Posted on 01/19/2006 11:58:37 AM PST by JZelle
Some women protest, "I'm a feminist, just not a radical feminist." Kate O'Beirne is impatient with such qualifications. She is not any kind of feminist, and when you finish her sparkling new book "Women Who Make the World Worse," you won't be one either. Feminism, far from promoting the happiness and well-being of women and society, has instead left great swaths of melancholy in its wake. Mrs. O'Beirne cites "One large study of well-being data on 100,000 Americans and Britons from the early 1970s to the late 1990s found that while American men had grown happier, women's well-being had dramatically fallen during the period ... women were 20 percent less happy." The so-called "women's movement" was and is a misnomer. Most women reject the anti-male, antifamily bias of professional feminists. But a dedicated cohort of humorless, bitter, crusading women -- mostly from miserable families -- was able to dictate policy in some of life's most important realms. Feminists now claim they never opposed marriage and family. But Mrs. O'Beirne has kept the quotes in her files. In 1971, Ms. Magazine founder Robin Morgan called marriage "a slavery-like practice," adding that "We cannot destroy the inequities between men and women until we destroy marriage." Australian feminist guru Germaine Greer recommended all women leave their husbands in search of more satisfying "rambling organic structures" (sounds vaguely unhygienic). And Jessie Bernard, a Pennsylvania State University sociologist, asserted the "destructive nature" of marriage was both figuratively and literally making women sick.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
"The victim" is never a happy one
The feminist obvious backpedaling provides notable laughter.
Of course men got happier, their b!tchy wives finally left them. I think the saying is be careful what you wish for...
"Feminists have peddled more than their share of myths over the last 40 years -- that women earn less than men for the same work..."
In an otherwise thoughtful article, I find this statement disingenuous. I think it is often the case that women earn less than men for the same work. I believe the gap has closed considerably over the last 30 years or so.
Where I do find fault with some of the feminist studies is when they try to complain that a woman with a Master's in Library Science has as much education as a man with a Master's in Electrical Engineering and should therefore earn the same amount. This is patently ridiculous.
I just thank God every day that He blessed me with a woman who revels in being a woman and expects me to be a man.
Wise Buddha-Confucius Type (WBCT) say key to happiness is not thinking of oneself as victim. WBCT see that liberals too dumb to figure this out.
I didn't intend to buy it - I just don't have time to read many of the good books out there - but I had to, once I saw the smear campaign.
Has anyone suggested that Freepers respond?
I wish Amazon had a better rating system . . .
That is truly one of the most disturbing and frightening things I've seen in print in a long time. This woman not only hates our culture, she clearly hates civilization.
"I think it is often the case that women earn less than men for the same work."
Think again...
I wonder how many books we could read if we weren't here? lol! I have 3 going at the same time right now. I don't think anyone here actually started a counter-campaign to support O'Beirne, but someone did post about the smear campaign the other day. That's how I ended up at Amazon reviewing the reviewers. Personally, I don't feel comfortable writing a review until I've read it and I used my entire book budget for the year there at Christmas. I may have to wait until Mother's Day :)
I saw author Kate O'Beirne on FOX News a few weeks ago and based only on what she said in that brief appearance, decided I'd like to read her book (and plan on doing so, soon'as I buy a copy from Amazon).
She mentioned during that appearance as to how many feminists malign other women. It sure peaked my curiosity, in that it's long overdue that women such as this start sharing.
My rule of thumb is that, if it's any book denigrated and loathed by liberals, it's the book for me! Ha.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of emotional and mental turmoil that's been inaccurately mislabelled as "feminism," and it's reduced the very idea of feminism to mush. Which is too bad since it shouldn't be a bad idea, a bad term, and yet it is given that so many creeps (I was going to write, "boobs" and then realized the gaff, ha), anyway, that so many creeps have unfortunately claimed to represent "the feminine" and yet represent complete sickness instead.
I consider the militancy of the genders to be sickness. At least as to what's today referred to as "feminism" among a few other 'isms going.
18 Ways To Be A Good Liberal.......
> 1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.
>
> 2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression, and governments create prosperity.
>
> 3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean communists.
>
> 4. You have to believe that there was no art before federal funding.
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> 5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical changes in the earth's climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.
>
> 6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial, but being homosexual is natural.
>
> 7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus ! is spread by a lack of federal funding.
>
> 8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th-graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.
>
> 9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but PETA activists do.
>
> 10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.
>
> 11. You have to believe that Mel Gibson spent $25 million of his own money to make The Passion Of The Christ for financial gain only.
>
> 12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.
>
> 13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.
> 14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Thomas Edison.
>
> 15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.
>
> 16. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.
>
> 17. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying transvestites in drag should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.
>
> 18. You have to believe that this message is a part of a vast, right wing conspiracy
>
Yes, completely agree with ya'. Maligning marriage is about as low as it gets.
Case in point, one of my daughters is taking a micro economics class. She is doing her paper on "The Economics of Obesity," and told me that the research points to two causes:
1) The change from an agrarian society
2) Mothers entering the workforce.
It wasn't until middle class mothers began to enter the workforce en masse in the mid-eighties that society as a whole began to see an increase in things like school violence.
I certainly can't speak for all disciplines, but as one who managed a department with over 175 Engineers (Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical, and Civil) in a Fortune 500 petrochemical company, I can state categorically there was no disparity in compensation based on gender during my tenure; absolutely none. It would have been ludicrous to even attempt such a ploy in our business.
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