In light of the recent buzz about the women’s march, it seem necessary to address the ideas that Modern Feminism proclaims. Last year’s march expose the negative sentiments and hierarchy of victimhood that are inherent in this philosophy.
You will notice that the phrase used is Modern Feminism, not Feminism, because the early goals of the feminist movement were noble and oriented around the individual. Wherever Feminism argues for individuality, it is noble, but Modern Feminism attempts to collectivize women under one umbrella of Progressive thought. This deviation from the original goals of Feminism is what will be discussed and criticized below.
Women are regularly told about the wage gap, constant sexism and the glass ceiling. But, how true are these ideas? First, the wage gap is nearly nonexistent, not the 78 cents per dollar that is widely propagated. In reality it is a two to three cent difference, which is largely due to career choices, motherhood, experience, seniority and agreeableness and other traits that are more common to women.
These reasons cannot be applied to an individual woman who makes less money than a man at her job; the cause of that particular discrepancy must be investigated. However, at large, these statistical differences between men and women create disparities. These cannot be fixed by regulation, as has been learned by the fact that despite following the Civil Rights Acts, women still make less. The truth is, women often choose more nurturing jobs like teaching, social work or nursing, which do not earn the same as being a brand manager or sales person. That is not to say that women can’t break away from these jobs and succeed in others, but that is where they gravitate because they match the characteristics of femininity that have been ingrained in women to be good nurturers and mothers.
Modern Feminism has moved to shaming women for not entering the workforce. They push for women to rise to powerful positions to pull women up and discriminate against men. This thinking is not only the exact thinking Feminism originally tried to root out, but it seems to doubt women’s ability to rise on their own. It also guilts women out of wanting to be a mother or compromising on a career to build a home -the most noble of endeavors around which every other job is built to support. Study after study shows that women who are raising a family are happier overall, and while this is definitely not true for each individual, it shows that urging women en masse to abandon motherhood for corporate jobs will likely have negative effects on women’s happiness.
This is a loaded topic as well. The idea of “Reproductive Rights” is a broad set of choices that Modern Feminism believes women have the right to make. Do women have the right to use birth control? Yes. If that were all “Reproductive Rights” were about, that would be a valid argument in favor of individuals being able to choose when to have kids carefully and plan their family, or prevent themselves from ever having one if they so choose.
The most pressing problem with “Reproductive Rights,” however, is the demand by Modern Feminists to have it subsidized and provided through tax dollars. There was a sign at the women’s march that said something along the lines of, “If they don’t have to pay for razors, why should I pay for tampons?” (Let’s ignore the fact that men DO have to buy razors and that they are very expensive.) Now, obviously tampons aren’t for birth control, but the same argument is made for the pill and abortions. The defunding of Planned Parenthood is not about attacking “Reproductive Rights,” but saying that the government doesn’t have an obligation to pay for these services. They are currently legal in this system, so a private institution may provide them.
According to Modern Feminist’s logic, the government should be buying guns for any person who wants a gun, and they should be allowed to get them without any background check or issue, because after all, it’s a Right. But everyone realizes that’s a ridiculous idea because a right to a good or service doesn’t exist, but the access to a service or good does. This collectivization of women as an oppressed group that requires government subsidization is not only an attack on individuality, but an insult to women because it asserts that women could not attain these things on their own when there are already no barriers to accessing these services.
Marriage was not designed to oppress women, rather it protected them. Men are naturally pigs, that is true (I am a man, and I can tell you that we are). Society has been refined over millennia to reign in men’s tendencies to be brutes. Marriage was instituted to incentivize men to remain loyal to a woman. It was a contract between them that required the men to provide food, shelter and the necessities of life and the woman to take these things the man provided and turn them into a home and raise children.
Marriage was a guarantee for women. Now, as Modern Feminism attacks the institution of marriage, it exposes women to higher risks of single motherhood. If men sleep around and impregnate a woman, they are not the one who deals with the fallout of that decision. This would seem common sense, but it is a fact that is obviously not accounted for in the attacks on marriage. It may not seem fair that women bear that burden, but its an inescapable fact of life, and running away rather than confronting that truth only hurts the women who fall for the lies against marriage.
Where Feminism attempts to expand Individualism to include women, it is correct and worthwhile. Everyone should be treated with the dignity and respect due to them for simply being a human being and an Individual. However, Modern Feminism offers an ideology that focuses on collectivizing women into an oppressed group in order to rank in the Progressive Left’s Hierarchy of Victims.
Modern Feminism teaches women to act against their nature and to rely on government to take care of them. This new ideology must be confronted fearlessly and be discussed honestly, devoid of euphemisms that disguise the meaning they intend to convey. This is not an attack on women or Feminism as a whole, but a warning against collectivizing women as a group, because the cost of collectivization is liberty.