Feminists Who Fake It!

FrontPage Magazine.com ^ | August 15, 2002 | Marni Soupcoff

[Apolitical]

Ever wonder where those college gals milling around the quad with protest signs, petitions, and plenty of piercings get their ideas? When I called Stanford's Taco Bell-chic campus my home, I used to ask myself that question a lot. Where could these megaphone-wielding coeds -- screaming about sex discrimination at the gas pump and freedom from uterine fibroids -- come up with so many non-issues to get peeved about? I figured I had to admire their creativity, if not their logic or fashion sense.

But it turns out, I was wrong. The college feminists at Stanford and elsewhere weren't relying on their own imaginations to come up with far-fetched womyn's issues and illogical excuses to blast conservatives (a.k.a. the man). There is, as I recently discovered, a feminist web site that does all that hard work for them.

The site is called Choices Campus Community (http://www.feministcampus.org/ ). At least, I think that's what it's called. It's tough to tell because the people running it are having an identity crisis. Sometimes they call themselves Choices Campus Community, sometimes Pro Choice Campus Network, and sometimes Feminist Campus Activism Online (though, sadly, never the more accurate Feminists Fabricating Faux Campus Issues). They are run by a group called the Feminist Majority Foundation, which may or may not be the same thing as the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances, which seems sometimes to be called the Feminist Majority for short, but never bothers to answer the obvious question, majority of what? Elitist Smith College graduates?

But I digress. The salient point is that, whatever you call the group (and I will call them Choices for simplicity's sake), their attempts at brainwashing college women into shrill intolerance is a sad sight. Ostensibly Choices is a pro-choice organization, but they seem just as eager to defend racial preferences as access to abortions and morning after pills. According to Choices themselves, they were organized to "inform young women of the very real threats to abortion access, women's rights, affirmative action, and gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered rights posed by right wing extremists." Hey, what about the Two-Spirited (a historical Native American male-female gender)? Aren't right wing extremists threatening them too? Likely just an oversight. But it doesn't make much of a difference since the Choices site gives barely any concrete evidence of these imagined threats, let alone of the real perils and troubles some women encounter.

Instead, Choices' main purpose seems to be to invent trendy but fluffy problems and issues for their female college student members to become morally outraged and exercised about. For example, one of Choices' greatest complaints is that "[t]oo often, the connection between environmental justice and women's rights is overlooked." Hmmm, can't imagine how that might happen. Other serious crises Choices addresses are: the epidemic of women forgoing careers as sports coaches because they fear people will think they are lesbians; the importance of a confidential feminist census to counter the threat of the "right-wing, anti-women minority;" and the tragedy of America's lagging behind Europe in the provision of free contraceptives. Thank goodness these people are here.

If you yourself happen to be a college woman and would like to join the Choices crusade, but are a little lazy or fretting about the time commitment, don't worry. According to Choices, their study and action manual (SAM) is "so comprehensive that many of our students are receiving course credit for participation in the program." Now, there's a thought to send chills down your spine, especially if you peek inside the SAM. One section entitled "Know the Opposition" urges students to "take a look at the much larger picture of right-wing interconnections, the national and international scope of opposition to women's rights, and the shared multi-issue agenda and anti-feminist ideology." What the hell does this mean? I'm not sure exactly, but apparently it has something to do with exposing right wing think tanks and public education organizations such as "The Heritage Foundation" and "The American Enterprize" (sic). (Apparently knowing the opposition doesn't include knowing how to spell their name.)

The SAM also goes on to list a number of conservative funding sources to watch out for, including the "Scaife Foundation," the "Bradley Foundation," the "Olin Foundation," and, most notoriously evil of all, "Individual Donors." According to Choices, "[w]hile upon initial examination, these groups appear to operate completely independently without a common agenda, upon closer inspection, the groups can be seen as different pieces of the same conservative pie." Kind of makes McCarthy look naively trusting.

But I don't mean to make the Choices people sound exclusionary. After all, they may not tolerate anyone with views to the right of Susan Sontag, but they do sponsor an annual retreat for Christian lesbians. "If you have been searching for a place to connect with sisters who proudly claim both their lesbian and Christian identities," the choices people begin. And I mean, really, who hasn't? Unfortunately you've missed the "Sisters in a Strange Land" retreat for this year, but don't despair. Presumably you will be able to join the sisters as they "name the pain we have felt at the hands of the Christian tradition" next year.

In the meanwhile, the next time you are wondering where the political and ideological intolerance that suffuses the nation's campuses comes from, think of Choices. And be reminded that the feminists of the academy don't need to use their own minds to discover actual injustices or violations of rights. They can sit back, relax, and rely on organizations like Choices to fake the issues and fabricate enemies for them.

Marni Soupcoff is an attorney and Toronto-based writer. She is a frequent contributor to www.iconoclast.ca

[ArGee]

1. Clinton's rape charge.

Don't forget:

1a. Gore's claim that even if Clinton did rape her, he's done so much good since then that it cancels out the rape.

Shalom.

[BlueDragon]

Gore's claim that even if Clinton did rape her, he's done so much good since then that it cancels out the rape. Let's see... Isn't that sort-of a Muslim type viewpoint? If the "good" outweighs the "bad" upon the scales, one is allowed entry into paradise? And the "good", of course, is whatever the Imans claim Muhammed said Allah said. Is Al Gore an Allah-fearing Islamic? Can you here 'ol Gomer Pyle saying, "su-prise, su-prise, suprise!(???)

[pray4liberty]

I had two esteemed young misses say that because I held a door open for them that I was sexually harassing them.

Hope you slammed the door right in their faces then.

Guess it's not politically-correct for a man to be polite and respectful these days. Come to think of it, it's not politically-correct to be a man, period.

Don't worry though, for every one of these basket cases that pass for women, there are four that would appreciate a door being held open for them, and one of them will be a mother with a stroller. You will earn her eternal gratitude.

I'm through with telling them to shut up. They won't, so I just ignore them. They are past the point of no return and make all women look like a bunch of hysterical chits. They have become what they deserve: a laughingstock. Believe me, there are women that can think logically, and most of us are conservatives. These girls have their brain between their legs...they can think of nothing else as to how everything relates to sex.

In a word, they are nuts. God bless you. ~Pray

[SkyPilot]

"You anti-choice Right Wing nuts just don't "get it"--do you! The oppressed Womyn of this nation will fight for economic and post-menstrual justices against the hegemony of social-fascists who mean to deprive us of our reproductive and economic freedom of pagan worship of the goddess Cunnilgar of Lesbos! You Christian hate filled _men will be humiliated under the jack-boot of Smith grads who will fight for our rights of self-determination and.......

"Saaay darlin! Are you going out for the Womyn's Field Hockey Team this year? I'm an assistant coach!"

[SkyPilot]

I almost thought the title of the article was about feminist faking orgasm....but come to think of, that is too revolting to even consider.

[Darksheare]

Thanks. Needed to hear that there are sane women out there that actually enjoy being.. If that statement makes any sense...

But it is a sad commentary on American Womanhood when the nuts run the show. Just look at the colleges, where the next generation of business women are being educated (indoctrinated)..

But it is encouraging to know that the sane ones are out there, and in the majority. And yes, I did slam the door and walk away. They complained about that as well.. :-) *Shrugs*

[pray4liberty]

And yes, I did slam the door and walk away. They complained about that as well.. :-) *Shrugs*

Served them right!

[Evil Inc]

Amen. I am married to a feminist Psycologist who didnt work until our kids were in school. Constantly reminded me how it was OUR money is why she gets to spend without discussion with me. Her right to quit work and go back to school, of course I had to make sacrifices, work harder while she did it in addition to assuming Mr Mom role for the rest of our marriage, somehow she never got back into motherhood. Then of course as our incomes approached parity it became her money to do with as she pleased, once more I was the oppressor paying the bills for her. Now she mostly enjoys belittleing me every chance she gets and is so proud of HER achievements, apparently on her own in spite of my oppression.

[Darksheare]

Sounds like my wife. She didn't want anything to do with "My military life" yet she'd spend the money I made there faster than I could see it.

Recently I ran into a huge group of women that actually appreciated doors being held open for them... So I guess it's just the college brainwashed and psychotics that hate being treated with respect. I'm still shaking my head in amazement at how those two at Orange County Community College could have equated holding a door open for them with sexual harassment.

[Benson_Carter]

who's the soccer chick?

[Benson_Carter]

who's the soccer chick?

[MEGoody]

I'd say men and women give each other children, except in the case of these bozos. They just kill the babies and don't give anything to anyone but a hard time.

[Hacksaw]

who's the soccer chick?

That is Brandy Chastain, who pulled her shirt off after her team won an international competition (she had a sports bra on underneath before you start doing google searches).

[Silly]

Why do you put up with that?