Foreword: I know after seeing the word "feminism," you'll be tempted to stop reading, but please don't. It won't be what you're thinking.
American feminism has achieved a lot of wonderful things — suffrage, equal opportunities in employment and education, and countless other liberties generations of women before us weren't privy to.
Unfortunately, the word "feminism" no longer refers to true equity feminism, but conjures up images of bra-burning, pro-choice rallies and The Vagina Monologues.
Modern feminists like to divide the movement into three waves. Early feminists, now called "the first wave," fought against slavery while demanding the right to vote and hold office.
The hijacking of the term "feminism" by Betty Friedan and friends in the 1960s is referred to as the second wave. The third wave, beginning in the early ‘90s, is still underway and is supposedly an improvement on the second wave.
I don't see feminism in terms of "waves." I see it in terms of what is and is not true feminism. In the tradition of the suffragists, equity feminists simply believe in gender equality. Men are not degraded, and women are not viewed as perpetual victims. Family and motherhood are valued.
This is feminism.
Unfortunately, in academia and the media, gender feminists have come to define feminism. They generally support socialism, believe women are superior to men in some, if not all, regards and have a paradoxical belief that women are more often than not victims of men and a patriarchical society.
When you think of gender feminism, think Jodie Foster ("95 percent of women's experiences are about being a victim"), NOW leader Sheila Cronan ("Marriage constitutes slavery for women") and Gloria Steinem ("overthrowing capitalism is too small for us — we must overthrow the whole patriarch!").
This is not feminism.
The biggest travesty modern feminists perpetuate, bar none, is their fight for abortion "rights." The original feminists wouldn't recognize this concept of "women's rights." The phrase has gone from meaning our rights to vote and hold office, to our right to kill the unborn. Quite a leap.
Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull, America's first female presidential candidate, both called abortion "child murder." Alice Paul, who authored the original Equal Rights Amendment in 1923, called it "the ultimate exploitation of women," and Elizabeth Cady Stanton was another vocal opponent.
Modern feminists sympathize with women afraid of being inconvenienced for nine months, after which the child could be given to any number of loving families waiting to adopt.
I, on the other hand, sympathize with the girls (and boys) growing in their mother's womb, who in the first trimester of life can suck their thumb, turn somersaults, squint and frown, and who — for the sake of convenience — can legally be suctioned out of their mother through a tube tipped with a knife edge that, with 28 times the suction of a vacuum cleaner, tears them into small pieces.
I have news for NOW: If women are so independent and intelligent, and if, as one of my colleagues says, "our vaginas can handle anything thrown at us," then elective abortions aren't necessary. Cases involving the mother's health are obviously exceptional.
Not only do modern feminists get it horribly wrong on abortion and countless other issues, but they also waste time and energy on things that don't matter at all.
Just a few weeks ago, my feminist colleague got campus talking about the offensiveness of a certain insult men levy at each other. Who cares what men call each other? Instead of lamenting the offensiveness of slang uses of the word vagina, let's talk about the 140 million women in the world who have had theirs mutilated and the three million girls who will join that number this year.
It's time for women to reclaim the feminist movement, women who recognize and appreciate the freedoms we now have — including the freedom to make a career out of wife and motherhood — who defend life, who aren't caught up in political correctness and who are ready to turn their attention to the hundreds of millions of less-fortunate women in the rest of the world.
Ashley Reynolds is a political science senior.
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As for "when you resort to calling your opponents names, you've lost", I reference the countless comments here that label Ms. Reynolds "stupid", "bitter and hateful", "ignorant", and so forth.
The post a few comments down from a woman who has had an abortion and counseled women post-abortion is suggested reading for you.
Where do you get your so called "facts" from? Yes, initially for women who have had an abortion the first emotion they feel is relief. However, if you actually researched, studied, and spoke with post abortive women you would find that more than 80% of women deal with emotional trauma later on in life. For some it is six to nine months after their abortion. For others it is years before they even experience any type of emotional trauma. One of the misfortunes of this issue is that most woman admit when anonumously surveyed that they are too ashamed to speak with someone about their abortion and its affect on them emotionally. This leaves us with many questions and makes it very hard to understand the statistics because many of the women who are hurting are not speaking out. Do you even know how it feels to be silenced and trapped by pain like that? I assume not based upon your insensitive agenda based comments. You claim to represent equality and a woman's choice but you lack a great deal of compassion, something that I feel is truly necessary for women on both sides of the issue to possess.
Susan, Ashley is one of my best friends. She spent two terms chairing one of OSU's largest student organizations (it became so large under her leadership), and serves as state-wide vice chairman of a federation of county organizations. She will graduate with a Bachelor's degree this summer and has been admitted to a Master's program. She has put herself through school, and is furthering her education. You don't know what her accomplishments are, you don't know what her goals are, but I can promise you no man has kept her down, and she isn't trying to oppress women.
Didn't Mr. James Cooper praise Sen. Tom Coburn and his health care efforts at Obama's health care summit in his op-ed last week? I could have sworn that I saw that. I guess he'll return to calling Coburn the spawn of Satan when he returns from spring break. And, congrats on attending OSU for four years; somehow, in this last year, you managed to miss Shane Leach, Scott Damico, Thomas Lahey, and Jordan Sligar (a columnist last semester), all conservative columnists who Mr. Cooper sought out and asked to write for the Forum. Those columnists appear each week alongside their liberal counterparts.A public intellectual? You're a tool.
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