I was just at Memeorandum and saw that Eugene Volokh is pondering a quiz he took, Are you a feminist?, and got a 95% score.
There are several statements with which I strongly agree:
“Women should be economically and socially independent. They shouldn’t rely on men to take care of them.” I suspect that men actually like that.
“Women should have the right to choose any path in life – from being a stay at home mom to a Fortune 500 CEO.” Just don’t expect that you’ll be able to do both simultaneously. Know your commitments.
“Women should be encouraged to pursue education as much as men are.” Oh yes. Right now it’s almost getting to the point that men should be encouraged to pursue education as much as women.
“You would support a woman for president (if you agreed with her politics).” Jean Kirkpatrick, where are you when we need you.
I strongly agree with this statement: “Men and women should be held to the same sexual standards.” The statement following it, “If men can sleep around without judgment, women should be able to as well,” instead should have been “promiscuity is bad for both genders,” in this the age of AIDS, chlamydia and antibiotic resistant venereal diseases (call me old fashioned, I still call them venereal diseases).
I strongly agree with “Women should accept their bodies as they are. Women should not have to conform to wacky beauty ideals,” but Eugene raises a good point. He said,
I answered “not sure,” because even setting aside health issues (women and men shouldn’t accept unhealthy bodies if they can make them healthy) the fact is that men care about women’s beauty, as best I can tell likely for biological reasons and not just social ones, and women ignore that at their peril.
Of course, by definition women shouldn’t have to conform to wacky beauty ideals. And in a better world inhabited by people who are biologically and genetically different from humans women wouldn’t have to conform to any beauty ideals.
In today’s world, though, I don’t think it’s quite accurate to say that “Women should accept their bodies as they are.” Some attempts to change one’s body are likely counterproductive or on balance harmful. But others (whether dying graying hair, removing hair from certain places, using effective makeup under certain circumstances, mild dieting or exercise for esthetic reasons and not just health reasons, and so on) are probably wise ideas for many women who care about the things that many women understandably care about.
I have certainly posted enough about manicures and exercise class that regular readers of this blog would include me in the latter part. My method of weight control is to simply go to the gym for an extra 1/2 hour and cut down on butter if my skirts or slacks start getting tight (I don’t own elastic-waisted skirts or trousers). Whether that means that I’m not “accepting my body as it is”, I leave for you to decide. I prefer to think of it as not accepting the new extra pounds accruing on the already-accepted body.
Additionally, how you present yourself to others (whether you are a man or a woman) does matter not only because of aesthetic reasons but because it speaks to others as to what you think of yourself. If you look like you don’t think enough of yourself to be well groomed, clean, and neatly dressed, others will notice.
As for fashion, know your style and buy what looks good on you.
As for wacky beauty ideals, I’m totally against tattoos, piercings other than 1 per ear, non-reconstructive breast augmentation surgery, Nancy Pelosi-like facelifts and the such. Neo-Neocon has pondered this subject at greater depth than I.
Then there’s the “agree”, with a proviso:
“There is no such thing as a “man’s job.” It is wrong for men to be given preference for any job position, even if women traditionally aren’t in that field.”
There are many jobs where size is might. For instance, firemen. Firemen have to carry 25+ lbs of equipment, which many women can do with no problem. The problem comes when you have to carry the equipment, and have to carry a person. I’m 5’10”, and, while I’m not fat, it takes a strong person with good balance to carry me and their gear safely out of the house. So, if the fireman’s a woman who can do it and has meet all the physical requirements for the job, I have no problem with it. If the woman gets a job as some kind of quota/preference project that excepts her from the rigorous requirements, then no.
(Oops, I forgot the NFL linemen.)
“A woman should be able to marry and have kids with anyone she wants – including another woman.” A woman should, as long as the other party is in full knowledge and consents. Parenting should not be foisted on some unsuspecting guy simply because the woman wanted a sperm donor and didn’t tell him she stopped taking the pill.
While I believe that every child needs a parent of each gender, I have seen children adopted by a gay couple who are very happy to be in a loving and stable home instead of shipped from foster home to foster home.
Dr. Helen took the quiz, and she raises the issue of responsibility:
The idea of equality is not as simple as this quiz would have us believe, for in order to be truly equal, women must understand that they too, have the responsibility to see that equality extends both ways.
Nowhere is that more important than in parenting.
Now comes the “disagrees”:
“Women should take an equal role in dating. Women should ask out people they are interested in and take their turn in paying.” The fact is that women shouldn’t because most men don’t like it. But then, I haven’t been on a date since Jimmy Carter was president, so what do I know.
“Women should have legal, easy access to all types of birth control – including the morning after pill.” I’m OK with the morning-after pill. As long as you don’t consider abortion “all types of birth control”, then I have no problem.
These answers make me a 75% feminist:
| You Are 75% Feminist |
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Eric, however, sees the issue from a whole different perspective…
I am an anti-feminist.
I say that because I am an anti-egalitarian. I don’t accept the notion that any two persons are equal in any way.
The law must treat those haled before it in a gender and race-neutral fashion, but that’s because the law is intended to deal with people’s actions, not their identities. But in no other sense are any two persons, regardless of how similar they are or how different they are, entitled to be treated as equals.
C. S. Lewis pointed out half a century ago that egalitarianism is the death of liberty. He was right then, and he’s right today. It’s a crying shame when a man dead nearly half a century knows something our own time can’t even bear to address, much less refute.