Who Stole Feminism?

Rating:
Summary: wonderfully harsh polemic
Review: In this wonderfully harsh polemic against modern feminism, Christina Hoff Sommers essentially sets out to hunt a mouse with an elephant gun. In a successful effort to demonstrate that radical feminists have betrayed the concerns of the vast majority of women, she does a great job of reporting horror stories from the gender wars, but she is not as good at analyzing the ideology that is causing them. When she's done, her target has certainly been destroyed, but there's not much meat left for us to chew on.

Her basic thesis is inarguable: the "First Wave" of feminism was based on the idea of equity, that women should have equal opportunity to succeed in society; but the "Second Wave" of feminism is based on a fight against men and an imaginary patriarchy bent on subjugating women. Unfortunately, the book consists almost exclusively of presenting anecdotes to demonstrate that the second half of this thesis is accurate. Whereas, if only Ms Hoff Sommers had taken the time to examine her own argument and place it in a broader historical and philosophical context, she could have both obviated the need for presenting quite so much detailed proof and taken advantage of the powerful preexisting critiques of this same tendency in other groups.

The transition she identifies is after all nothing more than the common historical movement by disadvantaged interest groups from a demand for equality of opportunity to a demand for equality of results. The Second Wave feminists, or gender feminists as she refers to them, are simply your garden variety radical egalitarians. Their ideas are nothing new--they are borrowed from Marxists and Black activists and others--all that has changed is who gets grouped in the victim class (in this case it's women rather than proletarians or people of color) and who gets grouped in the oppressor class (men instead of the bourgeoisie or whites). The solution offered by the gender feminists is nothing new either; when equality of opportunity fails to produce equal results, egalitarians only have one recourse and that is to place restrictions on those who are succeeding in the existing system.

Egalitarians are always coercive utopians. Having determined an ideal set of outcomes, but unable to produce them in the rough and tumble of the free market, they resort to limitations on certain individuals and classes, and to privileges for others, as the only means to reach their cherished goal. It is hardly surprising that some 100 years into the era of women's rights, the most radical fringe element of the women's movement should have reached this stage.

This book offers an important portrait of the real life effects that these feminists and their authoritarian tactics are having, particularly in American schools. The litany of abuses which these activists have perpetrated should serve as a wake up call to anyone who is concerned about the decline of the educational system and who believes in freedom of expression, in basic civil rights, in equality of opportunity and, ultimately, in the future of women specifically and society in general. One can only wish that the author had drawn back a little from her passionate but parochial concern with gender feminism and integrated her argument into the much wider ongoing struggle against coercive egalitarians everywhere.

GRADE: B-

Rating:
Summary: It's extreme fringe of feminists who don't get it
Review: The author, Christina Hoff Sommers, is a feminist. However, she is an equity feminist who believes, in the great tradition of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Erica Jong, Betty Friedan etc. that women should enjoy equal oppoertunity and equal treatment under the law. This is quite different from the gender feminists, such as Patricia Ireland, Gloria Steinem etc. who believe that men are the enemy, that they are all potential abusers and rapists. Sommers gives a chilling account of how this type of feminism has taken over much of acedemia and views contray to the gender feminist views are not expressed for fear of reprisals. Dissent is not tolerated. Censorship and intimidation rather than refutation are the ways to deal with contrary opinions.

Sommers demonstrates that the radical feminists have demeaned the very women whose cause the supposedly champion. By viewing women who do not agree with their agenda as somehow inferior in their states of conciousness than are the radical feminists, they in effect relegate the majority of women to the staus of naive fools who do not know what's best for them. The gender feminists are elitists who know better than , eg, religious women who live a traditional religious lifestyle, or women who, out of their concern for the children they are raising, choose to stay at home. Quite frankly, it's scary. These feminists would almost subject dissenters to the "cause" to re-education camps famous for their employment by the Chinese during the cultural revolution.

Radical feminists do research with the results a forgone conclusion. For example a poll comissioned by the American Association of University Women showed women to have much lower self esteem than do men. However, Sommers, despite much resistance from the AAUW, reviewed the raw data and discovered that the results summerized for press releases were doctored and the survey did not yield a result such as that claimed by the AAUW. Sommers cites several other examples of gender feminist "scholarship" in which the conclusions are preordained and the data twisted to fit the goals of the organizations commissioning the study.

This book makes a lot of sense. I had read Sommers' later book "The War Against Boys" and the well reasoned scholarship of that book is the backbone of this one too.

Rating:
Summary: Bold, insightful, and very politically incorrect!
Review: One of the canned reviews that Amazon.com posted says that "despite claims to the contrary, this book (sic) reads like a right-wing, antifeminist..." blah, blah,blah.

Reviewers such as the one who wrote this insipid comment need to realize that the term "right-wing" does not scare anyone. The American people are tired of disingenuousness, narrow special interests, lies, and deceptions---which is precisely the reason why Christina Hoff-Sommer's book is so enormously popular.

Who Stole Feminism throws the curtain back on the modern day women's rights movement. No right thinking person could possibly be against equal rights for women. But Hoff-Sommer's book is not targeting true, liberating feminism, she is attacking the rabid, attack-dog gender feminism that is largely populated by lesbians, eco-femi-nazis, animal rights activists,leftist literatti and glitteratti--a vast array of fruits and nuts with seemingly disparate interests.

Hoff-Sommers posits that a genuine, worthy, historical movement has been hi-jacked by the aforementioned special interests, and this to the detriment of the cause. She goes in-depth exposing the faux scholarship and non-intellectual "studies" which back into conclusions that men are all bad, the penis is a weapon of oppression, and women are STILL under the thumb of the male-dominated society--facts to the contrary be damned!

She discusses the oft-cited canard that female students are at a disadvantage; this despite the fact that the education establishment is still overwhelmingly populated with females. And so on, and so forth she goes.

This book gives the reader a true perspective on what has happened to the women's movement.

Rating:
Summary: A Daring but Dangerous Book
Review: Sommers has done an excellent job of demonstrating some of the problems with what passes for current feminist advocacy studies. Her analysis of what, and more importantly how, things are being taught on many American campuses is cogent and frightening to consider; the idea that colleges may no longer consider teaching students how to think, but rather what they should think. But Sommers book also poses a danger, because many readers who come in with their own opinions firmly established will assume that Sommers' work intends to show that women face no problems in the world, or that all feminists are deceitful or simply wrong. Even a cursory review of the work will show that she in fact acknowledges that there are still problems to be resolved for women, particularly for women who are not currently well represented by prominent feminists: women who are poor or who live elsewhere than the United States. Although this book does speak specifically and well about how a certain brand of feminism (what she calls gender feminism) is alienating many who otherwise support the goals of traditional feminism, it is even better as an example of how advocacy research can twist public policy. Unfortunately, this book is most likely to be used by opponents of any feminism to drag down any attempts to remedy real problems that exist for women. That is a real shame, because Sommers has clearly put a great deal of thought and effort into this work.

Rating:
Summary: Sommers understands and exposes bigotry
Review: What is bigotry? Well, a reviewer below for some reason decides to cite a study - or actually more of an evolutionary interpretation of early human existence - which showed that men are more selfish than women! Christina Hoff Sommers' heroism lies in her relentless intolerance for sexism of this kind. Again, what is bigotry? Well, certainly a generalization and condemnation of a large group, attributing negative characteristics would qualify. What if you published a study "showing" that women are more selfish than men, citing women's concern with personal appearance as evidence? Would it be published? No! Who would print such dangerous, misogynist drivel! What about a book, such as Dr. June Stephenson's Men Are Not Cost Effective or Valerie Solanas' SCUM Manifesto, recommending that men be killed or regarded as sub-human? What about the works of Robin Morgan, Andrea Dworkin, Mary Daly - dripping with a kind of venomous, unadulterated hatred towards men, and recommending punitive controls on male behavior. Well, some arch-conservatives might object to these books, but aren't they only trying to deny women their rightful voice? These works were not only published but are widely taught in college courses, and held up as significant, ground-breaking achievements.

The made-up statistics Sommers quoted - and the fact that they have been widely reported and reprinted as truth - should infuriate any reasonable reader. But Sommers scores most by holding to a radical belief, that one gender is not more moral or more innocent than the other. (In fact, no group is superior to any other group.) While not every feminist is a misandrist, the most influential and well-known, some of whom I've mentioned in this review, certainly are. For many years, then, a highly respectable hate group has influenced legislation and media representations. Sommers book - and the many others that have followed - is a small step towards consciousness and change. It may well emerge as the bible of an underground movement that is gradually gaining steam.

Rating:
Summary: A few important points, but otherwise....
Review: After having read Backlash by Faludi, I bought this book hoping to better understand the counter-argument. I try never to come to a conclusion until I've read a representation from both or all sides. In other words, my disappointment with this book is not due to any political beliefs or preconceptions... The truth is that, while Sommers debunks some extremist myths, the book is riddled with glaring fallacies. If this book gained attention, it was for its "politically incorrect" nature, and certainly not for its academic quality.

As I said, certainly Sommers raises valid questions about extreme statements made by a handful of "gender-feminists" (a label invented by the author). She rightfully points out the fiction of alarmist rhetoric of a few (a very few) feminists, i.e. super bowl Sunday domestic violence rates, # of anorexic deaths per year, and certain rape studies. However, she desperatly tries to make the logical leap that this misinformation discredits all feminists (except for, of course the, "equity feminists," another self-penned category).

Logical fallacies and novice research are found throughout, though nowhere more glaring than in her attempt to refute Faludi's Backlash (the National Book Award Winner). No one should assume Sommers is correct without also reading Backlash. Here are a few of Sommers more memorable misteps:

1)She starts the chapter by arguing that if one finds any doubt in any of Faludi's points, all points must be viewed with caution. A required opener, as it turns out. Of the eighty pages of footnotes in Backlash, Sommers weakly questions four of them... Actually, none of the criticism is her own; she just recycles those written by others.

2)Take the Forbes Mag. critique Sommers borrows. It must be stated that Faludi effectively demolishes Forbes' journalistic integrity time and time again..(remember the Dr. Blotnick's column, whose tirades against feminists continued even after it was revealed to the editors that the "Dr." title was bogus, and that his "current mentor" had been dead for fifteen years.) Here's the logical brilliance we see in Sommers book:
a)Quoting Faludi, she writes "women applying to business schools suddenly began to shrink, for the first time in a decade." This was after a report in Forbes, Faludi points out, that claimed women were "bailing out" of careers to become housewives.
b)But Faludi is wrong, says Sommers and the Forbes critique she co-opts: "But there was no shrinking following the story...the proportion of female business school graduates increased every year since 1967." Hmmmm???? She's grasping at straws here..."women applying" and "# of female graduates" are clearly different...yet Sommers seems to think that a decrease in applicants and an increase in graduates can't happen simultaneously. How was this published?

3) She's at it again in the next paragraph. This time, she argues Faludi is wrong when saying "women were [in the 80's] pouring into low paid female work ghettos." Why? Because, according to the borrowed Forbes article, "the percentage of women executives, administrators, and managers in the work force has risen [since 1983]."

Sommers should give her readers more credit...she seems to believe that if executive jobs for women are on the rise, in no way can the rate of low-paid women be increasing too. Hmmmm?????

So many blatant illogical assumptions and conclusions are made, I frequently wondered how the book was published. And, ironically, Who Stole Feminism was meant as an attempt to point out the fallacies of women such as Faludi. Yet, for every example of careless reasoning I mention above, one finds multiple others lurking close by.

In the end, this book will find praise from those who share Sommers views, but hopefully not from anyone who reads it for the sake of better understanding.

Rating:
Summary: the average woman
Review: Many of the reviewers for this particular book have highly critized feminists' ability to take criticism. Then, they have gone on to say that only the extremist feminists will disagree with this author. Unfortunately, that contradiction proves that that they are the ones who cannot take criticism.

Sommers' analysis of feminists'statiscal accuracy does seem legitimate. Yet, the statistics she provides do not seem to be any better (the 100 cases of deaths due to anorexia, anyone?).

This book would have better served women by describing what the so called "good Feminists" are gonna do to help women. A cat fight among feminists does not help anyone but those who wish to turn back the clock on women's rights.

Also, the assumption is made that women have already achieved equality through the Women's Movement. But, the sad fact is that we haven't. And the sad fact is that it does not take a degree in Women's Studies to disagree with the content of this book. Many of us "average women" do not.

Rating:
Summary: DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME READING THIS BOOK
Review: It's no wonder feminist scholars have not taken much time in refuting this waste of paper - page after page reveals faulty logic and embarassingly petty arguments.

Rating:
Summary: Great book on the increasingly prevailing gender feminists
Review: Having read Christina Hoff Sommer's more recent book, War Against Boys, I held high expectations for her earlier work, Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women, and I wasn't disappointed.

In her book, Sommers takes up the case against gender feminists. Usually seen in women's studies departments, gender feminists are those who carry an anti-male, anti-establishment, anti-traditionalism agenda, as opposed to the classically liberal equity feminists who argue for the equal treatment of women under the law and do ask for special favors for women. Sommers argues that gender feminists have served to exaggerate statistics in rape, depression for women, and wage differential between men and women. She points out that the gender feminists take an authoritarian view of academia, striving to silence those who disagree with them, even when the dissenters are women. So, dissenters are labeled "sexists" or "indoctrinated by the male-centered society."

Well written and extensively documented, Sommer's book is a must read for anyone who has ever had suspicions about the increasing power gender feminists have wield on college campuses, arming those suspicions with data and a voice. Even those who have not witnessed gender feminism on campus, this book provides good insights into the politics power struggle in academia.

Rating:
Summary: Page turner!
Review: Sommers combines philosophical skill with entertaining anecdotes to create a real masterpiece of criticism. Having been an undergraduate at the U of MN, where academic feminism rules, I can attest that the stories included in her book are consistent with my experience. This book is a delight and stands, to my mind, as the single most important general critique of contemporary feminism.