Emily Hill, writing for the British magazine The Spectator, says that it’s time for feminists to recognize the white flags. As the title of her article reads, “Feminism is over, the battle is won. It’s time to move on.”
Today, as Hill points out, girls are doing better in school, more women attend university than men, and traditionally male-dominated professions have seen a rapid increase in female members. “The next generation,” she writes, “should be encouraged to enjoy the spoils, not worry old wounds.”
Yet a certain contingent of feminists have found new things to harp on: “the builder’s whistle… crucial issues such as bikini waxing, wearing stilettos… Beyoncé and Rihanna flaunting their beautiful bodies.” As Hill laments, “What started as a genuine crusade against genuine prejudice has become a form of pointless attention-seeking.”
Hill’s characterization of modern feminism brings to mind what Robert Nisbet warned about the search for equality: “it can become insatiable in its demands.”
Interestingly, too, Hill points out that feminists are frequently the ones today guilty of denigrating other women, portraying them “as feeble-minded” if they do not continue to acknowledge various incarnations of systemic patriarchy and oppression. In so doing, writes Hill, “they are ditching what was best about the feminist tradition: solidarity with the sisterhood and the freedom of every woman to do as she pleased.”
The result of this increasingly hostile rhetoric toward their own? Most women today do not feel solidarity with feminists.
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