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THE GREAT FEMINIST LIE
Iconoclast ^ | April 25, 2003 | Wendy McElroy

Posted on 04/26/2003 1:12:51 PM PDT by BurkesLaw

"Woman as victim" is one of the Great Lies of our time. Those who care about women's welfare should correct the damage done by this lie because, today more than ever, women need to acknowledge their power and take control of their lives.

Nothing has felt secure since 9-11.

Global tensions spin out of control, terrorism means that no one is safely a civilian, the news is filled with photos of Iraqi children who break your heart and leave you feeling powerless to affect anything. You can click off the TV for time-out but another uncertainty is more difficult to escape: the economy.

Everyone I know seems to be worried about job security and rising prices. A neighbor has returned to work because her retirement relied on company stock that now sells for less than 5% of its peak. A friend has survived the latest round of employee cuts at a high tech job. An acquaintance who has been laid off for two weeks -- again! -- is grabbing odd shifts as a cook at a local bar and grill.

Women today need to take control of their lives. But believing their own power is made more difficult by the type of feminism that celebrates "the victim" as a symbol of womanhood. Victims of men, of the class structure, technology, government, the free market, the family, the church, Western values...everywhere and always women are painted as victims. This Great Lie stands as a barrier to women realizing their power in at least three ways....

(Excerpt) Read more at iconoclast.ca ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: collectivist; disempowering; feminism
Wise words for proto-feminists.
1 posted on 04/26/2003 1:12:51 PM PDT by BurkesLaw
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To: BurkesLaw
The type of feminism expressed in this article harkens back to the feminism of Susan B. Anthony.
2 posted on 04/26/2003 2:08:41 PM PDT by Search4Truth (When a man lies, he murders part of the world.)
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To: Search4Truth
I'm struck by how much of what she cited could be applied to the Arab streets, not merely applied to women in American society!
3 posted on 04/26/2003 2:32:54 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote Life Support for others.)
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To: Victoria Delsoul
Ping.
4 posted on 04/26/2003 3:07:16 PM PDT by Alberta's Child
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To: Search4Truth
"The type of feminism expressed in this article harkens back to the feminism of Susan B. Anthony."

Which I am sure few conservatives would disagree with. The modern femisist organizations were hijacked much the same way MLK's organization was. NOW and all the rest of them are nothing more than tentacles of the democrap party, and the politics of destruction.

5 posted on 04/26/2003 3:51:45 PM PDT by SSN558 (Be on the lookout for Black/White Supremacists)
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To: BurkesLaw
What is she trying to get Lifetime off the air?
6 posted on 04/26/2003 4:38:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: BurkesLaw
Dramatic title, full of sound and fury, signifying little.

I've had a hard time taking McElroy seriously for the past year or so, since she wrote a column in which she tried to explain the lack of female "fire fighters" by any means except the truth: a womn can't pick up a 200-lb. victim in a smoky, blazing, 140-degree f. living room, sling him over her shoulder, and carry him out a window, onto a ladder, and down to safety.

7 posted on 04/26/2003 6:27:24 PM PDT by mrustow (no tag)
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To: BurkesLaw
"Burke's Law," as in Edmund or "Amos"?
8 posted on 04/26/2003 6:44:21 PM PDT by mrustow (no tag)
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To: BurkesLaw
read later
9 posted on 04/26/2003 7:23:42 PM PDT by LiteKeeper
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To: BurkesLaw
Empty babblery.

Hey Wendy, next time you take a well-deserved crack at the over-victimization mentality, please make it specific, like ridiculous protests against golf clubs or some other bs, instead this tired old vagueness.

Most of the women I know today don't feel "powerless" in the least (thanks in most part to the women's movement of the 60s and 70s), although it can certainly be argued that women have been "victimized" and "powerless" in the past and that inequalities of pay still exist...sorry to rain colors on your black-and-white parade.

10 posted on 04/26/2003 10:29:08 PM PDT by lurky
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