WaPo Wrote:
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Women who hate on feminists hurt all women
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> - src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php
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> 42d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/avatars/128/w
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> w=80>-Michelle Smith is a research fellow at the
> Centre for Memory, Imagination and Invention at
> Deakin University.
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Courtesy of
> womanagainstfeminism.tumblr.com
>
> Australian university campuses last week marked
href=http://www.nteu.org.au/women/bluestockingweek
> >Bluestocking Week, a celebration that
> remembers the first women who entered English
> universities in the late 19th century.
>
> Women in lecture halls were pioneering. Yet these
> trailblazers couldn’t take exams or expect to
> graduate with an actual degree.
href=http://www.newn.cam.ac.uk/about-newnham/colle
> ge-history>Newnham College for women at
> Cambridge University was established in 1871, but
> it was not until 1948 that women could hold a full
> Cambridge degree.
>
> This is merely one area of discrimination that
> restricted what women could do with their lives.
> The reality of how little choice women had only a
> century ago is nevertheless absent in contemporary
> manifestations of anti-feminism, such as “Women
> Against Feminism.”
>
> The phenomenon began on Tumblr, with women taking
> photographs of themselves holding signs that
> explain their reasons for opposing feminism. The
> site has been online since July 2013, but it’s
> only in the last month that it’s really started
> to generate heat online. Women’s statements
> range from claims that men are now the true
> victims of discrimination, to homophobic
> categorizations of feminists as “man-haters”
> and “lesbians”.
>
> Any social justice movement with a long history
> and diverse adherents will exhibit contradictions
> and problematic ideas. However, Women Against
> Feminism is not only ahistorical, but
> fundamentally misreads the nature of feminism and
> the current status of women.
>
> Let’s work through some of the common
> assumptions made in these anti-feminist
> declarations.
>
> (1) “Men and women already have equal rights
> where I live.”
>
> It is indeed true that in many Western nations
> women enjoy formal equality, but substantive
> equality remains elusive. Any of these rights also
> has the potential to be revoked at any time.
> Abortion rights, in particular, are continually
> challenged and overturned. We cannot simply say
> that feminism has done its work and that women
> will enjoy the rights and freedoms it has helped
> to achieve indefinitely.
>
>
> Also, people regularly travel and migrate. Things
> might be better “where you live,” but what if
> you want to go somewhere where women aren’t
> allowed to drive, gain an education, or report a
> rape?
>
> (2) “I was raised to be an independent woman,
> not a victim of anything.”
>
> Prior to feminist activism, it would have been
> impossible for most women to be “independent”,
> regardless of their parents’ intentions. At
> various points in history, women couldn’t
> inherit property, work outside the home, learn to
> read, or even walk down the street unaccompanied.
> The efforts of generations of feminists helped to
> give women a say in government, the right to be
> educated, and social and sexual freedoms.
>
> An independent woman would want to pursue any path
> in life that she wishes. She’s the kind of woman
> who would speak up when informed that her job has
> been made redundant because she’s pregnant, or
> who would get angry when told that she can’t
> walk home alone because otherwise she’d be
> inviting sexual assault. Independence and refusal
> to be a victim are feminist qualities.
>
> (3) “I am an abomination to feminists”
> (because I am a stay-at-home mother).
>
> Many Women Against Feminism believe that feminism
> opposes women’s work at home and denigrates
> those who don’t pursue careers. Historically,
> most women had no choice but to remain within the
> home and care for their children. Until as late as
> 1966, Australian women had to resign from the
> public service as soon as they married.
>
> Feminism has always sought rights for women as
> mothers. Early Australian feminists, for example,
> campaigned for the government to provide an income
> to all mothers to recognize that parenting was the
> equivalent of a job and that it benefited the
> country. Feminism did challenge the expectation
> that women have no vocation of her own and be
> solely focused on cleaning and cooking for her
> family. This does not mean that feminism derides
> women who choose to focus on raising children and
> maintain a traditional division of labor. Though
> feminists would argue that the reverse situation,
> in which a male partner cares for the home and
> children, should be equally possible.
>
> Games - Click Here for More!
> (4) “Men have rights too.”
>
> As the vast majority of the world’s government
> and business leaders and holders of its wealth,
> it’s bizarre to suggest that men now lack social
> and political power. Women Against Feminism,
> however, often propose that men’s rights have
> been eroded because they usually have less access
> to their children after separation or divorce.
>
> The continuing perception in courts and the
> general community that women are better suited to
> raise children, while men are better equipped to
> be in the workforce, is not a “right” that
> women enjoy. In dozens of ways, this belief
> restricts and hampers women’s rights and
> capacity to earn. The one drawback that affects
> men is the only one that anti-feminists mention.
>
> (5) “I don’t need feminism because…”
>
> It is impossible to extricate yourself from
> collective rights relating to gender, race, or
> sexuality. Unless you wish to withdraw from
> society, you will both benefit and suffer from
> political and social changes to what women can and
> cannot do. You may not want to need feminism, but
> you will benefit from its continued work toward
> maintaining basic rights and eliminating the kinds
> of sexism that cannot be legislated against
> regardless. It’s very easy for Women Against
> Feminism to declare that they don’t need
> feminism using the voice and powers that feminism
> made possible and which it continues to fight for.
That's stupid.