On Jan. 21, 2017, women across the country came together to participate in the Women’s March on Washington which, according to the demonstration’s mission statement, was meant to “send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights.” I’m not sure how wearing a vagina hat accomplishes that, but carry on. After all, perhaps I’m just too blinded by my white-lady privilege to have an opinion. Pardon me for breathing.
When I left Blackburn in the spring of 2015 I wholeheartedly identified as a feminist. I’d learned enough about it by that point to appreciate what it had done and where it had gotten women. Do I want to get paid the same as a man doing the same work? Yup. Do I want equal career opportunities? Sure (minus coal-mining and being drafted). That’s sane feminism, and something most ordinary bigots – I mean people – can probably get on board with. But what about this new, combative, in-your-face feminism that seems to be running rampant? Nope. Count me out.
Present day feminism has become all about aggressive victimhood, making the ideology overly self-righteous and all too willing to shut-out the opinions of opposition. To see proof of this, look no further than social media, a relative live-streaming of Victimhood Olympics. Self-proclaimed feminists tout the apparent woes of our society, such as the imaginary pay gap (a falsified statistic that has been overly repeated and doesn’t take into account the career choices women make), or how you’re ignorant if you’re adamantly against abortion (I mean, how dare you oppose snuffing a life out at will). And if you have the gall to disagree with any of these opinions and voice your dissent? Prepare to have hordes of women screaming at you Ashley Judd style. This is a problem and something that is going to cause more and more women to slowly side-step away from the ideology. Extreme anger, lack of reason, and in-your-face victimhood is not an attractive way to promote a cause
So, I’m dropping the “F” bomb, or shall I say, dropping the descriptor of “feminist” to describe myself. Almost as quickly as I warmed up to the ideology, it has turned sour for me. Modern day feminism is becoming volatile and, most importantly, it’s hurting women more than it is helping them. There is nothing empowering about shouting profanities on a stage for the world to see, shutting out pro-life groups from an “inclusive” march, or threatening to blow up the White House. It’s embarrassing, and I’ll let you in on a little secret: it makes you look like a raging hypocrite. Sure, our new president is a dirty old man, but judging from the behavior of a lot of women I have seen lately, we have lot of “nasty” women out there, too.