Each week, The Pundit skewers something and awards the Wet Teabag for the upcoming week. Past awardees have included "Political Correctness", the (so-called) "Green" Movement, and Uninformed Voters. This week's winner is:
FEMINISM
The Pundit wants to make it clear that she is all for women in the workplace being compensated fairly for what they do, and she always has been. And there are clearly some unfortunate, and in some cases egregious, harassment issues raised by women in the workplace that must be dealt with. But The Pundit really thinks much of the feminist thought that is now, on many levels, seen as "conventional wisdom" should be seriously re-evaluated.
For example - the notion that men and women are so alike as to be interchangeable in various roles in society is simply not true. Like it or not, men and women ARE different - not only physically, but physiologically, biochemically, and emotionally. Poor Yale professor Larry Summers got himself into a heap of trouble when he dared to say that in general, women might not possess the same proclivity toward mathematics and the sciences that men do. Many of us agree with this point of view - and no, we're not some kind of knuckle-dragging troglodytes who want to see women chained to the kitchen sink. We're thoughtful, intelligent people who are willing to acknowledge that some of the "politically correct" notions about women and men are just that - notions, and that they may not stand up to real-world experience OR simple biology.
Then there's the notion that daycare should be considered on an equal plane with the care of a mother. This notion continues to this day, despite many studies that reveal the contrary. Bernard Goldberg, once with CBS News and very much a liberal on many issues, wrote a book called "Bias" back in the late 80's - probably the first major book that called into question the supposed unbiased nature of mainstream journalism at the time. What prompted him to write the book was his uncovering of clear evidence within the medical and psychiatric communities that putting infants as young as 6 weeks old into daycare might actually not be good for them. Mr. Goldberg's investigating revealed that this information had been almost completely suppressed by virtually all of the major news outlets.
Interestingly enough, most of the women from whose supposed "wisdom" these insights sprang in the late 60's and early 70's were NOT mainstream women. Nor did their life experiences particularly qualify them to be taken seriously on the subject of womens' and mens' roles in society. Gloria Steinem, one of the doyennes of the feminist movement, had a horrific childhood - her mother was seriously emotionally disturbed, her father left the family to escape the situation, and poor little Gloria wound up taking on the inappropriate role of mother to her younger siblings. Gloria never married or had children of her own, and no thoughtful person would wonder why. A sad story for sure, but it's clear that a person from this kind of fractured, painful background is hardly well-suited to be making statements, some of which have shaped political and societal policy, on the subjects of marriage and child-rearing. Then there's Germaine Greer, who came from a very troubled home and whose father wanted no physical or emotional contact with her at all, to the point where he would cringe and immediately plop her to the floor should she somehow make her way onto his lap. Again, not the best person to be making pronouncements about the state of male/female or parent/child relationships. And finally, on the more radical end, there's Andrea Dworkin, an unfortunate soul who actually believes that any act of sexual intercourse - consensual or not, loving or not - is an act of rape. One wonders what kind of hideous childhood she must have had.
The Pundit's bottom line - feminism had many good aspects, and brought about many positive changes for women. However, it's pretty clear that many of its tenets should be re-examined by thoughtful people - people without the ax to grind that unfortunate women such as those mentioned above possess.
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