Today, as narratives of female strength gain prominence, the celebration and promotion of successful women is increasingly identified with feminist politics. Brave and resourceful, saving rather than saved, these women are touted as the apotheosis of feminism. But if the valorization of women’s achievements fills a harmful cultural gap, it also risks turning feminism into a project of moral sorting and reward — ultimately obscuring, naturalizing, and enforcing the power systems it purports to challenge.

The equation of feminism with female superlativeness is not new.

From Mary Wollstonecraft’s complaints of learned weakness and dependency to the suffragette ideal of the New Woman, a recurring thread in feminist thought has posited that patriarchy does not merely exclude women from political participation, material security, or any other yardstick of social power — it also enforces a stereotyped passivity incapable of wielding that power. It not only exploits women, but shapes who they are. In this environment, personal excellence and self-assertion take on a feminist hue. They become a type of political action.