Equity Feminism for the Next Generation :: Feminism Feminist

Still Enduring Equity Feminism for the Next extensionWebster defines wo handss lib as both the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes and organized activity on the behalf of womens rights and interests (Webster 418). Equality of the sexes (in terms of rights) and the furthering of womens rights are seemingly positive aspirations even so people tend to describe feminism using negative terms, and feminism today has acquired a bad reputation. Radical and extremists are adjectives commonly applied to feminism as a whole, when, in truth, feminists who adopt extreme positions constitute the minority. Moreover, these gender feminists, or militant feminists, as many c totally them, although they receive the close to populace attention because of their combative tactics and high visibility, alienate people in broadcasting their views. Their goal, to create a sentimental priesthood that will achieve collective powerfulness and retribution as oppressed victim s of a white-male supremacy, seems unreasonable (Himmelfarb 20). In contrast, equity feminists, or academic feminists, embrace the basic principles of feminism. They celebrate womens achievements, work for the individual rights of all women, and, as Christina Hoff Sommers aptly says, want for women what they want for everyone, equal protection under the law (Himmelfarb 20). Though not all feminists agree on how to reach this goal, most argue for a reasonable, realistic, and positive method. By contrasting the differing feminist ideas of writers like Adrienne Rich, Gertrude Himmelfarb, and Camille Paglia, one defines a winning brand of feminism a philosophy founded on equity feminist ideology and dedicated to the achievement of social, political, economic, and intellectual reform.David Thomas and Camille Paglia, two contemporary cultural critics concerned with gender issues, share the belief that men and boys have aggressive tendencies that women must learn to understand and live wit h. Thomas, in his essay The Mind of Man, asserts that women should accept boys nature Boys are not on the whole, blue-blooded creatures who wish to live in harmony with one another, but are, instead, highly competitive, physically energetic creatures who hunt in packs (341). Paglia shares this view There are around things we cannot change...hunt, pursuit, and capture are biologically programmed into male sexuality. Generation after generation, men must be educated, refined, and ethically persuaded away from their tendency toward brutishness (50-51). Because Paglia believes that mans nature is inherently aggressive and poses a danger to women, she maintains that feminism of the academic type gives women a false sense of equality and ease.