Opposition to Christian Hoff Summers?

truthjusticeca · 2011-09-20T19:57:55+00:00

Before the early 1990s I was a feminist academic in good standing. I was invited to feminist conferences and asked to review papers for a feminist philosophy journal. My courses at Clark University were cross-listed with Women’s Studies. That all changed in 1994 when I published a book entitled Who Stole Feminism? The book was strongly feminist, but it rejected the idea that American women were oppressed. For the most part, feminism had succeeded, I said. By the nineties, I argued, American women were among the freest and most liberated in the world. It was no longer reasonable to say that as a group women were far worse off than men. Yes, there were still inequities, but to speak of American society as a “patriarchy” or to refer to American women as second class citizens was frankly absurd.

In the book, I showed how feminism was being hijacked by gender war eccentrics in the universities. And when I say eccentric I mean it. To give one quick example, one of my colleagues in feminist philosophy referred to her seminars as “ovulars.”2 She rejected the masculinist “seminar” because the root of that word is associated with, well, the very essence of male power. It is actually very funny when you think about it. But this woman was not kidding.

When Who Stole Feminism was first published, some prominent feminists actually agreed with what I had to say: I even received some fan mail –- but not much. For the most part, the feminist establishment was outraged. I was quickly subjected to a colorful attack for my heresies. Many feminist leaders and writers remain convinced that the United States is an oppressive patriarchy. They did not appreciate my plea for moderation. Some called me a backlasher, a traitor to my gender, anti-woman. One angry critic referred to Margaret Thatcher and me as "those two female impersonators."

http://www.aei.org/docLib/20090108_ContemporaryFeminism.pdf

ThePigman · 2011-09-21T02:24:42+00:00

Should be Christina.

thingsarebad · 2011-09-20T21:45:22+00:00

I'm aware this is not the opposition you're talking about, but I am posting it anyway.

I admire what Christina Hoff Sommers does but as an MRA I also see some flaws in her beliefs:

Most feminist activism is necessarily anti-male and pro-privilege for women. Feminism is what feminism has done. To call oneself a feminist is to implicitly support that misandry. Even Christina Hoff Sommers, the only person I can ever think of that still calls themself a feminist yet is still an advocate for men's rights, gets some things wrong.

Some quotes from her from http://www.aei.org/docLib/20090108_ContemporaryFeminism.pdf :

The fact is the major battles of American women for equal treatment and opportunity have been fought and won.

Actually, they were battles for special treatment for women and less opportunity for men.

yes, we need to find ways to get more young women interested in running for public office and entering fields like math, computer science and engineering.

No, we don't need to find ways to do that. Men and women, boys and girls, we're different, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I believe that the liberation of women in the developing world will be the greatest human rights struggle of our time.

And what about the men Christina? Why not the "liberation of people in the developing world"? Regardless, the biggest human rights struggle of our time is against misandry, something which is pervasive throughout all societies, and always has been. And it's none of our business how people in the developing world want to run their little countries - we don't have the money to go involving ourselves in other countries' business, unless of course they have oil and then we suddenly throw on our "oh the poor downtrodden women" caps.

Elaborating:

She says women have won the battle for equal treatment and opportunity. This is only partly true, since they have won the battle for MORE THAN equality - they have serious advantages over men based in law and society.

Also, we don't need to find ways to get more young women interested in running for public office and entering STEM fields. We can provide the same opportunities for men and women, but that doesn't mean we need to change the playing field to get more girls interested if they just aren't. Males and females are different.

The hard work of feminism does not lie outside this country. This country needs to deal with its own problems. The only reason feminists talk about women being "oppressed" in other countries is that they have very little left to seriously complain about here, with all their entitlements and privileges. There are many men in third world countries who are far more oppressed than the women there. We don't need feminism AT ALL.

The idea that the "liberation of women in the developing world" is a human rights issue is absurd. Liberating women from what? I mean, who? MEN, obviously. The whole idea is that men are bad and subjugate women. Well, guess what, in developing countries men and women have sex roles because they HAVE TO to survive (see article linked above at AVfM). This idea that women are oppressed in unique ways, neglecting the fact that men were oppressed in their own ways (a better word is discriminated against), is a feminist idea.

Although Sommers gets much else right, she still demonstrates here that the fundamental nature of feminism is the idea that men oppress women, which is a bold-faced lie.

And therefore, feminism IS and ALWAYS WILL BE hatred of men.

True egalitarians ought to stop referring to themselves as feminists at all.

Truth IS anti-feminism: http://www.avoiceformen.com/2011/04/30/4437/comment-page-1/#comment-34282

Title	Opposition to Christian Hoff Summers?
Author	purrit
Upvotes	5
Comments	28
Date	September 20, 2011 7:51 PM UTC (14 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/klwv7/opposition_to_christian_hoff_summers/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/opposition-to-christian-hoff-summers.1034381 https://theredarchive.com/post/1034381

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