Feminism and Its Discontents

Submitted by Mastodon on Fri, 2014-06-20 19:16

Article here. Excerpt:

'Feminism is in control of America’s colleges and universities, where its principles at least are held as dogmas unquestioned and unopposed. Yet in what should be a paradise with those principles at work, women speak of a “rape culture” that sounds like the patriarchal hell we thought we’d left behind. One woman at Harvard (my place of work), an apparent victim of sexual assault, writing anonymously but very publicly in an open letter to the student newspaper that gained everyone’s attention, felt obliged to call herself “hopeless, powerless, betrayed and worthless.” In reaction, the university, already on alert, has sprung into action and created several new committees to consider what to do. The federal government is at hand to help provide what it describes as “significant guidance” to universities in this sort of situation, in which a single act of sexual assault can engender a “hostile environment."
...
The hook-up culture denounced by conservatives is the very same rape culture denounced by feminists. Who wants it? Most college women do not; they ignore hookups and lament the loss of dating. Many men will not turn down the offer of an available woman, but what they really want is a girlfriend. The predatory males are a small minority among men who are the main beneficiaries of the feminist norm. It’s not the fault of men that women want to join them in excess rather than calm them down, for men too are victims of the rape culture. Nor is it the fault of women. Women are so far from wanting hook-ups that they must drink themselves into drunken consent—in order to overcome their natural modesty, one might suggest. Not having a sociable drink but getting blind drunk is today’s preliminary to sex. Beautifully romantic, isn’t it? The anonymous Harvard woman by getting drunk was unfortunately helping to pressure herself into consenting to a very bad experience. But she is right that the pressure comes with the encouragement of the culture. And the culture comes from the dogmas of feminism that made this mess for women and men too.'

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Comments

... but he is on to a number of things, not least of which how feminism itself planted the seeds for today's current mess in colleges far and wide.

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Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2014-06-22 03:44

The On;y way to avoid rape is to demand for separate universities for men..!!

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Submitted by Kaka81k on Sun, 2014-06-22 04:37

I find a lot of what he says to be insightful. I think feminism is "rape culture," inasmuch as it may exist. The feminists have been in charge of rape prevention for more than 40 years, and now they say we have a crisis. Perhaps it's because we've been doing what they say for four decades.

But, of course, a feminist would never say her policies are to blame--it is always the fault of the "patriarchy" or men or something else. One result of that is we can never learn from mistakes and change policies. We keep doing the same things, blame the "patriarchy" or "rape culture," and expect a different result.

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Submitted by el cid on Sun, 2014-06-22 12:48