It was refreshing, then, to see many of America\u2019s much-touted, reproduction-obsessed, faux \u201cWar on Women\u201d candidates\u2014most notably Colorado\u2019s Mark Udall and Texas\u2019s Wendy Davis\u2014lose handily in Tuesday\u2019s elections. Equally refreshing was recent news out of Australia, in which the country\u2019s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, told an audience that \u201cfeminist\u201d is \u201cnot a term that I find particularly useful these days.\u201d\u00a0 Bishop sees herself, apparently, as a person, not a walking \u201clady part\u201d grievance machine.\u201cI\u2019m a female politician, I\u2019m a female foreign minister,\u201d Bishop said. \u201cGet over it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bulk of modern feminists probably won\u2019t approve.\u00a0 Monsters, apparently, are everywhere. \u201cSexism is not just something that occasionally rears its ugly head,\u201d as feminist writer Jessica Valenti recently warned in the Guardian. \u201cIt exists every day in every space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yikes! As a woman who occupies various and sundry spaces on this madcap, whirling sphere, I was certainly surprised to learn this.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat part of feminism,\u201d asked Clementine Ford, a Melbourne-based feminist and writer, did foreign minister Bishop \u201cfind so unappealing?\u201d\u00a0 The nagging suspicion that most hard-core feminists would happily karate-kick you from behind in a dark alley if you disagree with them. It also could be the repeated public \u201crage spirals.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a more serious problem, however: For modern feminists, facts don\u2019t seem to matter, and manufactured crises are all part of a day\u2019s work. As some very real oppression of women unfolds around the globe, today\u2019s Western feminists are busy constructing entire narratives out of false \u201cepidemics\u201d\u2014widespread, sinister \u201cstreet harassment\u201d is the latest of many\u2014that crumble upon closer examination.<\/p>\n
I guess this makes sense, when you think about it: If the \u201coppression\u201d of American women were to entirely disappear, a whole host of laptop scribblers would face the daunting task of selling \u201cthink pieces\u201d about something else, and the only other thing they tend to know about is fusty, boring old Marxist economics. Who, aside from the people who pretended to get beyond Page 2 of Thomas Piketty\u2019s book attacking capitalism, wants to read about that? There\u2019s a delicate economy in the balance here, people\u2014and, no doubt, large piles of unpaid student loans.<\/p>\n
So the show must go on. Dilemmas must be concocted, and hackles must be raised. However, judging by the peculiar, stringent waft of its latest narratives, modern feminism might face an interesting test in the coming years\u2014and it could fail that test by seriously misunderstanding what women really want.<\/p>\n
Many women, in short, want husbands. A stable marriage is usually the best economic arrangement for all parties involved. The Democrats aren\u2019t alone in getting this.\u00a0 Desperate to appeal to left-leaning single ladies, the College Republican National Committee recently ran a cringe-worthy ad that compared choosing a candidate to buying a wedding dress.<\/p>\n
While this week\u2019s election results suggest that the left\u2019s \u201cWar on Women\u201d narrative is sputtering, the progressive dedication to curating the single, female demographic will continue to grow. With that comes a subtle vested interest in keeping more single ladies, well, single. Who needs a husband, after all, when you\u2019ve got Uncle Sam?\\<\/p>\n
Heather Wilhelm writes: If you follow the antics of modern \u201cfeminism\u201d\u2014or even if you desperately try to ignore them\u2014you\u2019ve probably witnessed the following sad and wacky spectacle: Every week or so, certain clusters of cloistered, college-educated, first-world women will dredge … Continue reading ![\"War](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/War-on-Women.jpg\")
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