The Überfrau

The following is an excerpt of a 7 December 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.

Art:

I think you've got a point about modern deconstructivist feminism, but also, that's a sign of maturity in a movement, wherein you can bestow full human dignity (in the form of complexities, contradictions, shortcomings, etc.) on a group that is owed that kind of attention. White men and white male characters have always been allowed to be a bundle of contradictions, not just something limited, like a stand-in for some idea or cause.

Will:

I see the point. At the same time, that then makes me wonder about Steffi as a female O'Brien from 1984. I don't think Orwell could have thought of O'Brien as female. But yeah, if the most extreme form of white male entitlement is the doctrine that power is making somebody else suffer or that the picture of the future is a boot stamping a human face forever, it would make sense to play with a nightmarish version of feminism that completely reflects the worst of chauvinism: unlimited, self-appointed license to torture for sport with the full weight of a gigantic institution's backing. 

I guess the challenge of full human dignity is that so little of it is dignified! There's a nobility that comes with oppression and a moral slovenliness that comes with empowerment, at least from the Christian point of view. Of course, Nietzsche calls that a slave mentality. So maybe Steffi is the übermensch...or überfrau.