Editor Wendy McElroy is one of the leading lights of 'ifeminism' (a term she coined) -- feminism with an individualist, libertarian emphasis, as opposed to the collectivist, group-rights orientation of more traditional, left-leaning feminism. In place of the tired old orthodoxies of today's victim-feminism, the provocative, insightful, and energetic essays collected here reveal a feminism fit for the twenty-first century.
I admire Wendy McElroy a lot, and so particularly looked forward to her contributions to this collection. But the other writers she assembled are also quite good. I especially enjoyed the first three chapters, in which McElroy, Camille Paglia, and Richard Epstein lay the foundations of ifeminism. From there, different sections address ifeminism as it relates to sex, work, the home, violence and victim disarmament (aka 'gun control') and, finally, technology. Of the issue-oriented sections, this last one was particularly good. I especially appreciated Janis Cortese's 'The Third WWWave: Who We Are, What We See' -- a defiant, even angry, call to 'second generation' feminists to take this new, rising tide of ifeminists seriously.
Much of what you'll read here runs counter to received feminist wisdom: it's pro-market, pro-gun, anti-'comparable worth,' and profoundly skeptical about the evolution of sexual harassment law. It's pro-choice, but doesn't consider abortion a sacrament, as much of traditional feminism seems to. To borrow a too-often-paraphrased TV ad, this is not your mother's feminism.
Regardless of whether you're male or female, how you define feminism, or what your opinions of it may be, Wendy McElroy and her fellow contributors have outlined a new vision of feminism. It may well change the terms of debate entirely. Let's hope so.
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