[CherylNYC]

I was 6 years old and watching the Flintstones on TV. It was 1968. I remember suddenly becoming enraged at the rigid gender roles that were portrayed, and I instantly decided to boycott the show. In that crystal clear moment I understood that the television was promoting and enforcing oppression of women, and that people who watched it would learn by watching that the way the cartoon characters were acting was the 'right way' to act. I never forgot that moment. I still don't have or watch television.

My father had a lot invested in convincing me that men were just better at certain things. I remember him telling me how embarrassing Billie Jean King's showing was in her match with Bobby Riggs. He told me that it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that men were superior. Later I found out that she beat him handily in straight sets. My father was so vehement in his negativity that I was sure she must have lost!

My mother claimed to be a feminist and told my sister and I that we could be anything we wanted. We were expected to go to college and become professionals in some respectable field at which we would most certainly excel. (Being an artist does NOT count as respectable.) At the same time, she told us that if we wanted to go to college we would have to get scholarships. They would find the money to send my brother to college. Unlike us, he would have to support a family, after all. You can imagine my fury. My mother told me that she was a feminist, BUT....