Overuse of the word 'empower'

[MagicMix]

I saw this recently on social media and it made me think about how overused the word 'empower' is these days in the context of feminism and sexual politics. What does it even mean anymore?

How is a woman empowered by being naked or by covering her body? What actual power do those things give her? Or is it that if you feel happy, you are now 'empowered' somehow?

Votes for women are empowering. Education for women and girls is empowering. I think the word has been weakened so much as to mean absolutely nothing if taking your top off or covering your head is now empowering.

To be clear, I do think personal choices we make on 'small' issues of appearance such as clothing or body hair or makeup etc can be discussed with reference to feminism - there is definitely a discussion to be had and yes the personal can certainly be political. But I don't think we can truly empower ourselves with these choices, although we might make ourselves feel more confident/happy on an individual level. Am I wrong here?

I agree. It's a valuable question to ask what power does a woman actually gain from whatever is being labelled empowering.

Most of the time claims of "empowerment" turn out to be the illusion of power and not the thing itself.

You are right, you mainly hear the word applied to women, you never hear "he picked up the gun, he was empowered"
....Narcissist is another word that is overused presently, I think...

agreed.

I was thinking about the phrase "spreading hate" and what that does/doesn't mean.

words and phrases can outlive their usefulness.

thebewilderness nailed it.

It's funny how so many of the things people claim empower women are things that appeal to mean.

Let's hope 'empower' goes the same way as 'embiggen'.

Yes, things that appeal to men and things that cost money. And the 'power' is that now you're sexually attractive. In a lot of cases it's feminism blatantly coopted by capitalism.

And often the word is applied to things that I think actually disempower women as a class, such as various forms of 'sex work'. Which can maybe economically empower an individual woman on the basis that she is paid for it and can perhaps make more money than she could in other employment open to her. But at a cost to womenkind as a whole.

But even when we make the choices that don't appeal to men I don't find it empowering to be honest. I don't wear makeup. This saves me time and money but has never given me any real power. I might say that it was liberating to ignore social expectations on me as a woman to paint my face, but I wouldn't say it was empowering.

And often the word is applied to things that I think actually disempower women as a class, such as various forms of 'sex work'. Which can maybe economically empower an individual woman on the basis that she is paid for it and can perhaps make more money than she could in other employment open to her. But at a cost to womenkind as a whole

But the economic empowerment , if it exists at all, (and given claims of what can be earned are likely to be overstated) comes with a huge loss of social status.

Melanie Phillips hit this nail on the head on a Moral Maze after hearing evidence from strippers about how "empowering" stripping is. Her conclusion is it is quite the opposite - the point of stripping is humiliation.

Yes, I quite agree. It's only empowering if you look at it in an extremely narrow way. It's not really empowering at all, this just seems to be the line of argument used. That they are making money. But nobody ever says anyone is empowered by becoming an accountant.

But nobody ever says anyone is empowered by becoming an accountant

The big , global accountancy firms have power.

Sure. My point is the word is frequently misapplied. Though I'm not sure your average accountant has that much power compared to any other professional.

Having an independent source of income is genuinely empowering, of course. But this is quite common for Western women in the 21st century.

Sex work empowers people traffickers.

It sure doesn't empower women, anyway. Sometimes it seems like the word is used as PR for the patriarchy at least 90 percent of the time. If those nasty feminists criticise something, just call it empowering, then they can't criticise it anymore because surely they're not against the empowerment of women?

The original picture is just beyond ridiculous though, as if women could materially change our situation through what we wear or don't wear.

I don't think stripping and prostitution are ever empowering no matter how much is earned. Accountancy, law or medicine on the other hand are empowering for the individual- not just because of what the individual earns but because of the social and cultural standing that comes with it.

Here is one random real life example. A letting agency demanded to know what I earned and proof of my income to be a guarantor for my son. I refused to give it. I told them they could see who I was from my firm's website and I did not provide anything else. They accepted that.

I don't think we disagree.

Definitely overused, and used to excuse all sorts of behaviour.
Also, I've never heard a man use the word empowered, about themselves or about women.
Men don't say women are empowered by burlesque - women say that.
Time to stop saying it maybe?

Totally agree.

"Empowered" is the consolation prize when you don't get actual power. It's a "thanks for taking part" certificate. It's nothing.

Yup, agree with the comments here.

I don't want to be "empowered", I want actual power

Are the people in power doing it? If not, it's not empowering.

For me it's very like 'choice feminism' in that if an individual claims that x behaviour is either 'my choice' or 'empowers me' then that is supposed to be the end of the debate and any further debate is shut down by being framed as a personal attack.