backlash.com - April 2001

Feminism Unclothed

Perhaps it's time to remind ourselves where
so much of the hate speech comes from.

 

Recycling the "men fear strong women" myth

The patriarchy firmly believes that it's much easier to convince women we are weak than it would be to convince men that they are. We must not let them. Women are strong, vital, vibrant and complex, and our bodies are made to withstand tremendous changes. The fact of our strength is a huge threat to men: beware their attempts to undermine it.

- Sue Scharff, The Defective and Doomed Female Body, Jan/Feb 2001, Said It

First they tell us the "patriarchy" ignores women's health, and women, being different than men, weaker, require more medical attention: Feminist.com complains that women "who have heart attacks are twice as likely as men to die ." The pop feminist influenced U.N. asserts "women's diseases are viewed as less important." An August, 2000, article in the Seattle Times says "women are more vulnerable" to hypothyroidism. The pop feminist dominated social sciences teach that "women are more likely than men to experience chronic and acute illnesses." Bernadine Healy, who headed the NIH from 1991 to 1993 asserts a "pervasive bias against women in medical research." In a 1997 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Barbara Zelek; Susan P. Phillips, MD; Yvonne Lefebvre, PhD wrote that "women generally outlive men but appear to suffer more ill health and chronic illness than men."

Now they tell us women are stronger than men, and the hoopla over women's health issues is perpetrated by a patriarchy that fears women's strength.

Ladies, please, make up your minds!

Liberated sexism?

The only people who studied computers (and therefore would work with computers) were geeky guys who couldn't talk to girls.

- Jennifer Evans, The Democratization of the Web: Not Just Rich Young Guys Anymore, It's a Woman's Web, August 24, 2000

Why do so many "liberated" women feel free to express sexist sentiments?

Pop feminist contradictions

We forbid any course that says we restrict free speech!

- Dr. Kathleen Dixon, the Director of Women's Studies, TownHall.Com September 28, 2000

Maybe as a condition of receiving a Ph.D., candidates should be required to prove they can recognize a contradiction in terms.

Women never oppress?

The reality is that men in this culture, by virtue of what we teach them, use controlling strategies and tactics with their partners as part of normal life.

- Phyllis Frank, executive director of VCS, "Rehab Madness," Village Voice, February 14 - 20, 2001

Like women don't? Fact is, some men do, some don't, just as some women do and some women don't. To suggest otherwise is no less bigoted than to make the same generalization based on race.

Not demeaning sexual objectification?

(A)ll the women past a certain age (that age being 30) who find themselves suddenly and mysteriously treated as invisible when they walk into a room; all the women who tiptoe along the dieting tightrope, gaining weight and losing it and trying desperately not to gain it again; all the women who knock themselves out to age gracefully in a society that seems to value only the young, the wrinkle-free, the ultra-thin and the utterly hipless.

- Anita Creamer, "Underwear shift wearies wearer," Sacramento Bee, February 5, 2001

But wait, isn't ogling demeaning to women? Don't' they want to be treated like persons instead of females? Aren't we men supposed to stop looking and start ... something else? So why should women fret when, at that "certain age," men actually do stop treating them like sex objects?

Only women's wails

When you are raped, it is as a woman - this is not a redundant argument.

- Catharine MacKinnon, Rape of a Nation, The Scottsman, February 27, 2001

In MacKinnon's victim ideology, only women can be raped; a woman who, like Lorena Bobbitt, assaults a man's sex is committing, not an act of rape, but an act of liberation.

Making big bucks off the "men only want one thing" myth

I am not against sex. I am against male attitudes to sex. The trouble with men is that they cannot take no for an answer. If you are feeling tired and just want a cuddle, they get angry and indignant. They tell you that you are frigid or that you are having an affair with another man. They blame you for their failings. They don't understand that women are different from men.

- Gaby Hauptmann, author of the best-selling novel, In Search of an Impotent Man, Daily Telegraph, October 17, 1998

Uh-huh. And what do you call a man who takes "no" for an answer? "Celibate." As we have said before, men will be nice when nice guys get laid. All Hauptmann has done is prove there's a lot of money to be made from blaming men for women's sexual choices.

What do you think? Talk about it on the Equalitarian Discussion Forums or join The Backlash! discussion list.

 

Home Directory Links Backlash Books

Copyright © 2001 by backlash.com all rights reserved.

Join The Backlash! discussion list Email to the Editor
Notice: All email to the editor may be edited for publication and become the property of The Backlash!