'Feminists are man-hating and unhygienic': Why people have a bad opinion of activists

mail online ^ | Sadie Whitelocks

[Morgana]

Negative stereotypes about environmentalists and feminists are engrained in society, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Toronto quizzed over 400 Americans about both types of activists and received 'overwhelmingly negative' feedback.

The most common words used to describe 'typical feminists' included 'man-hating' and 'unhygienic' while 'tree-hugger' and 'hippie' were attached to 'typical environmentalists'.

Revealing their findings in the European Journal of Social Psychology, the researchers say these character attacks 'play a key role in creating resistance to social change.'

[Secret Agent Man]

okay???? stats show75% of lesbians are obese. that means 25% are not obese, they are either only overweight or in a healthy weight range.

[Venturer]

My wife was a stay at home mother and it used to really piss me off hos she was treated at PTA meetings by teachers and working mothers, but if one of their kids got sick in school they didn’t hesitate to call.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Yes, Captain Obvious. It was obvious to me in the 1970s!

[MaxMax]

[Artie]

I used to get my mouth washed out with Fels-Naptha as bratty kid.Typically it was Lava. The Fels was reserved for special occaisions. That would quite possible qualify as child abuse today. Aromatic hydrocarbons, what's not to love.

[tbw2]

I’ve heard mothers attribute part of the decline of the Girl Scouts to a push by the group to involve working mothers as leaders, despite the fact that most leaders were stay at home mothers.
Now many of them are in American Heritage Girls.

[Peet]

I got flack for marrying young, having two kids in my 20s. They complained that I didn’t do enough for my career, professional development, etc.

Your post sounds a lot like this John Ross column from 2005:

Feminism's Terrible Blunder, or Want to "Have It All"? Then Don't Do It Backwards

You lived Ross' advice and it worked.

Regards,

[PapaBear3625]

Ross nails it:

The letter-writer's point was that the woman executive in the article was failing to grasp this economic fact. The male executives weren't "afraid of strong women," they weren't interested because this woman didn't offer them anything they didn't already have. They already had lots of money. They already had financial and business success.

For many men, the point of becoming successful is so he can attract and hold onto a good woman. A "good woman" in this context is somebody who is loving, attractive, and a good person, and who can give him children and help raise them well.

[Venturer]

I have never heard that.

My take on the decline of the Girl Scouts is their associations with Planned Parenthood and their accepting Bull Dykes as leaders.