Customer Reviews

Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

A well written and researched book. The author identifies two basic types of feminists: equity and gender. She seems to believe that the great majority of historical feminist figures prior to the 1960's based their arguments upon equality of economic opportunity, full political liberty, fair and equal treatment under the law, etc. It's difficult for most reasonable people to not support such admirable goals.

However, she sees gender feminists as being of a more radical variety that seem to equate maleness with innate evil. She is very effective at pointing out outright lies, misrepresentations, and simply incredibly sloppy research on the part of some gender feminist writers. She additionally argues that any school of thought based upon demonizing an entire group of people because of a certain physical characteristic must be held to be highly suspect. The holders of these views too often find themselves in close company with racists, xenophobes, etc. Understandably, true believers of this sort do not enjoy their errors pointed out to them--witness the malicious ad hominen attacks of some of the prior reviewers.

Ms. Sommers wrote a very good, thoughtful book. I think society needs feminism, but not of an insanely ideological sexist kind.

For proof of Mrs Hoff-Sommers assertions in this informative and very readable book one need look no further than the authors of all the previous 1 star reviews. They are the perfect reason why we ought to listen closely to people like Mrs Hoff-Sommers, if only in the hope of saving future generations from being similarly affected. It is clear that few of them have turned a page of this book. True, Equity Feminism is an oxymoron in the class of Marxist Capitalism. But her demonstration that its aims were noble, and vastly different from later Gender Feminism are convincing, as are her reasons why a once noble but long since misguided movement has resulted in our society producing the kind of people it is. Buy and read this interesting book, and don't be put off by the so-called reviewers below who condemn without reading.

Besides using facts, and debunking the high status of gender feminists like Faludi, Mackinnon, and Wolf with their own words, Sommers shows us how the lies used to disseminate their brand of feminism hurts our society. How can a problem be sufficiently answered if gender feminists, or any group for that matter, muddles the truth with exaggerations. The March of Dimes study that falsely attributes the majority of birth defects to battery is symbolic of the problem. The true problem is that not enough pregnant women are screened for battery. Like Sommers said, the false but sensational claim that battery is the number one cause of birth defects works great for gender feminists. But the true problem--that not enough women are screened for defects--will be unanswered because the truth often does not make headlines. In the few but vicious poor reviews of this book, I have yet to see one that found any errors that undercut Sommers' larger argument--that gender feminists are liars, and use the stigma of the label of "anti-feminist" for political gain and ultimately hurt a mainstream feminism that "never recognized their leadership" Instead of saying that Sommers' book is poor, I would like to have one person show that it is so, rather than just making the assertion. Until then, this reader will continue to regard Sommers as the genius she appears to be.

I first read Ms. Hoff-Sommers book with some skepticism, after all I had never met the kinds of feminists she was accusing of hijacking feminism. But my opinion of the book changed when I went to Duke University and took a class on Feminism and Ecology and was attacked by the instructors because I am apparently a sell-out to patriarchy, simply because I happened to marry someone who works for an organization they were against.This is the play-book for gender difference feminists.
Ms. Hoff-Sommers points out in her book that gender difference feminists claim their "special natures," a reflection back to 19th century ideals of womanhood, as a reason for their determiniation to set up an us v. men world.
But the truth of the matter is that all people must learn to live cooperatively and equally in order to move toward a society where men and women can fully appreciate their differences, similarities and their collective strengths. Ultimately, equality does not mean everyone feels exactly the same on every issue, as gender difference feminists try to enforce. Rather, feminism is about educating women, allowing them to make their own decisions, even when we don't always agree with them. No one wins in an us v. them game, and that is what this book tries to point out.
You will have to deal with someangry rants in this book, but they are the passionate frustration of a woman trying desperately to remind women that our strength comes through unity, not through selling out groups of people who don't agree with everything we have to say.

Feminism is a word that means different things to different people, which is why some people support equal rights for women but criticize feminism, but why on the other hand some feminists take criticisms of feminism as attacks on women.

Sommers tries to give us new terms. On the one hand, there are "gender" feminists who fabricate data, blame men for almost every ill, and have an uncanny ability to interpret almost anything as oppression of women. She differentiates them from "equity" feminism, a feminism that respects and likes men, deplores portrayals of women as helpless victims of patriarchy, and seeks sane equity between the sexes, recognizing that there are issues on all sides of questions involving gender.

In lucid, carefully researched and documented prose, Sommers als lays out how the former group of extremists have damaged the cause of gender equity, created a wholly unnecessary war against the sexes, and often debased academic standards and made for some genuinely terrible laws.

The worst part about criticism of Sommers is claims that she's a "right winger" (she isn't), that she trashes the idea of equality for women (she doesn't), or that she's polemical and mean(she isn't). What she is is a fair-minded and thorough researcher who tells the truth and documents her research in ways that can be verified. And in doing so demonstrates just how logical, competent, and capable women can be.

This is a must-read for anyone who cares about sexual politics, or just the relationships between men and women.

As is the case with books that address tightly heald beliefs, the reactions can be extreme praise and extreme criticism. Certainly, there are those who will take exception to the author's politics, but her main conclusions, namely 1) The brand of feminism that seems to dominate the media does not represent the average woman, 2) This feminism, or gender feminism as the author terms it, has used sloppy studies to gain political advantage, 3) This political advantage has been used to pour large amounts of capital into programs directed soley at woman, and more often at woman on college campuses, and 4) This is being done at the expense of the needs of males, particularly young males. While I would have liked a more in-depth examination of the methodology of the various studies, that is what references are provided for. She does make a clearly written critique of the studies that the 'gender feminists' use to bolster their arguments, as well as many of their more radical claims, such as questioning the validity of the scientific method. All in all, a well written, well researched book. She is clear in her biases, but she has provided a powerful statement as to why she holds these biases.

The author, Christina Hoff Sommers, is a feminist. However, she is an equity feminist who believes, in the great tradition of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Erica Jong, Betty Friedan etc. that women should enjoy equal oppoertunity and equal treatment under the law. This is quite different from the gender feminists, such as Patricia Ireland, Gloria Steinem etc. who believe that men are the enemy, that they are all potential abusers and rapists. Sommers gives a chilling account of how this type of feminism has taken over much of acedemia and views contray to the gender feminist views are not expressed for fear of reprisals. Dissent is not tolerated. Censorship and intimidation rather than refutation are the ways to deal with contrary opinions.

Sommers demonstrates that the radical feminists have demeaned the very women whose cause the supposedly champion. By viewing women who do not agree with their agenda as somehow inferior in their states of conciousness than are the radical feminists, they in effect relegate the majority of women to the staus of naive fools who do not know what's best for them. The gender feminists are elitists who know better than , eg, religious women who live a traditional religious lifestyle, or women who, out of their concern for the children they are raising, choose to stay at home. Quite frankly, it's scary. These feminists would almost subject dissenters to the "cause" to re-education camps famous for their employment by the Chinese during the cultural revolution.

Radical feminists do research with the results a forgone conclusion. For example a poll comissioned by the American Association of University Women showed women to have much lower self esteem than do men. However, Sommers, despite much resistance from the AAUW, reviewed the raw data and discovered that the results summerized for press releases were doctored and the survey did not yield a result such as that claimed by the AAUW. Sommers cites several other examples of gender feminist "scholarship" in which the conclusions are preordained and the data twisted to fit the goals of the organizations commissioning the study.

This book makes a lot of sense. I had read Sommers' later book "The War Against Boys" and the well reasoned scholarship of that book is the backbone of this one too.

I don't understand either the feminists who claim that this book is evil for bashing feminism, nor the anti-feminists who think this book is a weapon against feminists. This book IS feminist, and is *written* by a feminist.

This books invites women to question, investigate, defy, think independantly and to be skeptical, logical, assertive, fair, cool-headed, scientific, and to stand boldly in the face of criticism. It invites women to make partnerships with worthy men, and to stop associating the worst of human traits with average, everyday men. I can think of nothing more Feminist.

Having worked in academia for 13 years, I have had far too many opportunities to witness the shrillness and vapidity of seething anti-male feminists. In fact, I was one of the intended victims of a scurrilous, ugly campaign by two power-crazed feminists at a large state university in New York. I thought I understood the motivations of this crowd fairly well, but Sommers' book provides more proof, if any were needed, that academic feminists are monstrous totalitarians whose goal is to take over the academy and turn it into an ideological bastion for fellow travelers. From this perch they would sweep aside all who disagree and utterly squelch dissent within their own ranks. Ms. Sommers does not just analyze the idiocy of the leaders of gender feminism; she also provides data detailing their corruption and lies, and uses their own words to discredit a movement which has already become far too powerful. This is must reading, especially if you are thinking of sending your child to a prestigious college such as Yale or Wellesley, where your hard-earned tuition money will be spent indoctrinating your youngster into group-think and intolerance.

Sommers has a gift for exposing hypocrisy, misinformation, propaganda and outright lies in a readable and often delightful manner that has made her the bęte noire of gender feminists. In this carefully and exhaustively argued and generally convincing critique of the post modern movement she employs a STARTLING TECHNIQUE to embarrass the feminist fringe: SHE QUOTES THEM. Wow. She begins in the Preface with the now infamous claim by Gloria Steinem (from her Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem) and Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth) that in the United States "about 150,000 females die of anorexia each year." Hmm. Sounds scary. But it turns out that the number is less than one hundred.

This sort of distortion and falsification and just plain stupidity is typical of the totalitarian-minded feminist fringe (see Warren Farrell's The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex (1993) for more documentation). Where this is particularly egregious and harmful is in academia where gender feminists hold sway over not only their cowed and impressionable students but over a bullied and complacent faculty and administration. Sommers devotes a substantial portion of this book to detailing just how gender feminists have employed Stalinist techniques in order to twist the curriculum their way, to rewrite and distort history, and to secure greater employment for those of a similar stripe. Very revealing and sadly amusing is her report from some of the feminist conferences she has attended. The way they shout out against the truth and shout down anyone who expresses a contrary view really is something out of a storm trooper rally. Shame on a lot of people who should know better.

But feminism hasn't really been stolen. The substantial gains toward a complete social, economic and political equality are very real and very much with us. For this we can thank the real feminists, whom Sommers calls "equity feminists" for their courage, strength, hard work and level-headed intelligence. For the fringe elements, the privileged and pampered janie-come-latelies like Susan Faludi, Andrea Dworkin and the particularly obscene Catharine MacKinnon, all I can say is they couldn't even caddy for women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and later, Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer, women who really cared about women's rights and were effective in helping to secure them. What the fringe feminists have succeeded in doing with their pathological hatred of men is embarrass themselves and give comfort to the misogynists among us. Sad indeed. That whirring sound you hear is the women of the nineteenth century suffragette movement rolling over in their graves; and the sorrowful laments in the background are the cries of the really disadvantaged and victimized women world-wide in places like India and Iraq, Bangladesh and the former Soviet Union who would dearly love to deal with the discriminations American fringe feminists are whining about (even the real ones). I wonder if the likes of Faludi, Dworkin and MacKinnon would be willing to work for women's rights and against patriarchy in, say, Afghanistan or Iran...

Sommers herself is a sharp-eyed feminist of the old school, a woman who knows that distortions and brown-shirt tactics cannot do women or humans any good. Her book is an attempt to set the ship aright, a loud and somewhat stringent call for better leadership and a more diversified (and sophisticated, I might add) crew of people willing to work hard and effectively for gender equality. The spoiled little rich girl bully feminism exemplified by those targeted in this book doesn't speak for the vast majority of women struggling to find themselves as human beings, and to free themselves from the shackles and the delusions of sexism.