A Canadian lady writes…
I was intrigued to receive a comment earlier today to the Wikipedia post from a ‘female anti-feminist’, and emailed her to ask if she could explain more about her perspectives on feminism. She turns out to be a Canadian lady, and the following is the content of her email, reproduced here with her kind permission:
I’ve been reading your site and it’s very well-written and useful. I’m not from the UK, but things are rather similar here in Canada it seems.
I didn’t really know much about feminism itself for a long time, all I had known was the somewhat screwy history I was taught in school and various things that have seeped into popular culture. A little over a year ago they really got to me and I bought into it all; probably the most miserable period in my life that I can recall. It took me about 8 months to really get out of it, to start to realize what they were saying didn’t make sense (how on Earth am I oppressed??) and was not really about equality, fairness or anything else nice.
I don’t have children myself yet, but my sister just had a baby boy and most of my friends are men. I definitely worry about what is going on, especially with recent ads like this one going around (
). Add in what a fad feminism is online these days and it seems like a constant assault. My male friends and my husband all tell me that it’s fine and they don’t feel particularly threatened (even slipping into feminist-esque stuff at times!), but I don’t know…Also, I have to say that this current climate doesn’t really do women any favours either. Feminism really makes women out to be like children (they need protection, special benefits, aren’t responsible for anything that happens to them, can’t be allowed to face consequences) and teaches them this constant victimhood. It all comes down on my head pretty harshly too. I’m a homemaker and that is just not an okay thing to be these days, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that I was a victim of the patriarchy, an idiot, etc… Not to mention the agonizing conversations that crop up if I say ANYTHING negative about feminism.Anyways, sorry for ranting a touch there. It’s still a very sore subject for me, I find it pulls me into periods of incredible despair at times… It’s really nice to see that people are starting to clue into what feminists really are and an opposition is starting to form.
