Lawrence KilliumThird-wave feminism has hijacked what started out as a legitimate movement, an appeal for equality before the law, and changed it by fighting social battles (rather, bitching about problems that are typically of their own creation.)
One of those self-fulfilling prophesies we talked about a few weeks ago is the “gender wage gap.” We broke down what the “77 cents on the dollar” number actually entailed, a straight averaging of wages. We showed you that if you look at the same job, with the same amount of experience, and similar educational background, that the “pay gap” essentially disappears.
Feminists don’t tend to like reality, because it often conflicts with their agenda of knee jerk reactions and flying off the handle at something they find outrageous because they couldn’t bother looking a little deeper at whatever it is their losing their minds over at that exact moment *cough cough* Baby It’s Cold Outside *cough*
Luckily, there are rational women around who are willing to call them out, like the fantastic “Factual Feminist”, Christina Hoff Sommers. She wrote an excellent piece in The Washington Post about this very topic, so I’ll let her take it from here:
Hillary Clinton’s defeat is wreaking havoc in the sisterhood. Celebrity feminists are especially distraught. “Girls” star Lena Dunham developed hives and fled to Sedona for spiritual renewal. Katy Perry took to Twitter to declare “THE REVOLUTION IS COMING.” For feminist icon Robin Morgan, the election is proof that “a diseased patriarchy is in a battle to the death with women.”
But less-excitable analysts are drawing more sober conclusions: Perhaps the women’s movement is too elitist and out of touch with ordinary citizens, especially working-class women. That seems right, but I would go one step further. Today’s feminism is not merely out of touch with everyday Americans; it’s out of touch with reality. To survive, it’s going to have to come back to planet Earth.
First of all, it’s time to stop calling the United States a patriarchy. A patriarchy is a system where men hold the power and women do not. Women do hold power in the United States — they lead major universities and giant corporations, write influential books, serve as state and federal judges and even manage winning presidential campaigns. American women, especially college-educated women, are the freest and most self-determining in human history. Why pretend otherwise?
Feminism is drowning in myth-information. Advocates never tire of telling us that women are cheated out of nearly a quarter of their salary; that one in four college women is sexually assaulted, or that women are facing an epidemic of online abuse and violence. Such claims are hugely distorted, but they have been repeated so often that they have taken on the aura of truth. Workplace discrimination, sexual assault and online threats are genuine problems, but to solve them women need sober analysis, not hype and spin. Exaggerated claims and crying wolf discredit good causes and send scarce resources in the wrong direction.
Today’s women’s movement also needs to reckon with the fact that men struggle just as much as women. Modern life is a complicated mix of burdens and advantages for each sex. Too often, feminism focuses on gender inequities among elites: CEOs, MIT astrophysicists, U.S. senators. It is true that there are too few women in those positions, but we need to consider the entire workforce for context. Most backbreaking, lethally dangerous jobs — roofer, logger, roustabout and coal miner, to name a few — are done by men. It is men — especially working-class men — who are disproportionately crushed, mutilated, electrocuted or mangled at work. Activists lament the dearth of women in the Fortune 500, but they fail to mention the Unfortunate 4,500 — the approximate number of men killed on the job every year.
H/T: The Washington Post
