Wednesday, August 22, 2007

[feminism] one size fits all dystopia

Trying to create a distinction between different schools or waves of Feminists or trying to distinguish between "radical" and "mild" Feminists is like distinguishing between "partly pregnant" and "wholly pregnant", "a little bit dead" and "a lot dead".


Dale O'Leary, in
The Gender Agenda: Redefining Equality, p. 24, defines that which men and women should be protecting instead:

The "family" in all ages and in all corners of the globe can be defined as a man and a woman bonded together through a socially approved covenant of marriage to regulate sexuality, to bear, raise, and protect children, to provide mutual care and protection, to create a small home economy, and to maintain continuity between the generations, those going before and those coming after.

It is out of the reciprocal, naturally recreated relations of the family that the broader communities—such as tribes, villages, peoples, and nations—grow.

F.L. Morton & Rainer Knopff, in The Charter Revolution & The Court Party (p.75), state:

Contemporary (or second wave) feminism has aptly been described as "Marxism without economics", since feminists replace class with gender as the key social construct. Of course, what society constructs can be deconstructed. This is the feminist project: to abolish gender difference by transforming its institutional source — the patriarchal family. Certain streams of the Gay Rights movement have taken this analysis one step further. The problem is not just sexism but heterosexism, and the solution is to dismantle not just the patriarchal family but the heterosexual family as such.

Alison Jagger, in Political Philosophies of Women's Liberation: Feminism and Philosophy (Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams & Co. 1977) made the destruction of the family clear:

"The end of the biological family will also eliminate the need for sexual repression. Male homosexuality, lesbianism, and extramarital sexual intercourse will no longer be viewed in the liberal way as alternative options... the very 'institution of sexual intercourse' where male and female each play a well-defined role will disappear. Humanity could finally revert to its natural polymorphously perverse sexuality".

Feminism, by definition, is anti-family and anti biologically defined roles, i.e. man has a willy and woman - the place it goes. The fact that other forms of interaction require Vaseline show them to be deviant. If one definines sanity as adopting modes of behaviour which will not in themselves and in the long term, to the exclusion of other modes, destroy the fabric of society, then unsustainable modes are therefore insane.

Rabid Feminism is insanity taken to extremes, for example the oft-quoted Marilyn French:

All men are rapists and that's all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws, and their codes.

... or her own desire to dominate men is explained here:

Men's need to dominate women may be based in their own sense of marginality or emptiness; we do not know its root, and men are making no effort to discover it.

The sweeping, all-encompassing generalizations aside, these statements can have no other effect than to marginalize men, one half of humanity and are fundamentally insane. Minette Marrin stated in her article on rape that it could only lead to misogyny.

Melissa Scowcroft asks the question - who is responsible for the breakdown of society:

So, who or what is culpable? Well, feminism, of course - specifically ideological feminists, who, with their "relentless hostility towards men as a class of enemy aliens," have brainwashed the populace into the belief that "the only good man is either a corpse or a woman." The result, Nathanson and Young contend, is a level of anti-male sentiment that justifies comparison to Jewish persecution.

Christina Hoff-Sommers argues, in Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women, that feminist misandry leads directly to misogyny by what she calls "establishment feminists" against (the majority of) women who love men.

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese also wrote scholarly and popular works on Feminism itself, and through all of her writings, she alienated many rabid Feminists and attracted many conservative Feminists."Sad as it may seem, my experience with radical, upscale Feminism only reinforced my growing mistrust of individual pride." She argued for common snese values between men and women.

Camille Paglia was described as one of the world's top 100 intellectuals by the UK's Prospect Magazine, and is a strong critic of much of the feminism that began with Betty Friedan's 1962 The Feminine Mystique, and compared Feminists — whom she considered to be victim-centered — to the Unification Church.

Judith Levine, in My Enemy, My Love commented:

Man-hating is an emotional problem inasmuch as it creates pain and hostility between women and men. But it is not an individual neurosis à la 'Women Who Hate Men and the Men Who...' Man-hating is a collective, cultural problem — or to refrain from diagnosing it at all, a cultural phenomenon — and men, as the object of man-hating, are part of it too.

And this is the essential problem with all Feminism because it distances one half of the partnership from the other, creating confrontation when the logical and generally accepted efficacious method is consultation and dialogue.

Lillian Csernica puts it more strongly:

There's a certain school of thought among feminists which preaches the unbridled hatred of men. This attitude really bothers me. Adherents of this school insist men are all would-be rapists and sadists just waiting for the chance to throw off their civilized masks and torture their wives and daughters. Since many feminist attitudes are taken as matriarchal gospel, it follows that all men should therefore be distrusted and despised.

This is insane. This is like saying all women should be suspected of keeping an ax in the broom closet just because Lizzie Borden allegedly hacked her parents to death.

Then she says something even more interesting:

I have always preferred the company of men. If that makes me a traitor to my own sex, that's because my own sex isn't such great company these days.

And that's the thing. Feminism, in its underlying humanistic Marxism is, by definition, humourless. There is a serious agenda of the destruction of society to achieve and there is no place in this for fun. Ms Csernica is quite right when she says that such women are no fun - who would want to spend 30 minutes with such as them being earbashed on how women are so much better than men?

I know it's true - I don't need it shoved down my throat.

Feminism runs hand in hand with political correctness and Diane Ravitch, in 2003, quoted guidelines by New York publishing houses for prospective writers:

"Topics not to include are: abortion, death or disease, criminals, magic, politics, religion, unemployment, weapons, violence, poverty, divorce, slavery, alcohol or addiction. Women cannot be depicted as mothers or caregivers or doing household work. Men cannot be depicted as lawyers, doctors or plumbers. African citizens are not to be portrayed in a negative light. None of these things can be themes in any publications handled by us."

It's not just the insanity - it's also unmitigated arrogance which produced this introduction to A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare by Dympna Callaghan:

The question is not whether Shakespeare studies needs feminism, but whether feminism needs Shakespeare. This is the explicitly political approach taken by all-women team of contributors to A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare.

Choice magazine, who should have known better, called it a classic of Feminist Shakespeare criticism.

This is also the current story of higher education [known as hijacked education] and I ran a series of posts on this. Heather MacDonald, for example, at City Journal, wrote: "The Feminist takeover of Harvard is imminent," striking fear in the hearts of all right-thinking women (and men).

Blogger Sisu, of Harvard, commented:

Faust runs one of the most powerful incubators of Feminist complaint and nonsensical academic theory in the country. You can count on the Radcliffe Institute’s fellows and invited lecturers to proclaim the “constructed” nature of knowledge, gender, and race, and to decry endemic American sexism and racism.

Fellow blogger Teresa summed up such people this way:

The very fact that rabid feminists (like any other rabid political type group) believe they know what's better for us and want to manage our lives, should make any educated person cringe.

Because she is so enamored of her own world view, she wants to "make" people see the world as she does. This precludes any rational discussion over whether her views are valid or not. Why should such a person be leading an institution where the primary goal should be rational inquiry?

The second to last word will be Dale O'Leary's from The Gender Agenda: Redefining Equality (p. 23):

Whatever positive image the word feminist may have had, it has been tarnished by those who have made it their own, and I, for one, am content to leave the militants in full possession of the term.

I agree wholeheartedly. That is what Feminism really means - a socialistic, mediocracy-tending, prescriptive and proscriptive, one size fits all, destroyer of families and of the fragile relationship between men and women which has its own problems without these piranhas gnawing at its flesh.

It's slightly misquoting the estimable Juliet Pain, which I hope she'll forgive, when she concludes:

Relationships forged out of this obligatory and mutual distrust are so often going nowhere, right from the start.

Joy, fun, laughter, mutual respect and happiness have no place in the Feminist dystopia - only gloom and hatred. They need to be quietly and impacably opposed in their destructive agenda by sane people, while there's still hope.

9 comments:

  1. Feminism isn't yet complete.
    It will be when all this sort of agressive onslaught ends.

    Women are not yet truly free, so they rail at what they can.
    Often the wrong targets.

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  2. Feminism, as practised by JMB, in all her long life could be summed up as you wrote in this post:

    "when the logical and generally accepted efficacious method is consultation and dialogue."

    You also state:
    Feminism, by definition, is anti-family and anti biologically defined roles. By whose definition?

    Rather this one.
    Feminism comprises a number of social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies concerned with gender inequalities and discrimination against women.

    I heartily object to feminism being considered a dirty word because of the actions of some women who have said derogatory things about men that they have every right to object to and should do so vociferously.

    But please don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. The women's rights movement had very valid concerns which needed to be addressed and slowly they have been.

    I just want to say that I am retiring from the field on this subject. Bloodied but unbowed. I am sorry that your life experiences have led you to have this view of women and I hope that any future relationships will give you a more kindly view of us.

    As with men, the female sex is comprised with the good, the bad and the ugly with the manhaters being very ugly indeed.
    regards
    jmb

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  3. Estimable, hey?

    Another fascinating post, James. Have to say that becoming what was called a 'latchkey kid' meant that I never was too impressed by what passed for feminism down our way. One day, and if life does not prove to be altogether too short for such things, I will write my 'Feminists (Sometimes) Suck' manifesto. As the brackets might indicate, I am not confident enough to set about this project at this time. I have a problem in understanding what 'true' feminism might be, but have yet to meet anyone I could regard as a 'true' feminist excepting, possibly, those types of women who self-proclaimed feminists tend to denigrate; sacrificing the better interests of others in order to attain one's own just doesn't count as 'true' feminism, to me.

    Better not start, no.

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  4. Juliet - you have clearly not been blighted yet by feminism as many women of the 60s and 70s were. It started out as a cry for equality for equal work and as a gender in terms of mutal respect and I was and am right behind that. Read my next post.

    But it was hijacked by many names quoted to me in a comment in the last post and subtly instilled hatred for men, even in the mildest "I can do anything you can do" form.

    There's nothing wrong with the principle - I believe there are things you'd do far better than me but I don't read any hatred from you for men and therefore my heart goes out and wants to help any which way I can. It's my instinct.

    If you don't need help then let's just be friends but I'd be super sure never to lose that by a series of rash acts. Friendship between a man and a woman is so rare and beautiful it has to be preserved.

    I know a certain amount about JMB from her comments and her blog [we can't hide ourselves completely] and she's one hell of a nice person, with a slightly crusty way with words at times.

    JMB - there is nothjing in what I wrote against you. Quite the opposite. But there is against the Marilyn French's of the world and though you say they're a minority - they are - they are not only a vocal minority but a politically aggressive group, forcing their way and their views of hatred for men onto young people in colleges.

    This is my prime beef against them. They get people thinking "gender" but gender is only one of so many divisions - what about "age" for example? Here is Juliet and here is me. Do you think old and young or man and girl or Brit based and Russian based?

    I'm terribly sorry but it's rubbish to say: "because of the actions of some women who have said derogatory things about men that they have every right to object to and should do so vociferously."

    No they should not do that. They are not objecting - they are spewing the spittle of hate in men's faces. That is all. There is no gain for women whatsoever in this.

    Why would men not gang up on her ilk and treat women with the same disrespect shown by these harpies?

    On the other hand, show the respect which all the women who have been quoted and who have appeared on these posts and comments and we ahve dialogue.

    The Vagina Monologues is nothig to do with dialogue. It's hated in the lowest possible taste.

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  5. James, James,I am so sorry. Part of my comment was obviously subject to a different interpretation. Here I meant that men have every right to complain about what women have said about them and should do so. There is no cause for radical feminists to call all men rapists and suppressors of women or any other generic rubbish.

    "because of the actions of some women who have said derogatory things about men that they (I meant men here) have every right to object to and should do so vociferously."

    I do apologize. I shall read my comments more carefully in future. I know what I mean but obviously I was careless in my language.
    regards
    jmb

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  6. Bloody hell!!! All Christains are members of Opus Dei then, are they? Without feminism, I would not have the vote. The womwn of - what - 3 generations ago were not extremists but they were early feminists. My own generation fought for equal pay. These are only human rights, not womwn-only ones. But non-aristocratic and non-property-owning men would not have the franchise now if their forefathers hadn't fought for it. It's all an historical progress. With regard to O'Laeary and Morton &Knopff, I disagree with their narrow definition of the family. Gay rights aside, is a widow or widowere or divorcé of either sex bringing up the children of the marriage alone not bringing up a family? I think you will find they would be disconcerted to be told they are not. Feminists want to "dismantle the heterosexual family"? - No, what we /they want is equality within it. "Destroy patriarchy"? What is patriarchy but the domination of one sex over the other? Surely it would be better to be equal partners? There were matriarchal societies before and the Greek myths can be read as a way of explaining the change to patriarchy. Would it be so bad to work towards the mutual respect that you speak of, James? I don't know how you can describe feminists as anti-family; without feminism many families would not have stayed together, for societal, economic and emotional reasons, all of which drive people apart in our stressful age. But I can remember when a woman could not leave a violent husband BECAUSE THERE WAS NOWHERE TO GO and that was not so long ago; surely it is a denial of all the tenets of love to remain where there is hatred hich might harm not only you but your children? [See Jill Tweedie, "In the Name of Love" on this.] Feminists are anti-biological-roles? Perhaps. I think of myself as a feminine woman: I like dresses, hairdos, make-up, being giggly and all those girlie things. But that does not mean I want to be DEFINED by my biology: as a childless woman, I would feel very lonely and inferior if that were the case. I will agree with you on 2 things: feminism has betrayed some women, in my opinion, single women and it must be terrible for all decent men to be called "rapists". That is inexcusable. [I wrote this comment before and lost it so before continuing I'm going to try to get this one on, then continue.]

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  7. [Ok, that's on. Sorry about typos.] Re. Diane Ravitch, can you tell us WHICH publishing house she was quoting, as that might be relevant?
    Have you READ "The Women's Room"? Anyway,here is a quote from my favourite Marilyn French, "The Bleeding Heart" and you're going to love it:
    "He never arrived.... It was all perfectly understandable: a married man not wanting to get too close to a woman he finds attractive and has reason to belive is attracted to him - an unmarried woman, to boot. It made perfect sense, was fine. But they could have had a drink and talked and done nothing more. Or, if he felt he might slide, he knows himself after all, then he shouldn't ask in the first place. Why did they do this over and over again? He asks and gets his ego stroked when I say yes. He has his moment of triumph, he doesn't need to screw, he's scored without the anxiety of performing further. And I get left sitting for an hour in the lobby, waiting. 'Oh, sorry!' " - Yep, I knew you'd love it! [Going to get this one on now.]

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  8. Right, let's leave aside the fact that she was a naughty girl who shouldn't have been considering a marired man in the first place but have you ever been lonely? unfortunately the man most single womwn are going to meet [especially if they have an aura of independence] is the married predator. What I want, if I stay in a hotel, is my freedom - to enjoy the meal, sit in the bar, do what I like as long as it's legal, without it being assumed that I am there to pick someone up. This is much easier now, partly because I am older and partly because there are more women business travellers, but it was not always so.

    What Friedan. Steinem, Greer and all did was to WAKE WOMEN UP. I would argue that de Beauvoir had done it a generation earlier but she has to be faulted for not considering the position of women who were not economically privileged. These writers allowed womwn who were not satisfied with their lives to realise that it was OK, that they were normal and that their abilities and intellect could be respected. That's all most of us wanted.

    Generations of women had been made to feel a terrible guilt if they did not feel an overwhelming rush of love the minute their new-born was placed in their arms. For some women it took longer and some just wanted more. Is fatherhood "enough" for all men?? Surely not making these womwn feel pariahs has done society a service? [Our sadly lost Jill Tweedie is also excellent on this.]

    I will leave you with de Beauvoir: "Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior; she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male's superiority". Note: destroying his SUPERIORITY, not the male himself. She concludes, "Humanity is something more than a mere species; it is a historical development". And that is what I have been trying to tell you! Feminism, like other emancipatation movements, was historically necessary.

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