THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310031
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY ANN EGERTON
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
WHEN COLUMNIST Ellen Goodman was in her early 40s, she observed that most of us would be embarrassed by some of the things we had said in our 20s.
Much of ``To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism'' (Anchor Books, 284 pp., $25), a new collection of essays by people under 30, is a strong example of embarrassing statements. If these essays represent the state of feminism today, what is called ``Third Wave Feminism,'' then things have gotten a little off track.
The collection contains 20 essays, written by 18 women and three men. One is by a couple, David Allyn and Jennifer Allyn, who decided to marry when they discovered they were having a child. Their essay relates their decision to adopt the surname Allyn, a meshing of their middle names, Alan and Lynn, that expresses no ethnic or family allegiance to anyone but themselves. Its fuzzy, self-centered individuality seems emblematic of the anthology.
Lesbian writers, especially black ones, are significantly represented in ``To Be Real.'' The book's editor, Rebecca Walker, daughter of novelist Alice Walker, is bisexual. Outrage against homophobic behavior in our culture is, perhaps consequently, a repeated mantra of many of the essays, suggesting that the changing face of feminism owes more to Sappho than to Susan B. Anthony.
There is nothing subtle about these pieces, and there doesn't seem to be much sense of teamwork, which we might expect to find in writings about a cause.
Lisa Jones describes herself and her friends in ``She Came With the Rodeo'' as ``smart ass girls with a sense of entitlement.'' Jocelyn Taylor, in ``Testimony of a Naked Woman,'' claims a woman's right to public nudity and admits to being an exhibitionist.
The common denominator in many of the essays is flashy writing squandered on adolescent, show-and-tell utterances usually grounded in self-absorption. ``To Be Real'' is so in your face that it is often devoid of wit or irony or warmth.
Thus it is a delight when Veronica Webb expresses gratitude in ``How Does a Supermodel Do Feminism?'' for her extraordinary success as a model. It is a relief when Naomi Wolf humorously describes falling for all of the romantic trappings of weddings in ``Brideland.''
Anna Bondoc's description in ``Close, but No Banana'' of being an Asian-American is touching and well-reasoned, as is Min Jing Lee's honest examination of being a busy, well-paid lawyer and perhaps forgoing motherhood in ``Pushing Away the Plate.''
There are some good pieces here, but one wishes for restraint and taste. Second-wave feminists Gloria Steinem, who wrote the forward, and Angela Davis, who wrote the afterward, should have curbed Walker's enthusiasm and choices so that she could have produced a more serious book. Too many of these essays are self-indulgent nonsense. MEMO: Ann Egerton is a free-lance writer who lives in Baltimore. by CNB