'I'm not a feminist, but...'
Carlin, David R. Jr.
OF SEVERAL MINDS David R. Carlin, Jr. 'I'M NOT A FEMINIST, BUT...' GOOD POLITICS, ERSATZ RELIGION “I'm not a feminist, but ...." These words drive feminists up the wall. Understandably so....
...For ingratitude it seems to be when women accept the gains won for them by feminists, then shout out loud and clear that they would not be caught dead being feminists themselves...
...The typical male has his strong points, but he is not Nature's moral masterpiece...
...But I do say that the average feminist subscribes to this philosophy, whether clearly or confusedly...
...but they recoil from feminism as a mode of salvation...
...But small wonder too that the vast majority of women—who have husbands, brothers, sons, fathers, etc.—are repelled rather than attracted by this androphobic feminism...
...The women who typically say them agree with all the points on the feminist agenda, or at least almost all of them...
...and I say also that the average nonfeminist woman has at least some intuitive knowledge of the nature of this philosophy—sufficient knowledge to reject it as the enemy of values on which she has staked her life...
...for that matter, I don't even say that the average feminist has a clear perception of it...
...And yet they refuse to take the last step—the apparently logical step—of declaring themselves to be feminists...
...Finally, the great majority of professed feminists in America subscribe to the general philosophy with which many women feel profoundly uncomfortable—a philosophy wider than feminism but which includes it and informs it...
...For such women feminism is not just one thing among many in their lives...
...Young men have poor driving records, poor police records, and poor drinking records...
...Indeed, why this ingratitude...
...Nor is this an act of ingratitude...
...On the contrary, it is perfectly logical to separate the beneficial political program of feminism from the lethal cultural package it comes wrapped in...
...Second, for many feminists, though by no means for all, feminism is a kind of ersatz religion...
...no reason to prefer the nuclear family to other forms of family (or "family...
...hence it legitimates their personalities...
...Small wonder chronically angry women turn anti-male...
...At the same time, who can blame other women put off by this...
...It is the source of their salvation...
...Why this illogic...
...It is the center...
...that which justifies...
...that one person's values (choices) are therefore just as good as the next person's...
...they believe more day care for children should be provided by government and industry...
...8: 17 January 1992 Commonweal...
...From this it follows that there can be no common moral code for society and no common good...
...and that all values should be equally tolerated...
...Thus there is nothing illogical about a woman saying, "I'm not a feminist, but...
...As secular religions go, it is relatively benign...
...It also follows that society, acting through its collective agencies of government, has no reason to prefer marriage to other sexual relationships...
...They agree that women are treated unfairly in the workplace and elsewhere...
...But feminism is nothing like either of those...
...Some people prefer their religion neat, not as an ingredient in a secular cocktail...
...Even if it can be shown, as it probably can be, that the wisdom of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison was an integral part of a social-cultural package that included the plantation system, it would not follow that the abolition of slavery was an act of ingratitude to the Founding Fathers...
...they support the goal of equality of opportunity regardless of sex...
...It is difficult to find a name for this philosophy...
...they applaud the opening of previously all-male occupations to women...
...no reason to prefer in-wedlock births to out-of-wedlock births...
...Whatever it should be called, this philosophy holds that moral values are subjective (matters of pure personal choice...
...After all, gratitude for the good deeds of our benefactors does not oblige us to embrace their follies...
...it is that which gives meaning and purpose...
...They happen to be angry with men—though one suspects that if men did not exist, women of this type would be angry about something else...
...not to mention poor records for getting women pregnant, then leaving them high and dry with the kids while moving on to fresh woods and new pastures...
...I'M NOT A FEMINIST, BUT...' GOOD POLITICS, ERSATZ RELIGION “I'm not a feminist, but...
...Its proponents call it liberalism...
...As they understand the ideology of feminism, it legitimates this wrath...
...And in the religion-poor world of modernity, a world in which meaning and purpose are not easily come by, who can blame women fortunate enough to discover feminism as a religion...
...In short, it is their religion...
...no reason to prefer stability in marrriage to divorce...
...Women who in some other era might have been disagreeable grouches are now promoted to the rank of persons who see deeper into the heart of things than their sisters...
...Witness communism and nazism, the two most notorious secular religions of the twentieth century...
...Women who prefer the religion found in churches and synagogues might be drawn to feminism as a political program...
...Secular religions are potentially dangerous things, since they confuse two orders of being and set loose in this poor lower world vast eschatological demands...
...Instead they make it very clear that their endorsement of the feminist agenda is not an endorsement of feminism...
...As a statistical class, we leave something to be desired, especially in our younger years...
...but those of us who are attached to an older variety of liberalism are reluctant to concede the new usage, thereby renouncing our right to the word...
...and no reason to prefer heterosexual marriage to homosexual "marriage...
...First, for a small but conspicuous number of feminists, feminism is an alibi for the chronic anger they carry about with them...
...I do not say that the average nonfeminist woman has a clear perception of the contents of this philosophy...
...I think there are at least three reasons...
...It has to be admitted, I fear, that men form a plausible target for this anger...
...for the most part they favor keeping abortion legal...
Vol. 119 • January 1992 • No. 1
