Nov 25 2008
Feminism: The Harm
Everything I write will be highly controversial. If you are at all feministic you will most likely find this very offensive. But bear with me, give me some of your time and let’s walk through this together. I do not stand alone as I write. In fact, none of this is original. I just gleaned from many older, wiser women and I share their insights here.
She finds things strangely silent—no happy noises of teenagers and their friends, no footfall of a faithful husband in the kitchen, no gurgling of grandchildren eager to be cuddled. She will come “home” to a cold, lonely apartment whose silence is broken only by the occasional visits of men who size her up as one with a liberated view of sex, societal restraints, and the institution of marriage, and therefore an easy mark for sexual favors for which they neither have to pay nor assume responsibility…it is unlikely that so many ever gave up so much for so little. –Phyllis Schafly
This doesn’t sound very empowering to me.
We have the Pill; we can go experiment and be as wild as the men are, and that’s our right…you try that and it doesn’t take very long before you feel very empty. You start thinking, ‘They’re telling me I should have a great time but I feel hollow’ You feel like you’ve been invaded.”-Isabel, graduated from high-school in the 70s
This doesn’t sound very liberating to me.
For most young women, the greatest—and most subtle—impact of feminist ideology shows up in postponed fertility. Some have chosen childlessness…but many more women have inadvertently missed the opportunity to bear children by trying to imitate the life cycles of men.” –Carolyn McCulley
This doesn’t sound very fulfilling to me.
As I research, study and analyze society today I am disturbed by the multiple and nefarious results of radical Feminism. Every woman alive today has been profoundly affected by Feminism. All of us to some extent have become Feminists. It’s pervasive doctrines have thoroughly entrenched themselves into our psyche.
We’ve been hit by a Tsunami and like survivors among the flotsam we cling to the remnants of Biblical Womanhood. A lot of women today do not even realize they are believing things that aren’t true and are not in their Bible.
Our society says:
-Men and Women must be exactly alike to be equal
What that means is, the men are not trying to be women- the women are trying to be men! Ladies we have nothing to prove. The Bible says that Men and Women reflect the Trinity and different aspects of God’s Character. We are created equal, but different. Eve was created from Adam’s side- not front or behind, but his side- his equal. Our culture just can’t understand this. Women do not need to be as skilled in hand-to-hand combat as a man to be equal to him. Neither does a Man have to bear children to be equal to a woman. Equal but different.
-There is no gender differences, it’s only cultural conditioning
Who made the culture? Men and women. Then don’t blame the culture- blame creation! If there is no gender differences there is normative sexuality. This soon leads to homosexuality (if there is no gender-why can’t a Man love a man or a woman a woman?) Polygamy is the next step.
Men and women are different, hormonally, biologically, spiritually, mentally (even our brains operate differently). Not good and bad- different.
-Women should be tougher, men softer
“Men should get in touch with their feminine side” Men don’t have a feminine side! They’re men! Dogs don’t have a cat side!
-Women are an oppressed minority group-
There are more women than men in America. More women are registered to vote than men. According to statistics, women live longer than men. So there’s more of us, we decide more of the laws and we have a better quality of life. Yep, we’re oppressed.
Part 2 coming Thursday-
______________________________________
Sources: The Power of the Christian Woman, Phyllis Schlafly Radical Womanhood, Caryolyn McCulley, Girls Gone Mild, Wendy Shalit
No related posts.
Thankyou for pointing this out about Radical Feminism. Thankyou thankyou thankyou.
One of my main problem with Radical feminists is their two-facedness: yes! women must have the right to choose to have a job or to stay at home! And yet when a woman does choose to stay at home, raise her kids, nurture her family, she is Everything That Is Wrong. How dare she choose? How dare she have exercised her right to choose?
In all my reading on feminism, I’ve never had any problems with First Wave Feminism – the right to vote, the right to have a job, the right own property and to do with your property as you will. These laws were quite right in protecting vulnerable women and families who might have otherwise been exploited and abused. (I studied Victorian Social History a great deal in school.) Second Wave Feminism on the other hand…
One of the other things I really dislike about it is that it argues that men should be ashamed of being born men, as all men are inherently awful compared to women.
Such a ridiculous argument. Of course, I should be ashamed to be born British because of an Empire that started 300 years or so before my birth. German children should be ashamed because of wars fought 60 and 90 years ago. Italians should be ashamed because of course it’s their fault that the Roman Emperors dealt so cruelly with people…
Thankyou also for pointing out that men and women were created differently but equal in God’s sight. My boyfriend told me of a wonderful saying in his church on this subject when we first talked about this issue:-
“Woman was not created from man’s head to rule over him, nor from his foot to be trod upon. She was not created from his chin to lead him, nor from his spine to follow after him. She was created from his rib to walk beside him, to be sheltered by his arm and to be close to his heart.”
(Well naturally I melted into a little puddle. So romantic!)
Anyhow, I’m really enjoying this and looking forward to tomorrow’s entry.
I loved you paragraph on oppression…so totally true!
There’s a lot of truth in what you say. Men and women are different– they were made to compliment and complete each other.
Feminism seems an awful lot like it came from a group of people that never grew up. When I was a counselor at summer camp, it seemed like the kids at the junior high age were all lined up according to sex, teasing the other sex. It hard not to get sucked into to the teasing and the “fun” that was there, but eventually everyone started to grow out of it.
Those that imply that there should be shame attached to being born a certain sex sound exactly like the taunts from camp– or from someone who actually took that teasing to heart. They didn’t grow up, they’re saying the same lines, and it’s resonating to the point that it needs to be put into law.
We all need to get over ourselves and start acting like grown ups that understand reality.
I never considered myself a feminist, and only recently realized how much I was affected by it. You are right. Every woman alive today has been affected by feminism. Sadly, I learned much of it at church!
Hmm interesting thoughts. Nothing is wrong wiht generalised androgeny though. It makes life more convenient by making most member’s of societies needs the same. Also helps people to relate to eachother as PEOPLE and not as a man or a woman. It is NOT about being a man or a woman, it’s about being a human being with your own inherent rights. To the empowered woman men are not the enemy, discrimination is. Our society is very man-centered. Women have become more competent due to the pressure and are now “doing it all”, men however have caved under the pressure and are pulling back into effemininity or are becoming blatantly chauvanistic. Nothing is wrong with delayed fertility, it is a right and some women really should delay, due to health, finances etc. It depends on your goal, putting down men is not the goal, but asserting yourself as a human and a woman is, if you don’t look out for your interests who will?
I am going to enjoy this reading so much, Christa! Thank you for taking the time to do it.
Happy Thanksgiving!
[...] at Empowered Traditionalist has written a really good introductory response to feminist thinking that results in lives like the one described above, lived by a woman who gives up marriage and [...]
This is a great post. I loved your statement, “Dogs don’t have a cat side!”
I recently opened a fortune cookie (I always open them out of fun, to get a laugh) and was surprised by it’s very unique proverb: “A woman who seeks to be equal with men lacks ambition. Ouch!”
I found the following blog post to be very interesting on this topic: http://generationcedar.blogspot.com/2008/11/superiority-of-their-women.html
All you need to do is hire a bunch of women (merely because they’re women) to top CEO positions, regardless of qualifications, to make sure that no one is discriminating on the basis of gender. It’s really quite simple, because heaven forbid, that gender be the basis for any decision.
(Feminist/gender logic never ceases to baffle me.)
Thanks for this post, Christa! It was well-written, insightful, and very thought provoking. I loved the quotes you incorporated, how women have won for themselves a “cold, lonely apartment” in their quest to become ‘equal’ as men.
Christa, thank you for such an enlightening post. I have been thinking so much about this subject lately, and these thoughts confirm and explain beautifully what I have concluded. Thank you for writing, even when it is controversial.
God bless, and Happy Thanksgiving.
Jane Galvin Lewis
“You are a human being. You have rights inherent in that reality. You have dignity and worth that exist prior to you. You don’t have to be anti-man to be pro-woman.”
So, what do you think about a mother of an infant governing a state then accepting the position of running mate in a presidential election (a.k.a. Sarah Palin)?
I say good for Ms. Palin, she is doing what she was called to do. She reminds me somewhat of the Biblical figure of Deborah.
I loved this Christa!!! You are absolutely right. If more women could see this….we would be living in a more God fearing society!!!!
“-Men and Women must be exactly alike to be equal
What that means is, the men are not trying to be women- the women are trying to be men! Ladies, we have nothing to prove.”
Amen!
But as part of an (hofcc/vision forum/love and respect) society where our “differences” are so rejoiced in, I think some of my friends ARE forgetting that we are all people. Hearing so many messages exlaining the enormous gap in men and women’s thought/emotional proccesses really frusterates me. Spending a lot of time with my father and brother has shown me that they think and feel about things very similiar to how I do. So either there isn’t as much of a gap (spec. between thought and emotions), or my men have minds like women! I can tell when one of my cousins or friends gets his feelings hurt, and sense that he feels things as accutely as I would!
As to the “men should be softer, women should be tougher” I disagree. But I see from personal experiance that men typically (not always!) have more problems (because I think they are problems) with physical cruelty. I mean like torturing animals and such. I see that this “heartlessness” has a purpose, because men are supposed to be the protectors of their families. And yet, I admire someone all the more for standing up against cruelty (protecting!) and not finding pain or suffering enjoyable to watch. Destructiveness is not good or manly. I oppose today’s ideal effeminate man, and yet look for something more than the destructive boy.
I suppose I’m a bit too much of a “free thinker” and as I said, in my circle, my views are unusual.
I heartily agree with almost every thing you have said. As you can tell, I have heard it before, analysed my differances, and am just bursting to find someone who stands the same way that I do!
Good post!
But please, PLEASE! Don’t tell me I’m a cat. I really don’t think that is a fitting analogy.
I agree with everything else you had to say. =D
Ophelia- you don’t like cats? ::chuckle:: (just between you and me, neither do I)
Very good Christa! It’s always nice to hear others that will stand firm in the belief of biblical manhood and womanhood. We have such a lack of it in our corrupt culture. God has given us different roles and the church often wont even acknowledge that. So thanks for this really nice post. God bless.
I honestly have nothing against cats, but I cannot see a similarity between them as a species of animal and myself. Maybe that just shows how similar we are…
Not.
Really, I just get tired with the “cats are women, dogs are men” analogy. I can’t think of a single person who would rather be a cat than a dog.
Neither can I.
But either way, the “dogs don’t have a cat side” is not referring to women as cats, men are dogs- it’s just a joke. It’s just making fun of the fact that animals don’t have to get in touch with their “other” side, they are what they are; and were created that way.
Women actually do not determine more laws than men because more men are elected to roles of leadership that actually have the power to pass laws. More women simply vote for the men who they hope will vote the way they want.
But don’t we “control” the laws that are to be passed? Hypothetically speaking, if 80% of the voting population was women, and that 80% disagreed with the laws on ballot, then no law would ever be passed that women disliked.
Majority rules regardless of who’s initiating the laws.
Yet, I think the point is not the technicalities of the issue, but the fact that women DO in fact have influence, they do have their say, and it’s time for women to stop complaining about their supposed “discrimination”.
Am I being too harsh?
It doesn’t really appear that you know what feminism is. You’re using a lot of stereotypes associated with feminism to criticise it, which doesn’t give your viewpoint much weight. A very small number of people who idenify as feminists are radicals. There are many negative stereotypes associated with Christianity (closed-minded, crazy, Bible thumpers), as well, but that doesn’t mean that every Christian actually is that way, does it? I’m the senior editor of a feminism magazine at my university campus and I can honestly say that most of us feminists actually aren’t man-hating, God-hating promiscuous , we are just average gals who want nothing more than to be treated like human beings. THE HORROR! Despite what you say, women are oppressed in a lot of ways. We’re told by society (and by the church in many cases as well) how to look, how to dress, how to behave, what we should weight, etc etc etc in a way that men aren’t. There’s a huge double standard that exists between men and women, and I don’t know how anyone could deny that. I don’t expect to be treated like a man, but I also don’t expect to be treated like I’m less than a man. Men are not superior to women. Different, yes. But not superior. And unforunately, many people still think that they are superior. Male priviledge. Look it up.
And fyi, dogs don’t have a cat side because they are not even the same species. Men and women, however, are. Everyone has a feminine side and a masculine side, one is just usually more prominent than the other.
“THE HORROR” lol, love that.
While there are many, more-traditional, women that would call themselves feminists, (like you and I, though I would shy away from the title) it wasn’t the reasonable feminists who drove the movement. And while your stance makes sense to me, you are associating yourselves with the leaders of the movement and their beliefs by bearing the name “Feminist”. Many women are uncomfortable accepting all that the leaders purport, maybe they aren’t ready to swallow everything hook, line and sinker. But frankly, radical or no, feminism did take root in the States, it did bring the ensuing results. And has anyone considered the damage to men through the feminist movement? Just curious.
You’re right, there is a double standard- to some extent- but I don’t believe Feminism is the answer. The key, and you touched on it, is to realize the value and difference of men and women. None of us want to see over-bearing women or feminine, weak-minded men. Nor do we want to see women as door-mats and male chauvinists ruling the roost.
Let me know what you’re thinking, I will continue to think on this.
Well, I don’t think the first feminists should have been “reasonable.” A lot of women were fed up with the way things were and they strived to change it. They were passionate. They were in your face. That’s what all social and political movements involve. You really have to stand up and fight and not back down until you get what you want. It wasn’t what most would probably call “unladylike” but hey, they got their point across. And I applaud them for that. Because I don’t think women should be silent and meek all the time. We can be warriors too.
And let me be clear in saying that I’m not a traditionalist. A lot of people who don’t really know me that well would probably call me a “radical feminist” simply because of the fact that I reject the roles of mother and wife. I have no desire to do either of those things and probably never will. I don’t hate men, though. I can’t stress that enough. I’m in a longterm relationship with a wonderful man right now (who also identifies as a feminist, btw…the movement ain’t huring him!) and I have many guy friends, and a father and a brother who I love dearly. My goal is not to ever trash talk men or try to be better than them or gain more rights and freedoms than them, it’s just simply to be ME. And getting married and having kids and fullfilling all those traditional roles is not me. I admire and respect women who do take on those those roles, though. I think they’re just as important as any job a woman might require in the “real world” so to speak. I just can’t see myself in that role. And I would appreciate it if people would try to understand MY point of view instead of just stereotyping me as a hater of traditions and men and God. That’s so far from the truth, and I think you’ll find many feminists say the same thing.
Also, when you say feminism isn’t the answer, I have to ask, what do you think is the answer? Returning to strict traditional ideas of what it means to be a woman? So all of us who don’t fit that mold can go back to being miserable? That’s not the answer either. Not everyone is going to be happy, because everyone is different. We all have different roles to play in this world and I don’t think there is any one right way to be a woman. Feminism isn’t about being a man hater, or a God hater or wanting men to be “weak.” The movement may have started out with a radical stance, but this is a movement that has gone through many changes over the decades. What it means to be a feminist in 2009 is obviously different than what it meant to be a feminist in the early years. Because the world has changed. To me, personally, being a feminist in the 21st century means standing up for equal rights of all people, not just women. It also means that I’m going to be loud and unashamed about my beliefs and I’m going to stand up for women all over the world, not only in my city or in my country, but in places where oppression is much more harsher and visable than my own experiences.
I should have proofread that better. The word “OR” should come after promiscuous.
Or before it. Whatever.