Somewhere in the world a woman is about to murdered in the name of honor and we hear only silence in the surrounding moments. Somewhere in the world a woman is being made to walk a short distance behind her husband for the sake of propriety and we hear no mega-phoned objections. Somewhere in the world a little girl is killed because of population restrictions and her parents prefer a little boy. Somewhere a woman is beginning her eighth pregnancy during which she has contracted the HIV virus and the silence we hear is shocking.
Actually, there are plenty of activists, media personalities, average Americans, and organizations who oppose and speak loudly against these commonalities . . . just not the American Feminist Movement. But, shouldn’t feminists be leading the charge? And, perhaps, it is only me who is shocked by the astounding silence – else, the call to marshal the Feminist Movement would resound throughout all American Media.
My mind was turned along the lines of women in the world and their collective status while pursuing an English degree. Mostly, I was comparing American women to women of nearly every other part of the globe by way of defending our American culture from a large group of zombie-eyed, indoctrinated students. Like proper zombies, though, they never could see the reasoning of my argument because they were wholly unable to get beyond the notion that America is and has been guilty of the most heinous and awful crimes toward minority groups. College for conservatives may be more about learning to hone your arguments and holding to your convictions than it is about writing essays and learning Venn diagrams.
Going through the obligatory college courses for me – an older, “non-traditional” student – was both difficult and frustrating. Difficult in that I was often more concerned with gleaning all that I could from the sundry writing courses around which I centered my English degree; and, frustrating in that, excepting the obligatory American and English literature courses, every other mandated literature course was based on feminism and feminist literature.
For me, the old guy in all these classes, it was disheartening to hear the professors of these Fem-Lit courses reel off line after line of ultra left-wing nonsense and then watch the other twenty-five or so heads bob up and down in agreement – even those few students whom I knew held opposing opinions. If anyone doubts the notion that college professors hold enormous amounts of power and influence over the future business owners, account managers, writers, dancers, politicians, et cetera of our nation, then I suggest enrolling in a day-time course at the local university and see for yourself. Be bold, too, and take a political science class or even a study in Feminist Literature. You might even find the courage to enroll in any of the Women and Gender Studies courses.
At any rate, this isn’t about my frustrations in a university classroom. It does, though, have to do with some of what I learned about feminism in a university classroom.
The Feminism Movement started out, in America, with the likes of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They wanted to vote. These days (and thanks to their efforts from so long ago), I can say with relative certainty that all Americans would blanch at the idea of rejecting a people from the voting booth or any other booth (phone, dinner, toll, or otherwise) for biological or aesthetic reasons. Excepting the random Black Panther who guards Pennsylvania polling centers while brandishing a baton, we Americans honor everyone’s right to vote. From what I hear, some people even vote multiple times . . . even after they’ve died.
So the Second Wave of the Feminist Movement picked up with the Civil Rights Movement. Apparently, a bunch of the white women who marched along side of black people stopped and said to themselves, “Wait a sec, I don’t even enjoy the liberties that I want for these black people.” Roe v. Wade is touted as the Second Wave’s most significant victory. It was during this Second Wave that Feminism reared its ugly head. But, that’s neither here nor there.
In current times, some feminists have declared that the movement has jumped into a Third Wave; but, anyone with any objectivity and a brain can come to the same conclusion as me: With more girls/women graduating from every level of college in greater numbers than boys/men and considering (among many, many other criteria) that American women made more money than American men in 2008, women have gained their equality with men and then some. Anyway, equality is written law.
So, it would seem this Third Wave has nothing left for which to fight. Sure, they’ve picked up the gay/homosexual/transgender/multi-gender/cross-gender cause for whatever reason; but, feminists, with regard to women’s rights and equality, as far as I can tell, have completed their mission. Job done. Good game (no pats on the tuchas, though) . . . or, has the mission only been completed here in the United States?
I’d imagine Canadian women are fairing well, but how are women treated in Mexico? Hmmmm. What about Saudi Arabia? Africa? How are the women’s rights and equality movements doing in virtually every other nation on the globe?
So, I say the movement isn’t anywhere near mission-complete. It’s too bad that the same feminists who tore their hair out and screamed to the heavens here in the Land of the Free in order to secure their equal status don’t see the need to move their efforts across our southern border, much less to Africa and the Middle East, for women who know treatment and abuses far worse than anything American women (collectively) have ever had to endure.
Perhaps, it’s more fair to say that American feminism is taking the vacation . . . but then again, where else in the world has equality and fairness ever been a national priority other than in America? Certainly not in the United Kingdom, where Sharia law has been allowed to replace English law for Islamic people. Clearly, English feminists either don’t exist or didn’t put up any sort of fight against a set of religious laws that literally views women as property. Who’s afraid of Virginia Wolfe now?
On another note, is it terribly inconvenient for American feminists to travel to London to put on demonstrations? Sure, we can all understand if a feminist says that making the trip en masse to stage a protest in Mecca is so full of obstacles as to be undoable; but, London is a tourist destination and right across the pond. Hardly inconvenient. Heck, the famed French Feminists are a Chunnel-drive away!
This isn’t a wholesale condemnation of the Feminist movement. More of a motivational speech mixed with some advice on refocusing its efforts, actually. Think about it: the American Feminist Movement has known great success. That success, relative to history, has come with surprising rapidity, too. It took Christianity some thousands of years from the time when Eve was subservient and secondary to Adam until Jesus finally treated Mary Magdalene with some modicum of respect. The citizens of the United States have realized equality between the sexes in two hundred years, give or take. No, this isn’t a denouncement of feminism at all. Feminists have done great and good work here in America. Nowadays, however, feminism is nowhere to be seen outside of academia and fringe causes that have nothing to do with women’s rights and liberties. There are too many hurdles keeping them from the action.
Besides laziness and selfishness, the biggest hurdle the Movement has keeping it from fighting inequities in places like London, Tehran, Islamabad, Baghdad, most of Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula lies with ideologies. See, the feminists have aligned themselves with liberalism and the Democrat party (ah, the party of, um, slavery). Liberals and Democrats, besides being proponents of despotism, totalitarianism, socialism, and liberty depravation, have become the knights-errant for minority groups. Well, that is to say, minority groups that supposedly deserve our pity, empathy, charity, et cetera. Muslims, for some reason, have become one such minority group. Forget the fact that Muslims are hardly a minority group with regard to global demographics or deserving of anyone’s pity. Then again, hypocrisies are embedded in every bit of Liberalism.
The Feminist movement, because of its close relationship to liberals and its dedication to the liberals’ agenda, cannot very well go and criticize Islam for its ridiculous treatment of women precisely because of Islam’s victim status with liberals and the Democrat party. Also, it’s wholly plausible that “feminists” in America are too comfortable enjoying the benefits of having had the pendulum swing past center. Why leave what they’ve worked so hard to gain? Cannot those Muslim women buck up just as they did and fight for themselves? One of my Fem Lit professors even went so far as to (essentially) say that this Third Wave of Feminism is largely focused on discovering feminists in history, promoting feminist art and literature, teaching at the high school and university level, et cetera. This professor was, herself, a self-proclaimed ultra feminist and found these pursuits to be highly important. She didn’t like me very much. I didn’t nod my head as much as the other students.
A great example of how liberalism has gotten between feminists and marginalized women in other parts of the world was with the cover of Newsweek magazine. Think back some few years to 2005 and the day – the first time in seventy years, mind you – when Iraqis cast their vote in a democratic system. Pretty special day, wouldn’t you agree? In case the cover’s image has slipped from your memory let me help: under the magazine’s name stand two men wearing dark clothing with faces covered and brandishing weapons and ammunition. The caption reads, “The Insurgents: Who They Are – And Why The Elections Won’t Stop Them.”
Why not show a group of proud Iraqi men and women holding up their ink-stained fingers? Well, the answer is obvious to anyone with even a shred of political objectivity. Newsweek is hardly more than a weekly newsletter written by the far-left, for the far-left. It was (and mostly still is) an objective of the left-wing media to try to sink the war effort so as to make Bush wear some egg on his face- lives of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians be damned. Okay, so I’ve gotten a little far a field here.
The average feminist, who also happens to be the average liberal, couldn’t very well jump for joy at the sight of Iraqi women exercising the right to vote; such a celebration would also be equivalent to George Bush having done something positive and no self-respecting liberal has or would ever dare to utter a kind word even remotely associated with Bush. As a result, nowhere in the mainstream media was to be found a celebration of this new freedom of Iraqi women.
This all begs the question then, who are the feminists? Well, I can say with some authority from my Fem Lit courses that men most certainly cannot be feminists. That’s not very fair; but, neither can anyone who isn’t liberal, some sort of activist, or a member of academia be a bone fide feminist.
Think about the absurdity of this now small group of wing-dings alienating themselves from liberty-loving people just because they don’t necessarily share every single political or sociological notion with them. The absurd really shines through when you consider that the true and actual goal of the Feminist Movement: to see that liberties and freedoms are evenly and widely spread and enjoyed equally between the sexes. That’s it. Abortion rights only became part of the feminist mission when the radical lefties took over the Movement. Nowadays, apparently, gay rights and multi-gender issues are being taken up by feminists who have nothing else to do. With regard to feminism’s first and original goal, however, what American isn’t on-board with or in favor of women having the same liberties as men? Anything contrary would be seen as ridiculous. So, why, when the Feminist Movement could proudly claim to have all Americans within its ranks, do they chose to self-segregate and delineate from anyone or any group further to the political right than Sean Penn?
The reason people like me – male or female – are roundly rejected from the ranks of the Movement was explained during the normal course of business in class one rosy day – which means that I was having sharp objects, insults, and obscenities thrown my way for raising the idea that American women just might have finally realized equality in our society, or some other contrary perspective – one of my classmates made the remark that white people shouldn’t be allowed to write literature from a black person’s perspective. The reasons for this assertion ranged from the notion that white people simply cannot understand the black experience to the thought that black literature just shouldn’t be intruded upon by white authors. Internally, I was more than steamed at such an argument – especially in a class dedicated to reading essays for women’s equality. So, calmly but assertively, I raised the question of The Confessions of Nat Turner. A few students and the professor were at least familiar with the work; all seemingly held this novel in great esteem. It won the Pulitzer Prize, after all, and is wholly worthy of such high esteem. Their jaws sort of went slack, though, when I ever so casually added that the author, William Styron, was a white man.
Sure, this was one of my few victories in that particular class but the argument continued throughout the semester and these same “feminists” also felt that men should not write from a women’s perspective and that led to their collective assertion that men likewise cannot be feminists. I’m assuming that they are willing to except Obama from their hard and fast rule.
Okay, then. Maybe these student-feminists can’t really afford to make the trip to Mecca and set up a picket line. What about thirty miles down the road to Stone Mountain, Georgia where a Muslim man cut off his wife’s head for the sake of honor? Who on the left, including feminists, raised any kind of stink about that poor American woman’s brutal murder . . . besides men and women in the sundry media sources who cannot belong to the feminist Movement because they hold politically conservative opinions?
To be fair, I’ve found a few websites that have reported on some of the stonings and beheadings and honor killings from around the world. But, has the feminist movement been reduced to a few websites? In those Fem Lit courses, I learned about and read the writings of many of the Second Wave’s biggest names. Where are these heroes? What are they doing to keep nine-year-old girls from being dragged into marriage in sandier parts of the world? What’s their answer against Sharia law usurping English constitutional law? Where were the feminists when the girls from D.C., who were scraping their way out of the violence and poverty of the slums by succeeding in private schools, and had their vouchers taken away by the U.S. Congress? What are they doing to stop the mass-murder of Chinese baby girls? What in the hell are they doing about the mass-murder of black American baby girls and black teenage pregnancy? Where are they to speak out against honor killings?
There are two possible answers to any and all of these questions and neither is very becoming:
1. Modern American Feminists have gotten to the summit and now have the world on a half-shell. It won’t be long until women make up the large majority of white collar workers, doctors, business owners, et cetera . . . they’ve made it and everyone else be damned. Why should they give up all they’ve fought so hard to gain by going to some cess-pool and arguing to no end with a dirty man with a greasy beard? Besides, if Muslim women didn’t like Islam, they’d just leave . . . right?
2. Because feminists linked themselves hip-to-hip with the far left wing, they have painted themselves into an ideological corner. Go back two paragraphs and reread the questions asking where the feminists are regarding certain issues. Try to find one of those issues feminists, as a movement, can engage without arguing contrary to the Democrat Party’s position. Feminists have to praise the mass-murder of Chinese girls as mother’s exercising their reproductive rights. Congress is run by Pelosi and Reid – feminists can’t very well run counter to two of the Party’s biggest names by crying out regarding the school vouchers that were not only saving money but possible saving the lives of many young women. Feminists can’t fight against the tenets and incorporation of Sharia in England because feminists and liberals have decided that Muslims are a minority group worthy of their protection and understanding.
I go back again to my time spent in the feminist indoctrination classes. One of the arguments I had against the rest of the class was about division among Americans. Each student and the professor was in love with the practice of dividing and partitioning literature by the various groups of people. By groups, I mean, segregation: Black-American, African-American, White American, Native American, European American, Feminist, Gay and Homosexual, Transsexual, et cetera. There is almost no limit to the amount of times these people are willing to find such divisions. My contention for them was that I saw no reason to have any of these special distinctions; that literature should just be literature. Well, of course, African-American literature can’t be special if it’s included under the large umbrella of just plain, old literature. Same goes for Feminist literature and the rest. Again, as part of my argument, I maintained that the aims of the Civil Rights Movement and the Feminist Movement weren’t about creating a separate society from that of white males, but that they wanted inclusion into the same, solitary society. The professor and other students really didn’t know what to say except that the writings of African-Americans and Feminists get lost and swallowed up by white men when categorized as literature-at-large. When I mentioned Dr. King’s desire to see his children judged, not by the color of their skin, but by their merits, they started throwing the sharp objects at me. I don’t know how I got a B in that class.
The point is that because liberals and, subsequently, feminists choose to find, create, and grow divisions between these special groups of people and the rest of America, the feminists can’t fight the feminist fight without going cross-grain to liberal politics and they cut themselves off from people like me, who wholly believe in the feminist movement of Susan B. Anthony and her mission for equal rights and liberties. After all, anyone who’s listened to talk radio in the last years has heard the report the conservative people are far more charitable with their money than are liberals. Movements require funding and, right now, Feminism is barking up the wrong tree. Besides, since when have Democrats been for an increase in individual liberties? Democrat’s are, as we speak or read or what-have-you, increasing the size of the federal government by leaps and bounds. By rule, more government precisely means more laws and fewer freedoms. Granted, Republicans haven’t been much better in recent years.
While I may not agree with the standard feminist on who ought to be our next president or similar such topics, I wholly agree with the notion that women naturally and intrinsically have the same liberties and rights as do men. It’s really a simple thing and any fair-minded person can only agree. I and people like me (a.k.a. conservatives) are all for carrying the Feminist Movement overseas. Hell, listen to or read the articles of right-minded commentators when they discuss the headlines and you’ll hear genuine outrage when women are sentenced to death by stoning for having an unfaithful husband or gang raped for a crime supposedly committed by a sibling (not kidding). Let us in and in one very loud voice we can make a big difference for women around the planet!
So, in answer to my own question, Where are Today’s Feminists, I have to conclude that they are certainly suffering from self-imposed exile in the loony and hypocritical land of liberals. Sure, there are likely a very large number of leftist nut jobs who call themselves feminists; the true feminists, though, the ones who remember the original mission statement, are just guilty by association. But, good news: it’s okay, you can detach from the left anytime and welcome with open arms and an open mind, just like you tell everyone else to do, people from all walks of life and political ideologies. Besides, I doubt that anyone in China, Saudi Arabia, or Africa is ever going to read your forty-page dissertation explaining how Native American women are negatively affected by the portrayal of the female spider in Charlotte’s Web.
Either way, Feminism is about liberty and freedom . . . women around the world a dying because they have neither.
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