Summary: The Farce Of Feminism

In what way do you believe feminism has helped or hurt today’s woman?
Feminism was created to promote equality between the genders. It was established to benefit the women and make them equals to men; however it failed to do so. The feminist women were just seen as rebels; feared and disliked by many. Maybe this fear was needed in the people’s minds to keep the women safe. Although their ideas did not benefit the modern woman too much, rather it hurt them.
The article written by Linda M. Hasselstrom, “A Peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carries a Gun” has shown the reader how tough life was for that woman. The issues she went through were just her personal bad luck. Now this writing is seen as feminist, portraying a sense of insecurity for women, causing them to be hostile against men everywhere. Now men cannot be blamed for something a group may have done. It generalizes the male gender, and also
discriminates against them. Through this feminist movement, to gain equality, women are discriminating against men which contradict their beliefs of equality. On the other hand the radicals of the movement have made men seem like ruthless animals and are completely against men everywhere. These are the women who are a disgrace to the feminist interest group. They are the ones who hurt today’s woman rather than help. Through their radical views they hurt the image of the general female population and made them seem like “men-hating” rebels. Although times have changed, the public opinion still holds true.
Modern feminists are looked down upon by many plainly due to the radicals, and their views. Although termed modern feminism, it holds a negative connotation to it. No matter how much their view might have changed that negative undertone will always remain attached. Due to this negative approach people either fear the subject or those preaching it, or they are angered by it. In doing so they’re agitated to speak against them and causes an incongruity, which does not help the cause of feminism, rather it hurts it severely. Feminists have looked at this topic very selfishly, they want equality; however not everywhere, only when it completely benefits them. One great example of this is women cannot be drafted into the army, while men can. There’s very little predicament there, only a few feminists are seen protesting against that. For example, it has been harder for feminist women to date men. Men in general do not want to date these women who pose as men, they do not mid the views of feminism; however at times it is taken too far and makes the relationship a bit difficult. Also has hurt the self-esteem of some women. For example the housewives who were satisfied with what they did were put down by the feminist movement. They made it seem as if what these women did was degrading to the females in general. There are many other incidents where this is seen and feminists have ignored subjects not benefiting them, or the female gender. Hence we can say that these feminists are here to create a more superior female gender rather than establish a more equal one to males as their founding principles.
This horrible image set by the radical feminists of the past has lead fewer women to believe in, or even follow feminism, in our modern time. Kate Gubata states in “The New Feminism”, “One of the greatest barriers opposing the feminist movement today is the lack of interest of young women due to their misconceptions of the feminists’ aims” (557). Hence feminism’s followers are constantly decreasing and people are losing interest. This has not benefitted women, rather hurt them, in the sense that, they have lost hope on the feminist movement. After telling these women that it was bad to be a housewife, they offer no real solution that these women believe in. Although modern feminists have different ideas, contradicting those of orthodox feminists at times, they still have fewer followers due to the negative approach and misconception these young women have. The modern belief is to attain equality rather than superiority; however that is not clearly evident in their motives.
In Rebecca E.
Rubins’s article, “The Farce of Feminism” she clearly states, “Feminism is outdated, misdirected ideology that perpetuates the very ills it condemns and harms women much more than it helps them” (560). Women use feminism as a façade to hide the real problems and difficulties. Women are overpowered by these active feminists and begin to believe that lives are miserable, instead of making it better for themselves, they complain about what they don’t have. In doing so it hurts today’s woman and destroys her self-esteem. These women become more angered due to the damage to their self-esteem, they come out too strongly onto men, which cause men to move back a step and fearing these feminists, as opposed to believing their ideas and supporting them. Although the fundamental principles of feminism are based on liberating the women as a whole; however, radicals over time have misinterpreted it and used it as a weapon to control the minds of the young women into believing differently than reality, causing these young women to turn into vicious
“men-haters.”
Through these three articles, the current condition of women and double- standards that these feminists create we can conclude that they have hurt the modern women more that benefit them. This contradicts their beliefs and discriminates against men at the same time. If women just tried to be feminine rather than so masculine, it wouldn’t hurt them so much.