Undoing The Ruin Feminism Has Done To Relationships
It's been a mission of mine as of late, with columns like this one I just posted on my site. I've taken to calling myself "an Elizabeth Cady Stanton feminist," meaning, I think women should have the vote and get equal pay for equal work, but I am absolutely clear on the fact that women and men are not the same. No, not due to culture, but due to biology (which is where culture comes from, contrary to popular feminist belief). Men and women had what evolutionary psychologist David Buss refers to as "different adaptative problems over human evolutionary history." Simply put, women get knocked up and have to raise kids, men don't, and men and women evolved to be physically and psychologically different because of that.
Unfortunately, that's not what feminists will tell you -- or even a lot of regular people will tell you -- thanks to an unfortunate trickle-down to the masses of the work of pathetic dementos like Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon. (Clearly, they and their hairy-legged, "patriarchy"-blaming cohorts were too busy looking for bra burnings to make it to biology class.) The way I see it, much of the misery people are going through on the dating scene traces back to their crazy talk -- all the younger women who think they're "empowering" themselves by dressing like they're on their way to repair your septic tank, and all the younger men who act like neutered kittens when they're around women.
pandering to the male gaze
Tell me something: If Andrea Dworkin wasn't so scary looking -- would she still be clinging, like a rat on driftwood, to this scientificially untenable feminist party line? By the way, the link above (on "scary") is Andrea's story of being "raped" in Paris. We'll never know the truth of the story. But, contrary to the (wrong) rape propaganda of Susan Brownmiller, Dworkin, and others, most rapists don't look to just any woman to rape, but to young, fertile ones. It's, again, biology -- as Randy Thornhill and others who write from data, not knee-jerk reaction and professional victimhood, prove again and again. I'm sorry...but does anybody think any man looks at a woman who looks like Andrea Dworkin and think "Rape!" -- or does the word "RUN!" come immediately to mind?
-Dworkin, and others, most rapists don't look to just any woman to rape, but to young, fertile ones.
I am curious where you developed this idea. I am not saying you are wrong, though I suspect you are. Aside from grey area date rapes, I would think rapes are more a product of opportunity and circumstance, and rarely a case of the biologic imperative.
eric at August 11, 2004 12:42 PM
oops- am now reading you link, which didn't show up at first. disregard.
eric at August 11, 2004 12:44 PM
After reading the report of the post-kir royale incident, I am convinced that this is a bonafide case of misguided alien abduction.
Doug at August 11, 2004 6:20 PM
You really think aliens would stoop that low?
Amy Alkon at August 11, 2004 6:35 PM
Even the aliens suffer the inherent need to pioneer the heavens and the dankest regions of hell... their "continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations... to boldy go where no one has gone before."
Doug at August 11, 2004 6:49 PM
Lucy looks terrific in the photo. I guess all that hard discipline is paying off! Beauty has its price, even for the little furry ones.
Lena at August 11, 2004 9:01 PM
You *are* on a kick! And to that I say: so what if some feminists are potatoheads. Feminism has helped women feel empowered, and feeling empowered for women, who through the ages have done a lot of cowering, I think is always a good. And probably not such a bad thing for men to experience not always being in the driver's seat (not a bad thing for the world, if you consider that male biology, as you call it, is responsible for the risinig death toll in Iraq, Sudan, and wherever else violence is ruling on the globe). I want to be seen as beautiful by men so I shave my legs, but being sexually deferential doesn't work for me. Sometimes this makes my marraige rocky (it brings out the kind of insecurities in him and in me you write about). But I'll take rocky times over waiting on someone else to decide my future for me.
E at August 16, 2004 12:01 PM