Of Superbroads, Rented Men, and Champagne Diets 43
“Complaining, whining, and sighing is passe ... and a kind of jolly feminism is
on the way in” (14).28
Whether today’s women practice “jolly feminism” or “feminism light,” it is
clear that women are comfortable with a less aggressive form. This is reflected
across the board. Female protagonists in novels by and about women are softer,
more feminine, and espouse more traditional values—i.e. they often want to get
married and settle down. Although German cinema does not have the equivalent
of Pretty Woman, the movie was popular in Germany and enjoyed a long run.
German women’s glossies have all but given up on emancipatory images,
preferring to stick to make-up and weight-loss tips.
The tough-minded, bra-burning German feminism of the 70s and early 80s
was one of the first victims of reunification. As Angelika Bammer notes in her
article on women’s writing of the 1970s and 80s, after the German unification
“gender as an issue of sustained public concern was eclipsed by what were
officially perceived to be more pressing issues” (217). Lind, however, has come
upon a substitute for the now-defunct women’s-libber—the “Superweib.” She
created a formula, marketed a product, and became arguably the best-known
author in Germany. Her novels avoid the trivializing term “women’s novel” by
defying sales statistics and becoming “women’s bestsellers” or Frauenbestseller
(Piazena). Like the “women’s literature” of the 70s which sought to educate a
predominantly female readership by disseminating critical texts by, for, and
about women, today’s “women’s bestsellers” are also by, for, and about women.
However, they neither seek to educate nor do they have an explicitly political
agenda.
Although 1 focus on Lind in this paper, she is not the only woman writing
frivolous gynocentric novels in Germany. I have even read similar novels in
English, and conclude that the end of feminist literature is not merely a German
phenomenon. If, as at least one scholar has suggested, the reunification of
Germany indirectly killed feminism as a topic in politics and social dialogue by
supplanting it with its imminence, then what on earth happened to stifle the
discourse in the U.S. and England? For just as in Germany, the heroines of the
60s and 70s—the feminists who burned their bras, fought for abortion, and
pushed for equality—have become persona non grata, best forgotten a