Some feminists (and pretty much everyone else, by the way) are sensitive to old-fashioned sexism. We believe that women are and can be as competent as men. But as a corrective to the historical record and the remaining elements of sexism, we celebrate stories of accomplished women and highlight that yes, indeed, a woman did this and that amazing thing.
So heroes like Tammie Jo Shults resonate with us for two reasons: We genuinely admire their accomplishments and we welcome them as useful examples in our ongoing anti-sexist educational campaign.
But along comes a sub-sub-species of feminist who berates us for doing so.
Beverly Weintraub, in the WaPo, complains that pointing out the hero-pilot’s sex is itself sexist because doing so implicitly admits a “surprise” that a woman could do something impressive. The fact that statistically women pilots are still a tiny minority (between 4 and 6 percent) of the pilot population isn’t enough of an explanation for Weintraub — the reaction “reeks of something else,” namely, ongoing “unjust, sexist stereotypes.”
So if you’re an old-fashioned sexist, Weintraub can attack you — but if you’re an anti-sexist celebrating a success for women in the way feminists have recommended, Weintraub will also attack you.
All of which heightens the suspicion that for some feminists the goal is not to find common cause in making progress but always to ferret out something to complain about.
Feminism is leftist bait and switch.
The bait is women’s rights, equality, safety, all righteous goals, truly “a standard to which the wise and honest can repair,” to quote George Washington, with opposition largely confined to the ignorant, the bigoted, the malevolent, the incredibly stupid.
Then the left switches 180 degrees to support the very opposite. They ally themselves with a death cult that legitimizes and validates abuse and oppression of women, where the areas they dominate are scenes of female genital mutilations, honor killings, rape, sex slavery, child marriages, wife beating and murder of assertive women. Feminists end up defending and supporting, as in, aiding and abetting, the worst, most misogynist faction ever to infest this planet.
I just saw your talk with Sargon of Akkad, and you mentioned that feminism, by allying itself with Islam, proves the real goal isn’t equality for women, but “something else.” Curious what you thought the goal was, I looked around and found this article – and I agree that complaining for complaining’s sake seems to be a center piece of modern feminism. The irony here is that by attacking western liberal democratic societies, they might contribute to a victory for religious patriarchy.
That would make a good follow-up article or interview topic, as there are many Adjective-Feminisms, each with its own concerns.