The title of the lecture on Tuesday night was ‘What is Wrong (and Right) with Feminism.’ The Brian Cave Courtroom of the Anheuser-Busch Law School buzzed as students waited for the speaker to begin. Christina Hoff Sommers of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and author of Who Stole Feminism? was about to take the floor.
If the audience was expecting a speech about the oppression of women, they would certainly be in for a surprise. An emphatic critic of mainstream feminism and an advocate for gender equality, Dr. Hoff Sommers is what many have called an ‘antifeminist’.
“I am not a backlasher,” she says, “I am not an anti-woman. I am a philosophy professor who has respect for clear thinking and logic.”
Her message is controversial. American women are not oppressed, she claims, but already the most free in the world. She does not bother to hide her contempt for what she calls the vilifying of men by the field of Women’s Studies. While some men are violent and destructive she concedes, most men are not the bullies and oppressors that Feminists paint them out to be. In fact, she argues, confusing the majority of men for Neanderthals is blatant sexism.
Dr. Hoff Sommers expresses her disgust at the misinformation and propaganda that is rampant in Women’s Studies; she calls the belief that American women are oppressed by men “victim feminism”. She herself advocates “equity feminism”, which insists on equality for both men and women.
“Are things perfect [for women]? No, they’re not. But they’re not perfect for men either.”
While passionate and vociferous against the vilifying of men and the over-exaggeration of the plights of women, Dr. Hoff Sommers agrees that some women are horribly treated by men and do deserve justice and protection. However, she maintains, in general-at least here in the United States-things are hardly as bad as that.
Dr. Hoff Sommers suggested that students of Women’s Studies check statistics with regards to various issues, think critically about male-bashing, accept the fact that men and women are different and subscribe to equity feminism.