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Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women

Article in Canadian women's studies = Les cahiers de la femme · September 1995

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experiences and systemic inequality. Af3rr: Sex, Fear, and Feminism On contention that academics are so
The book documents the histori- Campw which depicted feminists as credulous of gender feminism be-
cal changes in Canadian families as frigid hysterics who created the date cause it promotes the shedding of
well as the pluralityofand contradic- rape crisis, Sommers' controversial their passive ivory-tower skins. "By
tions in fimily experiences. The col- jAccusr provides an extremely un- supporting and promoting trans-
lection indudes diverse experiences complimentary portrait of feminists formationism, not only do school
such as divorce, same-sex couples, as a group of frenzied "gender warri- administratorsbuild up their r&um&,
minority fimilies, poverty and vio- ors" in quest of recruits, vindication, they get to feel they are participating
lence. It is surprising, however, that and ammunition. Predictably, most in the educational equivalent of the
issues such as age as a source offamily North American feminists have rel- storming of the Bastille." The in-
oppression, intergenerational con- egated this book to their overcrowded triguing issue raised here of the acad-
flicts,children's interpretationo f h - backlash shelf, a justified reaction to emy's concern with social activism
ily experiences and aging in (and Sommers' smug, often shortsighted over the past few decades unfortu-
outside) fimilies were not included. liberal idealism, and occasional nately remains, like Sommers'. few
Despite these omissions, this text- McCarthyite rhetoric. Apart from her speculative ideas, unexplored.
book is both useful and effective in stale critique of the chimera known While the existence of hard-core
challenging students to raise politi- in backlash vocabulary as "victim misandrist feminists in the academy
cally contentious issues about inti- feminism," however, Sommers does is as undeniable as the existence of
mate and personal matters. The ques- advance at least one legitimate criti- their hard-core misogynist counter-
tions at the end of each chapter are cism which the feminist movement, parts, they are by no means in the
helpll in stimulating classroom dis- recently plagued by exceptionallybad feminist majority, nor are they dictat-
cussions, enabling students to iden- press, cannot afford to ignore. ing the academic agenda. Sommers'
tifl personal or biographical experi- An associate professor of philoso- main problem is her simple extremist
ences and to connect these experi- phy at Boston's Clark University, perspective. She denies the existence
ences to social and political realities. Sommers takes her book's title from of abusive men, unfairly implies that
Each chapter provides an extensive her main contention that "gender only the feminist movement has its
bibliography and a list of additional feminists have stolen feminism from extremists, and consistently makes
readings for those wishing to further amainstream that had never acknowl- the exception the rule by tarring every
explore a particular issue. The book edged their leadership." It was the feminist attentive to factors of social
is valuable to those who seek an un- ascendancy of this new feminism, conditioning with the same brush-
derstanding of Canadian families. It characterized by gynocentrism and they are dangerous, man-hating,
can be readily adopted as a main text misandrism, over liberal "equityfemi- Marxist ideologues who threaten lib-
for undergraduate familycoursesand nism," and not a media backlash as eral academic freedoms. In the face of
as a supplementary resource for Susan Faludi has claimed, that led to this treacherous situation, Sommers
courses on women and Canadian women's large-scale defection from effectively yearns for the good old
social policy. the movement. Upholding Naomi days of some twenty years ago before
Wolf s utopian presentation ofwom- the traditional liberal humanist
en's status and opportunities in Fire agenda was subjected to scrutiny. In
With Fire, Sommers maintains that its implications that liberalism is de-
gender feminism (the equivalent of void of an agenda or blindspots, and
Wolfs "victim feminism"), is both that "feminism is fascism," Sommers'
WHO STOLE FEMINISM? reprehensible and superfluousin 1994 unoriginal book joins the ranks of
HOW WOMEN HAVE when, asshe claims, "artistically gifted many recent publications.
BETRAYED WOMEN women do have their level playing Ironically, Sommers' study is often
field," and women make eighty cents guilty of the hysteria which she as-
Christina Hoff Sommers. Simon & to a man's dollar. cribes to gender feminism. Main-
Schuster, 1994. In the light of these generally unac- taining that most American women's
knowledged advancements,Sommers studies programs do nothing but
by Carol Margaret Davison muses over two issues: why "every- brainwash, for example, she suggests
one" is so credulous of gender femi- in true Pat Buchanan-style rhetoric
nism, and why its adherents are so that the following cautionary note
Within the present backlash climate, eager "to put men in a bad light." for parents should preface the cur-
the publication of Christina Hoff Alongside Sommers' failure to clearly riculum bulletins-Your daughter
Sommers' WhoStok Feminism?How define gender and equity feminism, "will very likely reject the religious
Women Have Betrayed Women was her latter observation is nowhere sup- and moral codes you raised her with.
largely foreseeable. Like its 1993sis- ported. She does gesture toward an- She may well distance herself from
ter text, Katie Roiphe's TheMorning swering the former, however, in her family and friends. She may change

VOLUME 15. NUMBER 4

 her appearance, and even her sexual THEORIZING The book is organized into four
orientation. She may end up hating FEMINISM: PARALLEL main sections. Each section is pro-
you (her father) and pitying you (her vided with a concise introduction,
mother). After she has completed her TRENDS IN THE outlining the parallels between the
reeducation with us, you will cer- HUMANITIES AND essays included in the chapter. The
tainly be out tens of thousands of SOCIAL SCIENCES first section, "Inventing- Gender,"
dollars and very possibly be out one supplies an opening to the debates in
daughter as well." Anne C. Herrmann and Abigail J. contemporary feminist theory. Sev-
Despite such alarmism, Sommers Stewart, Eds. Boulder, San Francisco, eral of the essays also play with crea-
does score a few points in her expo- Oxford: Wescview Press, 1994. tive rhetorical devices and autobio-
sure of some flawed feminist scholar- graphical content, dismissingtheUob-
ship. A startling and noteworthy ex- jectivity" of the traditional essay form.
ample includes Gloria Steinem's In her essay, "Fragments of a Fash-
claim, later bandied about by Naomi The contemporary women's move- ionable Discourse," Kaja Silverman
Wolf, that 150,000 women die every ment is best understood by the genre takes the reader into the often hu-
year as a result ofanorexia nervosa. As that it has adopted and perfected: the morous land of gendered fashion
Sommers reveals, the well-docu- anthology. The anthology form is the trends. Here, she unites psychoana-
mented facts show that less than 100 only appropriate response to the pres- lytic issues of subjectivity with the
women actually die annually from sures of a feminism based on a cel- popularity ofparticular fashions. She
this disorder. Similarly, the popular ebration ofplurality, multiplicityand, refers to the post 18th-century male
claims that domestic battery dramati- sometimes even, dissonance; it has a rejection of ornate dress as the "Great
cally increases during pregnancy and structure which demands difference. Masculine Renunciation," suspect-
on the day of the Super Bowl game Together, various women can organ- ing that famous novels like Pamekz,
arc also exposed to have no factual ize their thoughts
- and views without Madame Bovary, Sister C a d , Re-
basis. About such misleading statis- having to preserve a rigid ideology. membrance ofrhings Past, and LoLita,
tics, Sommers astutely asserts that As a form, the anthology offerswomen provide a voyeuristic description of
"Feminism is not well served by bi- the opportunity to create a space the female body as a mere pretence
ased studies or by media that tolerate where all types of women can meet, for lingering over her elaborate silks
and help to promote them." in full voice, and simply listen to one and laces. Silverman's highly theo-
In the final analysis, the terrible another: "Hear each other into retical essay is contrasted by Cherrie
and ironic shame is that Sommers speech" (Nelle Morton). Moraga's essay, "From a Long Line
fiils to bring this statement to bear Theorizing Feminism makes a re- of Vendidas: Chicanas and Femi-
upon her own book While feminism markable contribution to the grow- nism," which is a beautifully written
may still have a long way to go-it ing stock of good feminist antholo- autobiographical-analysis ofgrowing
must, for example, strengthen its gies. Herrmann and Stewart have up Chicana and lesbian.
guard both against misandrists ad- actively aspired to dismantle the bar- The second section, "Gender, Race,
vancing their claims in its name and riers of discipline and specialization, and Class," discusses the male bias in
ardent advocates who sensationalize creating a compilation of easy-to- academia, perpetuated by and
statistics in order to garner crucial read essays from various fields in the through the hierarchy of knowledge
media attention-it is certainly not social sciences and humanities. in the institution, excluding women
well served by aself-righteous, gener- Though the text includes essays from both as subjects and as thinkers.
alizingstudyintent upon laying blame diverse disciplines, ranging from cur- Carolyn Wood Sherif writes about
rather than advancingviable and con- rent feminist debates in psychology "Bias in Psychology," characterizing
structive suggestions for reform. Such and economics to literary criticism the fundamental flaws in the acquisi-
a book plays into anti-feminist hands and the natural sciences, the writing tion of traditional knowledge. Linda
and hels the backlash. Who Stolr remains free of jargon and exclusive Nochlin's essay, "Why Have There
Fminism?may advance the justified rhetoric, composed specifically for Been N o Great Women Artists?" de-
claim that feminists who disseminate women outside of the particular dis- tails the operations of a male bias that
fase statistics give the movement a cipline. All essays included in the effaces women as creators of knowl-
bad name, but it unfortunately ex- text have been previously published, edge and art, working to keep women
emplifies its subtitle-women have chosen not for the fame of their au- from the great canon of producers.
betrayed women. thors or for their original, "ground- The third section, "Sex, Gender,
breaking" material, but for generat- and Sexuality," explores the relation-
ing interdisciplinary discussion and ship between gender as a social con-
demonstrating analogous feminist struct and biology as an objective
concerns and insights from disparate science. Here, Arleen Dallery dis-
fields of research. cusses the much contested "icriture

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESlLES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME

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