David Mendelsohn, via The Daily Princetonian is here to educate us. He writes about Two kinds of feminism and without even reading further, you know what he means: the “right kind” and the other one. He tells us as he sees it (emphasis, as usual, mine):
There seem to be two major camps of feminists. The members of one group believe in equality and focus on very real modern issues such as disparity in wages between men and women. They serve an essential role in modern society, in which feminism has come under attack because of the irrational and circular arguments made by members of the second group. These individuals, who represent a highly vocal minority of the feminist movement, have learned to extrapolate feminism to every domain of daily life. They are hypersensitive to criticism, actively look for evidence of sexism and find it everywhere.
As one who cares deeply about equality issues, it pains me to see legitimate issues hijacked by those who use the movement as a method of personal vindication[…]
and then in the next paragraph:
Along with giving real feminists a bad name, the pseudo-feminists alienate men as well.[…]
Feminism is not a selling point, nor is it a label that automatically legitimizes what you are saying. Feminism is a school of thought and philosophy that must not be used as a street corner soap box, lest everything it stands for be cheapened or destroyed.
Endearing. A guy feels entitled to setting the correct tone and topics in the feminist argument. Not a word on issues of class, race, trans, LGBTQ, and the long list of inter-sectional et cetera that, by now, have entered the feminist discourse. The only thing the ladies should worry about is wage disparity. And while you are doing so, please keep your voice down, lest the Princeton establishment feels alienated by your tone.
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