"Has feminism gone too far?"

Question

From the PBS Think Tank ranscript of the same name:

MR. WATTENBERG: Christina Sommers, what has feminism become?

MS. SOMMERS: The orthodox feminists are so carried away with victimology, with a rhetoric of male-bashing that it's full of female chauvinists, if you will. Also, women are quite eager to censor, to silence. And what concerns me most as a philosopher is it's become very anti-intellectual, and I think it poses a serious risk to young women in the universities. Women's studies classes are increasingly a kind of initiation into the most radical wing, the most intolerant wing, of the feminist movement. And I consider myself a whistle-blower. I'm from inside the campus. I teach philosophy. I've seen what's been going on.


MR. WATTENBERG: Camille, what has feminism become?

MS. PAGLIA: Well, I have been an ardent feminist since the rebirth of the current feminist movement. I'm on the record as being -- as rebelling against my gender-role, as being an open lesbian and so on.In the early 1960s I was researching Amelia Earhart, who for me symbolized the great period of feminism of the '20s and '30s just after women won the right to vote. When this phase of feminism kicked back in the late '60s, it was very positive at first. Women drew the line against men and demanded equal rights. I am an equal opportunity feminist. But very soon it degenerated into a kind of totalitarian 'group think' that we are only now rectifying 20 years later.

http://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript132.html

Do you believe feminism has gone too far?

Additional Details

Rio, Sommers and Paglia have earned their stripes in terms of feminism. Why they're labeled as anti-women for speaking up against feminism is a mystery.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Yeah it's gone too far.
Women bashing men will never make things better.

Answer 2

Maybe too far in country's where women have more rights then men, but not in places like Saudi Arabia.
Your asking this as if it were a bad thing, but its not, terrorism is a lot worse!

Answer 3

I'm not surprised that Sommers and Paglia were picked for this interview; Wattenberg tends to interview only people who agree with him. And they say PBS is left-wing.

I think the movement itself has become somewhat more radical, but the women who identify as feminists without being activists haven't changed much.

EDIT: I didn't say they were anti-woman or even anti-feminist. I'm just saying they're more conservative than most.

Answer 4

Way too far.

Answer 5

Yes, child visitation including telephone visitation is hell for my son & I. Often my ex-wife doesn't answer the phone, doesn't call back and/or insults me when I call. I have been to court so many times just to enforce visitation.

Because she is a woman, she gets a free lawyer...and she knows she can legally and financially grind me down. Because of that, she is free to harrass, berate and treat me like dirt.

Answer 6

You are obviously uninformed, if anything this new third wave of feminists, such as myself, has done very little so far in terms of what feminists did during the days of Friedan. So no, feminism has not gone too far.

Answer 7

No, it hasn't there is still sexism in the world, and in this section there's prove of that.
Though, i do think that Radical Feminists have taken it too far like special rights for women and all of that.
I think they should forget feminism, and be Humanist's instead, that way, it would be a movement for everyone Men, Women, Children etc.

Answer 8

In my opinion it's gone much too far. It's sort of like asking just how many million people should have died before there was an international effort to intercede during the Holocaust of WW2. Obviously, the time to intercede is before a single innocent life is lost. If there's anything to be learned from the horrors of the past century it's that a hate-driven philosophy that has been so deeply imbedded into society must be marginalized by any legal means possible before there is human suffering.

It's perplexing why just a bit over 60 years following the Holocaust, Western society sits by and allows this egregious threat to humanity advance and interdigitate in all facets of media, academia and politics.

It's only rational that a civilized society do something to limit the catastrophic consequences of this insidious movement that's entirely predicated on irrational hatred of men, unborn children and those who are in discordant with its philosophy.

Answer 9

Too far is understatement. It has gone way beyond that point.

Answer 10

Of course we speak of modern nations, not all nations around the world. We cannot judge how a movement which existed only in modern nations has effected developing or third world nations. That would be like going to college and then assessing whether or not the college was a good college by testing your five year old sibling. Yes, hopefully the five year old will someday go to college, but it is simply not near ready for it just yet.

That being said, yes, I do think feminism has gone too far. More than the "race card", the sex card is played...more accurately the the "woman card" is played. We are now at a point where women have more rights than men. Do women deserve these rights? Of course we do. But there are many rights of men, particularly within the judicial system which are are not only lacking, but their very existence in threatened at times.

Answer 11

No, feminism hasn't gone too far. It could stand to go farther. Women are still treated badly in some places, especially foreign nations. Even in the U.S., women's rights are being attacked. All of the people who want to criminalize abortion are attacking women's rights. And in different countries, like Saudi Arabia, women aren't even allowed to drive. Feminists don't hate men, or at least most don't.

Answer 12

What has feminism become? A bunch of crap; and the one above me, big tinker damn women can't drive. When I was still living in the states I didn't want to drive, because I wanted my money for more than gas, it's more frugal, to take the cab and or the bus ever once in a while than to worry about gas, and, or car repairs.

Answer 13

Gone too far? It has morphed into some kind of vicious anti-human monster!

I told them at the time. It was a big mistake giving out the asylum keys to the inmates.

As an equalist, I abhor feminism and all those sex-based and race-based ideologies. They are roads to disaster.

PS. Thanks for the PBS link. It's an interesting site.

Source(s):

http://www.celticsurf.net/phpBB3/viewfor…