Another critique of the old feminists and some of their effects on mainstream culture. It must be in the air.
“The triumph of feminism, Gilbert reminds us (echoing those socially conservative men of the left, George Orwell and Christopher Lasch), has served the culture of capitalism. As he sums up the whole darn tangle:”
Yes, feminists have grown up within “capitalism,” and in so doing have relied on intellectual traditions they didn’t always understand to preserve the rights and freedoms…of well…feminists. It’s ironic that so many of them have been so ideologically hostile to the intellectual traditions they relied upon while bashing them…
Actually, this has probably come at a cost to “capitalism” too…though it might be a good trade off in the long run.
“The society that has emerged, in which equality between men and women supersedes equality between social classes, may therefore be seen as “the triumph of feminism over socialism.”
So has feminism grown up enough to be able to curb some of its more dangerous impulses and start to appeal to a broader group?
Some favorable signs could be the depth and breadth of thought to include reasonable men as well as banishing certain wings of itself to the hinterlands (postmodernism, socialism, the extreme equity ideologues, gender feminists etc).
Anyways, food for thought.
See Also: A Few Thoughts: Where Is Feminism Headed? which suggest some possible ideas and people of interest.
Addition: I should add that I am not a feminist, and there’s probably even something a little bit disingenuous about my tackling the subject, but it could be somewhat useful.
