It turns out that real women don’t need feminism, and that there’s a documentary that “undercuts any strength that might be attributed to the feminist worldview.”
Notable women’s advocate Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum explains it simply.
“The problem with feminism, I think the principal problem, is the cultivation of an attitude of victimization. Feminism tries to make women believe they are victims of an oppressive, male-dominated, patriarchal society. They wake up in the morning with a chip on their shoulder.”
Ah how familiar that sounds. I think I saw versions of it several times on Twitter alone just in the past few hours. It’s “Sisterhood of the Oppressed” and “Professional Victims” all over again – or rather, the other way around, since Schlafly has been at this since the ’70s.
That’s some stupid shit right there. Any movement for social change can be accused of that; so can any movement to resist social change. Movements to organize workers can be accused of that; campaigns to end sex trafficking can be accused of that; anything other than a bovine acceptance of whatever the status quo happens to be can be accused of that. Nevertheless it is permissible to look around you and think things could be better and try to make them better.
Being political isn’t the same thing as cultivating an attitude of victimization. Noticing ways that things could be improved is not the same thing as having a chip on your shoulder.
“The Monstrous Regiment of Women” explains that feminists tell women not to submit to a husband, avoid having children, listen to their “inner voice” and chase a career.
But the DVD’s voices say otherwise. They include Edinburgh University historian Sharon Adams, Jennie Chancey of Ladies Against Feminism, cadet Jane Doe, former abortion provider Carol Everett, homemaker Dana Feliciano, Buried Treasure Books writer Carmon Freidrich, “Domestic Tranquility” author F. Carolyn Graglia, John Knox biographer Rosalind Marshall, “Raising Maidens of Virtue” author Stacey McDonald, Schlafly and homemakers Denise Sproul and Kathleen Smith.
The women show how feminism’s twisted and irrational teaching has led to disaster for American women, pushing many into a frustrating, isolated existence.
They are calling today’s women back to a life filled with joy and beauty that can be found only by following God’s Word.
Notice what a large proportion of the women who “say otherwise” in fact have “chased a career” themselves.
But hey, they’re cultivating an attitude of victimization with all this complaining about the oppressive, female-dominated, matriarchal feminists. They wake up in the morning with a chip on their shoulder.
Sorry, I doubled up with laughter right after my eyes caught “Notable women’s advocate Phyllis Schlafly…” which prevented me from reading any further. She is an advocate all right, just not for anything remotely connected to restoring women’s rightful place in the society as equal human beings.
I know, I laughed at that too. Oh thank you for advocating for me, Phyllis Schlafly! I’m so glad I don’t have equal rights under the Constitution thanks to your tireless advocacy!
Phyllis Schlafly, who has made a career of denying women a right to career, and gays the right to exist.
People still take her seriously?
The idea that feminism leads to an isolated and lonely existence is laughable. I am anything but isolated! I have a (sort of) satisfying career, I interact with lots of interesting people (and lots of uninteresting ones, too!), I have the freedom of choice to move out if my husband should ever decide I resemble a punching bag (hard to imagine, but strange things can happen, I suppose). I do not require Valium (now Prozac) or alcohol to get me through the day with a June Cleaveresque smile on my face. And my husband does all the vacuuming. If these anti-feminist women can’t admit they’d love to have a husband who did all the vacuuming, then nothing they say can possibly be trusted. 😉
My inner voice is telling me that Schlafly and her posse are full of shit.
This is exactly what the authoritarians and other privileged apologists for the status quo think is not permissible. Especially the “thinking” part.
Whuuut? She’s not dead? She’s older than rocks. She has to be dead.
Which raises the uncomfortable possibility that those zombies I’ve been scoffing at in my scientific way must exist. Oh noes.
Schafly has made a career as a writer, radio host and speaker telling women they should stay at home. She doesn’t see this as ironic.
Yes, just like Bev LaHaye used to travel the country tirelessly to tell women that they shouldn’t leave their own premises. After you, ma’am.
I suspect these anti-feminist women all have housekeepers. Women housekeepers, who are allowed to leave their homes in order to clean other people’s for minimum wage, because that doesn’t threaten the status quo, or Jebus, and also because shut up, that’s why.
Ulysses, how cruel of you! It’s not a career; it’s a personal sacrifice (or somesuch blather that was her response to that charge many years ago).
I find it ironicalicious how Phyllis Schlafly’s views are so in line with FtB’s detractors like the slymepit. I wonder if the MRAs ever consider the fact that they share some of the fundies beliefs when they say A+ is dogmatic.
Susan Faludi’s book “Backlash” is full of examples of women who make careers out of telling women they shouldn’t have careers.
I’m with Kausik (#1). I just couldn’t past that opening sentence. Schafly, like corduroy trousers with one color for the pockets and another for the rest, is a part of the 70s those of us who were around the first time just shouldn’t have to re-live.