make it so.

The best weapon that concerned parents have to combat the debasement of our youth and culture is education of the classical sort, the type that is no longer typically provided for children today, who are increasingly lucky to leave high school functionally literate, let alone capable of independent and critical thinking. Classical education is built upon a trivium consisting of a “grammar stage,” a “logic stage,” and a “rhetoric stage.” When a child is taught to think in a logical manner and taught the skills of intellectual debate, there is no way that he or she can be taken in by Orwellian twisting of words and concepts.

As empowerment has been traditionally understood, it has been a positive power shift that has uplifted an oppressed or downtrodden group or individual. Education has long been one of the most important tools in truly empowering people to fulfill their highest potentials. It is a shame and a disgrace to allow those who seek to elevate the basest concepts of humanity to co-opt the language of liberation.