Being a child of the enigmatic XYCusp or MTV Generation, I grew up with a fondness for all things 80’s sitcom. Though I am a pale pasty white Irish girl from Maine, one of my favorites was A Different World. Seriously, to this day if Dwayne Wayne asked me to run off with him and his flip-up sunglasses I would in a heartbeat.

That, however, is not the point of this post, just an important footnote. Teen rap sensation Kris Kross (yep, the “Jump” kids) guest starred in an episode (Original Teacher) about inner city gang problems and the perpetuation of generations living in these circumstances. Kris and Chris played rivals locked up in a juvenile detention facility with one chance at probation. To work together on a project with…you guessed it…Dwayne Wayne.

Dwayne tells a story (also recapped by motivational guru Zig Ziglar as a podcast) of fleas kept in a jar with a lid on it. Fleas will jump up again and again smashing their head on the lid. Eventually they stop jumping as high because they discover that hitting your head on a jar lid hurts! The weird (and kinda scary) thing is that you can actually remove the lid from the jar and the fleas will have conditioned themselves to not look up or notice the freedom above them. They refuse to jump to the potential they once had, because really…who likes hitting their head on a lid?!

This story had a strong impact on my life (it aired in 1992…over 15 years ago) and I was reminded of it sitting in a few meetings recently for various “womens” groups. By far I am frequently the youngest in the room. By virtue of my 9-5 I end up grouped with women much older/more tenured than myself. In general I’m fine with that - I feel that I have lots to learn from older feminists and that I have a lot to offer them.

One thing that stuck out the most was a woman who superiorly made the statement “I just don’t know about young people today. I asked a group to identify women from the suffragette movement and they could only name one. Susan B Anthony. I’m pretty sure that’s only because she’s on a coin.” My mouth must have dropped through the floor and everyone was too polite to comment on the huge hole because of the look on my face like I had just been bitch slapped. I must be a horrible feminist…I know I couldn’t name anyone else. Would Hillary Swank count, cause I know she played one in Iron Jawed Angels?

People ask me frequently how I’ve managed success in a corporate arena being a woman. I don’t think these older women will want to hear the response. I’ve succeeded because I keep bashing my head against “the glass ceiling” even after it hurts. It’s one of the most pervasive sentiments I’ve noticed in most successful women in this new feminist generation. We don’t want to pay attention to “the glass ceiling” we’ve been taught we’ll have to fight against “our whole lives.”

Call it stubborn, call it entitlement, call it plain outward stupidity. We realize that we no longer need to wear men’s clothes to play in their arenas. We no longer need to burn our bras to shed the constraints placed upon us. We had a woman (almost) run for President of the United States for goodness sakes! In fact the thing that keeps me down the most is people looking down on my age.

I often repeat the quote “You have to know where you have been to know where you are going.” As a historical and scholarly learner I think you need to understand both the triumphs and challenges of the past to make sure you move forward without making the same mistakes. And I understand that it would be foolish to believe that women are on a totally equal field as their male counterparts. Beyond Corporate America one need only look at some of the more underdeveloped areas of countries to see that there is still a disturbing and real chasm between the genders.

I appreciate SO much about what women have done before me to allow me to be the spoiled little feminist brat they see me as today. But I want to stand on top of a building and shout at the top of my lungs “Stop holding me back because of what you had to go through. Is this truly the legacy that you want to leave to your children?”

Are we as feminists limiting ourselves by constantly referencing/acknowledging/fearing “the glass ceiling?” And what might the feminist movement as a whole be capable of if we started reaching for our potential, rather than fixating on our limitations. Would “the glass ceiling” still exist if we didn’t know it was there, and are we raising future generations to be a jarful of fleas?

As Dwayne Wayne told Kris Kross, desperate to see them jump to the potential he knew they had deep inside: “You can be anything you want, but you gotta know one thing: There’s no lid over you.”

The Changemaker

Elisa Doucette is a not-so-average girl next door who writes various musings and ramblings about the beautiful disaster that is her life over at Ophelia’s Webb.  If she’s not out having really good conversation with friends over cups of coffee or pints at the local pub, she’s most likely curled up with a book listening to jazz or catching the latest Pats/Sox/Celtics/*Insert Kick Ass Sporting Team* game.

Connect with her over at her blog, Ophelia’s Webb, or on her Twitter, @OpheliasWebb!