The Reactionary Utopian
                     August 21, 2007


THOSE DIZZY FEMINISTS
by Joe Sobran

     One definition of a misogynist might be a man who 
thinks feminists are typical of women. The feminist 
movement seems to lack a thermostat: it keeps overheating 
madly.

     In his new book, THE END OF SANITY (just published 
by Avon Books), Martin L. Gross lists hundreds of 
examples of ideological lunacy, on race, sex, religion, 
and other topics. But feminist examples surpass all 
others, in both quantity and preposterous quality.

     It has been decreed, somewhere or other, that the 
sexes are not only equal but barely distinguishable, so 
that any differences between them are due to untold 
centuries of male domination. Of course the very fact 
that men have dominated women so utterly throughout 
recorded history might be considered prima facie evidence 
of male superiority, rather than a mere refusal to 
recognize women's equality; but maybe that's just 
phallocentric male logic speaking.

     In any case, enlightenment has finally arrived. We 
have the privilege of living in the age where the 
insignificance of sexual differences has, at long last, 
been not only established, but codified in law and 
manners, and even in the armed forces.

     Thus 350 women were sent into "combat duty" aboard 
the USS Eisenhower (named for Mamie Eisenhower, one 
trusts). Despite a rule against "fraternization" between 
the sexes, Gross notes, six couples soon asked to be 
married by the captain, while several "sailors" got 
pregnant and had to be removed from the ship.

     At newly nonsexist West Point, a female officer, Lt. 
Col. Maureen LeBoeuf, is now "Master of the Sword," in 
charge of physical fitness for all cadets. When asked why 
female cadets are required to do only 18 push-ups, while 
males are still required to do 42, "she replied that 
women are almost as qualified physically as men were 40 
years ago."

     In the movie G.I. JANE, Demi Moore was absurdly 
shown as a super-tough recruit in the Navy SEALS, kicking 
lots of Arab males around (and showing up American males 
in the process). Nobody seems to have informed Ms. Moore, 
the producers, or the scriptwriters that a sailor isn't a 
"G.I." Getting such details right might have enhanced the 
film's gritty realism. (Unlike, say, Bruce Willis, 
Ms. Moore needed a stuntperson to do her calisthenics.)

     Back in civilian life, Gross notes, the stock 
brokerage firm of Gruntal & Co. has adopted a policy of 
firing men for sexual harassment if they so much as stare 
at women, or ask a coworker for a date after having been 
turned down once.

     Chivalry, though not dead, is well-nigh illegal. The 
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission officially 
decrees that a "pattern of complimenting a woman" can be 
grounds for a sexual harassment suit.

     Even the pettiest hurt feelings can be gussied up as 
political causes. A student at the University of 
Minnesota, for example, accused a professor of "sexual 
harassment" because (she said) he paid more attention to 
the men's term papers than to hers.

     On the one hand, feminists insist that women are 
just as capable as men, physically and intellectually. On 
the other hand, they, like other claimants of official 
victimhood, always insist that existing standards be 
lowered -- or even that new double standards be adopted! 
-- to enable them to compete. Actually, it's competition 
their claims are designed to avoid.

     Such claims of equality are really admissions of 
inferiority. Jewish males dominate many professions; they 
weren't given favors, and they never asked that law and 
medical schools lower standards for Jews to compensate 
for "past discrimination." Black males dominate 
professional sports, but not because anyone pitched 
underhand to Jackie Robinson to atone for slavery and 
segregation.

     Today the old culture of achievement has given way 
to a culture of whining, in which achievement is actually 
suspect -- interpreted as evidence of privilege or unfair 
advantage. In this atmosphere, the only way to get 
equality is to demand compensatory privilege (reinforced 
by silly fictions).

     But people who are really oppressed don't want 
double standards, because double standards are the very 
things that oppress them. We're laboring to solve 
problems that no longer exist.

[This column was originally published by Universal Press 
Syndicate January 8, 1998.]

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