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A review by chirson
Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women by Christina Hoff Sommers
1.0
There are moments when Sommers makes some valid points about the necessity to check research more thoroughly and about feminist overzealousness that results in essentialism (women have better ____ skills; women are more empathetic etc.). Unfortunately, that is lost under a deluge of bile and such pearls as the aforementioned "feminist college will turn your daughters gay, deprive them of religion and morals and turn them against you." Her arguments against Foucault are mostly quotes from others and show that she either did not actually read him, or failed to understand him, or willfully misrepresents his points. I also appreciate how quick she was to decide that Naomi Wolf will be universally hated by feminists for publishing Fire with Fire - while there has undoubtedly been a lot of (valid) criticism of that book, the edition I own boasts an enthusiastic blurb from the much-maligned Steinem, whom Sommers considers to be the exemplary "gender-feminist".
I did not much care for the America-the-Great-Liberal-Country-of-Liberty-and-Equality spiel. But, overall, I'd say I hated it a little less than I did Badinter's "We the French Women Are Not Some American Prudes."
Other highlights: being forcibly finger-fucked (after consensual sexual activity that did not involve penetration) is not rape, it's "a boy misbehaving". 1 woman raped in 20 equals low rape rates. (The bad type of) feminists get all the funding and spend it on evil curriculum reform designed to deprive youth of education.
Sommers has a rosy view of American society (apart from the short moment when she admits that it has violence issues - and a bad education system) and a very bleak view of feminists. She does not manage to prove that either of them is justified.
I did not much care for the America-the-Great-Liberal-Country-of-Liberty-and-Equality spiel. But, overall, I'd say I hated it a little less than I did Badinter's "We the French Women Are Not Some American Prudes."
Other highlights: being forcibly finger-fucked (after consensual sexual activity that did not involve penetration) is not rape, it's "a boy misbehaving". 1 woman raped in 20 equals low rape rates. (The bad type of) feminists get all the funding and spend it on evil curriculum reform designed to deprive youth of education.
Sommers has a rosy view of American society (apart from the short moment when she admits that it has violence issues - and a bad education system) and a very bleak view of feminists. She does not manage to prove that either of them is justified.