The Independent Women’s Forum has recently begun running a provocative ad attacking campus feminism and women’s studies departments. The text of the ad debunks what the IWF calls “The Ten Most Common Feminist Myths.”
These myths include: One in four women in college has been the victim of rape or attempted rape; Women earn 75 cents for every dollar a man earns; 30 percent of emergency room visits by women each year are the result of injuries from domestic violence; The phrase “rule of thumb” originated in a man’s right to beat his wife provided the stick was no wider than his thumb; Women have been shortchanged in medical research; Girls have been shortchanged in our gender-biased schools; “Our schools are training grounds for sexual harassment… boys are rarely punished, while girls are taught that it is their role to tolerate this humiliating conduct”; Girls suffer a dramatic loss of self-esteem during adolescence; Gender is a social construction; and Women’s Studies Departments empowered women and gave them a voice in the academy.
For the most part I agree with the IWF’s analysis of common feminist myths, but the opening text to the ad really crosses the line. According to the IWF ad,
Campus feminism is a kind of cult: as early as freshman orientation, professors begin spinning theories about how American women are oppressed under “patriarchy.” Here is a list of the most common feminist myths. If you believe two or more of these untruths, you may need deprogramming.
Some Women’s Studies departments on American campuses certainly do their best to spread myths, but comparing them to cults and the students who buy into the myths as requiring deprogramming is a cheap rhetorical tool designed to enrage rather then enlighten.
In fact many people who take these courses are able to see through the faulty reasoning. Comparing Left wing Women’s Studies departments to cults is just as obnoxious as feminists who dismiss the IWF and other groups as participating in their own oppression or being nothing more than tools for patriarchal ideas.
If reasoned discourse prevails, the myths that the IWF complains about will quickly be punctured. In choosing to go for a gut-level emotional response and accuse these departments of being cults, it will end up alienating many students who might have otherwise taken a more seriously look at feminist myths.
Source:
Take Back The Campus. SheThinks.Org, April 17, 2001.