Finishing Feminism: Students are what they thought they were not

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 6/23/02 | Charles Gallagher

[madprof98]

With some of its most important objectives yet unrealized, is feminism over? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked people from across the political spectrum to discuss the state of feminism.

Charles Gallagher is an assistant sociology professor at Georgia State University.

Students are what they thought they were not In my Intro to Sociology class, which is a large class filled with traditional college-aged students, I ask them a simple question. I say "Raise your hand in the air if you would define yourself as a feminist." And in a class of 100 almost no one does. Only three or four people. And then I say to them, "OK, well, let me just ask you four simple questions. I want to see how many of you still have your hand raised in the end."

"Do you feel it is important that violence toward women is eradicated -- that sexual violence toward women is addressed in society?" Almost everyone raises their hand.

"Do you believe that women should be paid the same salary as men for the same work -- that is, equal pay for equal work?" And everyone says, "Absolutely, of course."

"How do you feel about equal opportunity? . . . Do you believe that being a CEO or being a president, that these jobs should be made available to women and that we should have efforts and make sure it happens?" People put their hands up, "Absolutely, equal opportunity is the bedrock of American society."

So of these three questions everyone raises their hand. Then I ask:

"Do you believe women should have the right to make their own reproductive choices? That is, to have a baby or not have a baby, and that it should be up to them and the state shouldn't dictate that?"

Almost everyone in that class of 100 raises their hand.

Then I say, "Well, if you raised your hand for all four of these, or three of these, then you are a feminist."

. . . I have two daughters, Sophia (3 1/2 years old) and Talia (9 months old). It's important that they know that patriarchy is still the norm in the United States. Women have to be smarter. They need to be faster. Women need to have greater skills to navigate the world.

[madprof98]

There were many more pieces like this in the series that ran in the AJC today, but I posted this one because I thought it was a great example of how leftish teachers indoctrinate their students. It's particularly interesting to me because Georgia State is generally considered a "working class" university, serving mostly commuter students who are less likely to buy into the PC garbage that infests more selective schools.

[cascademountaineer]

Most of the actual work of feminism was done by people during the suffragette years, right to vote, etc... The feminists of the 1970's just took credit for it and took it to a nihilistic end. People like Andrea Dworkin are antithetical to human society and human rights and should be called for what they are.

[jimtorr]

The good prof has described classical "roping in" and indoctrination. That is, ask a series of questions that are so general that nodody could possibly be against them, and use the agreeable state of mind thus created to convince people of whatever you want that is somehow related to the original questions. A very effective technique.

[Lorianne]

One does not have to be agreeable to abortion to be a feminist.

Furthermore, to be a feminists is first and foremost to claim the right to think for oneself outside of ideology and independently from issue to issue. The fact that SOME self-labled "feminists" choose to be blind ideologues doesn't mean that everyone is.

Labeling is only useful so far. If one is a Democrat or Republican does one believe in every single plank of the Party platform? Does one concure with the strategy of the leadership on every issue?