In Mina Loy's "Feminist Manifesto", the writer starts by presenting a direct attack on the feministic movement terming it as “inadequate” ( Loy, 1914) . Furthermore, the author explores the reasons for the institution of movements that seek to bring reforms to the advantage of the female gender. the author challenges them to cease from the traditions of advocating for equality with men, stating that such approaches will do a little more than cause a “devastating psychological upheaval” on them ( Loy, 1914). She thus challenges the women to show their true call for equality by initiating total demolition of the current social arrangements. In other words, the use of legislative approaches and conducting crusades seems to be a move to hide from the harsh reality. Although the approaches may gain them opportunities for careers and professions, the approaches cannot yield more than that. Therefore, she stresses that for women ton realize their true nature and their potential, they have to quit following the notion that women are equal with men for such is a fallacy.
The author calls for women to rise to bravery and search within themselves to unveil that which they actually are. He argues that the basic and the fundamental way of portraying femininity or masculinity has little to do with sex. Instead of focusing on men as a way of establishing what women are not, they should concentrate on themselves and discover what they truly are ( Loy, 1914) . The writer presents the institution of marriage as based on interdependence among the two parties, sharing their unique characteristics. She further argues that women and men have enmity that is synonymous to that of a parasite and the exploited or the host. The only point that brings them closer is the sexual dependence that each has on the other which culminates in sexual embrace. She speaks of birth control in euphemistic terms as “producing children in adequate proportion to the unfit” which seems as her acknowledgement of the feminist movement for birth control ( Walters, nd) .
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Further, the author argues that women need to demolish their social illusions beginning with the classification of women as either mothers or mistresses. From a natural point of view, all women are endowed equally and it is only their capabilities and mentalities that differentiate them. She thus calls for a sacrifice where women have to give up the virtue that deems a woman to be more valuable based on her sexual purity. Instead, women should focus on character which provides a concrete value for her in the society. Moreover, women should rid themselves of the desire to be loved as it affects them directly when the man shifts his attention to a different woman ( Loy, 1914) . Thus, love should be without any attachments and should only seek to bring happiness. Moreover, women need to realize that sex has no impurity except for the mental approach to it. Through such approaches and sacrifices, women would achieve impersonality in modernism.
In Christina Walter’s essay, her sentiments point out that impersonality in writing was a key aspect in modernism. Nevertheless, she shows disdain for women claiming that “impersonality is a luxury that women writers cannot afford” ( Walters, nd) . From her point of view, embracing impersonality would mean giving up the anticipated independence of the female gender and frustrate the efforts of the feminist movement. She takes on the concept of relative impersonality deeming it to elicit the needed meaning only in the context of men’s individuality. It seems that both socially and in literature, impersonality was dominated by men and hence its aesthetic qualities. Moreover, she presents her argument that “impersonality marks women’s subjection to a cultural model of universality that privileges men” to depict the rejection of impersonality by female writers ( Walters, nd) . She takes the perspective of Loy, who was an artist as well as a writer in approaching artistic impersonality. From her argument, she asserts that if any work of art that is done in the impersonal element and thus emphasizes the uncertainty and instability of the subject being expressed, has the potential of acting contrarily to the efforts of achieving female autonomy. Moreover, presenting impersonal art regardless of depicting male or female, could affect the goals of women at asserting their autonomy beyond and in contradiction of the impassiveness that is largely attributed to them ( Walters, nd) . Thus, Walter argues that any work of art representing an impersonal subjectivity which opposes the depiction of autonomy ma work to the hurt of the female autonomy and sacrifice the efforts of the feminist movement.
In my perspective, it seems that the desire to depict female autonomy blankets the objectivity of art work which is to portray the artist’s creativity rather than their identity. Although Walter seeks to show that embracing impersonality works against female autonomy, modernism requires impersonality. Therefore, clinging to such opinions may actually be a depiction of women’s failure to discover themselves. In her argument, Walter asserts that impersonality works to the advantage of the male artists, something that seems inadequately covered. The argument works to agree with Loy’s statement that for women to achieve autonomy, the have to “Cease to place your confidence in economic legislation, vice- crusades & uniform education” (Loy, 1914) . Nevertheless, Walters seems certain that modernism was marred with chauvinism as she refers to the work of Susan Gilmore where impersonality is presented as a refusal by the male artists to embrace subjectivity and embodiment.
References
Loy, M. (1914). " Feminist Manifesto ”. Retrieved on May 4, 2017 from https://oncomouse.github.io/loy/feminist.html
Walters, C. " Feminist Manifesto and Auto-Facial-Construction". Retrieved on May 4, 2017 from https://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/\%22Feminist_Manifesto\%22_and_Auto-Facial-Construction
