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'''Antifeminism''' is opposition to ] in some or all of its forms.<ref></ref>
'''Antifeminism''' is opposition to ] in some or all of its forms.<ref></ref> It addresses a range of points either criticizing feminist ideology and practice or arguing that it be restrained. Antifeminism is often equated by feminists to ] or as a movement against gender equality <ref></ref><ref></ref>. However, considering statements by antifeminist authors and activists, such definition may not be adequate in most cases <ref name="(Kalb, J 2004)">{{Cite web|url=http://turnabout.ath.cx:8000/node/2|title=Anti-Feminist Page|accessdate=]|year=2004|author=Jim Kalb}}</ref><ref name="(Gottfried, Paul 2002)">{{Cite web|url=http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/g/g-misc/gottfried051702.htm|title=The Trouble With Feminism|accessdate=]|publisher= mensnewsdaily.com|year=2002|author=Gottfried, Paul}}</ref>.


==Antifeminism among "Libertarian Feminists"==
==Antifeminist claims and ideas==
] such as ], ], ] and ] have been labeled "antifeminists", or holders of antifeminist views, by other feminists. <ref>Judith Stacey, ''Is Academic Feminism an Oxymoron?'', Signs, Vol. 25, No. 4, Feminisms at a Millennium. (Summer, 2000), pp. 1189-1194</ref> <ref>Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich, Review: 'Feminist Attacks on Feminisms: Patriarchy's Prodigal Daughters', Feminist Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1. (Spring, 1998), pp. 159-175 </ref><ref>''BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine'',by Margaret Cho (Foreword), Lisa Jervis (Editor), Andi Zeisler (Editor), 2006</ref> Some argue that in this way the term "antifeminist" is used to silence academic debate about feminism, and represents "an enormous extension of women's power, allowing any sort of criticism of either women or feminist ideas to fall under the watchful eye of their ideological guardians."<ref>{{cite book |last=Patai |first=Daphne |coauthors=Noretta Koertge |title=Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies |isbn=0739104551 }}</ref>.
Many antifeminist proponents say the ] has achieved its aims and now seeks higher status for women than for men<ref name="(Wattenberg, B 1994)">{{Cite web|url=http://www.menweb.org/paglsomm.htm|title=Has Feminism Gone Too Far?|accessdate=]|publisher=MenWeb |year=1994|author=Wattenberg, B}}</ref><ref name="(Pizzey, E 1999)">{{Cite web|url=http://www.fathersforlife.org/pizzey/how_women_were_taught_to_hate_men.htm|title=How The Women's Movement Taught Women to Hate Men|accessdate=]|publisher=Fathers for Life|year=1999|author=Pizzey, Erin}}</ref><ref name="(JSC 2006)">{{Cite web|url=http://www.beverlylahayeinstitute.org/articledisplay.asp?id=10088&department=BLI&categoryid=dotcommentary|title=What Friedan Wrought |accessdate=]|publisher=Concerned Women for America |year=2006|author=Janice Shaw Crouse}}</ref>.


Jennifer Pozner, a feminist media critic, claims that libertarian feminists use the "feminist" label as a ruse. In describing what she believes is a method of so-called "rebel feminists" who use "Leftist lingo to gain rebellious credibility in a supposedly politically correct culture," she identifies what she argues libertarian feminists have a strategy:
Others consider feminism a destructive force that endangers the family. For example, conservative political scientist ] describes this antifeminist position:
{{"|Anti-feminist women who attack feminism under the guise of the liberal cause of women's advancement are far less easy to dismiss than right-wing critics such as ] or ]. Yet Schlafly and Sommers are both listed in the speakers guide of the Young Americas Foundation, a group which routinely gives $10K grants to student groups to bring conservative lecturers to their campuses. Sommers is also a speaker for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, another right think tank, which dishes out the dollars to sponsor lecturers who "counter the Marxists, radical feminists, deconstructionists, and other 'politically correct' types on your campus." The media seize the rhetoric of self-proclaimed "feminist dissenters" such as Sommers and Rophie as proof that feminism is failing women ("See," we are supposed to think, "even the feminists now admit their movement is passé"). They are compensated highly for their complicity: Sommers received over $164,000 in grants from the conservative Olin, Bradley and Carthage foundations for Who Stole Feminism, in addition to a six-figure advance from her publisher, Simon and Schuster.<br />
<blockquote>Serious conservative scholars like ] and F. Carolyn Graglia have maintained that the change of women’s role, from being primarily mothers to self-defined professionals, has been a social disaster that continues to take its toll on the family. Rather than being the culminating point of Western Christian gentility, the movement of women into commerce and politics may be seen as exactly the opposite, the descent by increasingly disconnected individuals into social chaos<ref name="(Gottfried, Paul 2002)">{{Cite web|url=http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/g/g-misc/gottfried051702.htm|title=The Trouble With Feminism|accessdate=]|publisher= mensnewsdaily.com|year=2002|author=Gottfried, Paul}}</ref>.</blockquote>
Some questions arise in response to Roiphe's smug assertion that "some feminisms are better than others." Which "brands" of feminism should be considered beneficial to women, and which should be discounted? Whose "feminism" should we trust: the feminism of young activists who lead self-defense workshops, staff battered women's shelters and rape hotlines, push for anti-discrimination legislation, and study and teach women's history, or that of ideologically Right "feminist dissenters" such as Sommers and Roiphe, who constantly mock young women as neo-Victorian wimps? The answer is simple—using Leftist lingo does not make the package any less conservative. Sommers' and Roiphe's "feminisms" consist of one overriding premise: that activists for women's rights are intellectually and sexually naive, and should not be taken seriously when they speak in the classroom or of the bedroom. This is classic backlash fare, and should be dismissed as such. Feminism, in its most pure form, is an ideological movement for women's political, social, and economic equality. These goals—along with complete sexual autonomy for women—form the vision of contemporary campus feminists. Their agenda, not faux-feminists' distorted picture of their movement, is the version of feminism that is truly "better than others.|, copyright 1997 by the Center for Campus Organizing}}

Antifeminist writer Jim Kalb describes the stance thus:
<blockquote>To be antifeminist is simply to accept that men and women differ and rely on each other to be different, and to view the differences as among the things constituting human life that should be reflected where appropriate in social attitudes and institutions. By feminist standards all societies have been thoroughly sexist. It follows that to be antifeminist is only to abandon the bigotry of a present-day ideology that sees traditional relations between the sexes as simply a matter of domination and submission, and to accept the validity of the ways in which human beings have actually dealt with sex, children, family life and so on. Antifeminism is thus nothing more than the rejection of one of the narrow and destructive fantasies of an age in which such things have been responsible for destruction and murder on an unprecedented scale<ref name="(Kalb, J 2004)">{{Cite web|url=http://turnabout.ath.cx:8000/node/2|title=Anti-Feminist Page|accessdate=]|year=2004|author=Jim Kalb}}</ref>.</blockquote>

Antifeminists often decry what they view as the ] policies of Western governments, including anti-male discrimination in the areas of reproductive rights, child custody, alimony, and property division in divorce, pointing to statistical figures<ref></ref>. As well objecting to the cases of ] against men and women's quotas in the areas of employment, education, politics and healthcare. They are also referencing cases of feminist press and media censorship<ref></ref>.

Antifeminists sometimes point to an increase in divorce and "family breakdown" and attribute as its cause the influence of feminism. They also cite that crime<ref name="(NCPA 1997)">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ncpa.org/pi/crime/nov97b.html|title=Juvenile Crime In Fatherless Homes, Public Schools|accessdate=]|publisher=National Center for Policy Analysis|year=1997}}</ref>, teenage pregnancy<ref name="(Ellis BJ 2003)">{{cite journal | author=Ellis, BJ et al.| title=Does father absence place daughters at special risk for early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy?| journal=Child Development| year=2003| volume=74| issue=3| page=801-821| url=http://ag.arizona.edu/fcs/fshd/people/ellis/CD%20Ellis%20et%20al.%202003.pdf}}</ref>, and drug abuse<ref name="fathers.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.fathers.com/research/consequences.html|title=The Consequences of Fatherlessness|accessdate=]|publisher=fathers.com}}</ref> are higher among children of ] homes, considering that 66-80% (depending on the source) of divorces are initiated by women and that single parent mothers are accountable for 49% of all child abuse cases<ref>A study of child abuse in Lansing. Michigan. Joan Ditson and Sharon Shay in Child Abuse and Neglect, Volume 8. 1984.</ref>.

Furthermore, antifeminists claim that feminist organisations and researchers frequently use fake statistical data and research, pointing out a number of such cases.<ref> </ref><ref></ref>.

Antifeminist comments periodically appear in U.S. political punditry. For example, in a 1983 syndicated column, ] wrote, "Rail as they will about discrimination, women are simply not endowed by nature with the same measures of single-minded ambition and the will to succeed in the fiercely competitive world of Western capitalism."<ref name="fair96">{{Cite web|url=http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2553|title=Pat Buchanan In His Own Words|accessdate=]|publisher=FAIR|year=1996}}</ref>

Antifeminists point out that feminists impose tremendous pressure on traditional women by denigrating the role of a traditional housewife:"No woman should be authorized to stay at home to raise her children. Society should be totally different. Women should not have that choice, precisely because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one."<ref>]</ref> Instead promoting the business woman, woman leader models, as well encouraging women into competitive environments, where they may not be able to perform as well as males, if only for purely physical reasons. A case well illustrated by ]: <blockquote>There is no solid satisfaction in any career for a woman like myself. There is no home, no true freedom, no hope, no joy, no expectation for tomorrow, no contentment. I would rather cook a meal for a man and bring him his slippers and feel myself in the protection of his arms than have all the citations and awards and honors I have received worldwide, including the Ribbon of Legion of Honor and my property and my bank accounts. They mean nothing to me. And I am only one among the millions of sad women like myself. <ref> </ref></blockquote>

Antifeminists furthermore point out cases when feminist policies and regulations are detrimental to both female self-esteem and the areas, which such policies are applied to, referring to cases of "special treatment" and lower requirements particularly in physically demanding professions, like military and rescue services. Since women who are hired are trained to handle less demanding tasks, reducing effectiveness of a unit, while still making it impossible to refuse hiring them. <ref>WOMEN IN COMBAT, The Center for Military Readiness</ref>

==Antifeminism as a debate between feminists==

Feminists such as ], ], ] and ] have been labeled "antifeminists", or holders of antifeminist views, by other feminists <ref>Judith Stacey, ''Is Academic Feminism an Oxymoron?'', Signs, Vol. 25, No. 4, Feminisms at a Millennium. (Summer, 2000), pp. 1189-1194</ref> <ref>Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich, Review: 'Feminist Attacks on Feminisms: Patriarchy's Prodigal Daughters', Feminist Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1. (Spring, 1998), pp. 159-175 </ref> relating to their position regarding oppression and lines of thought within feminism which Christina Hoff Sommers has controversially defined as ]<ref>''BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine'',by Margaret Cho (Foreword), Lisa Jervis (Editor), Andi Zeisler (Editor), 2006</ref> Some argue that in this way the term "antifeminist" is used to silence academic debate about feminism, and represents "an enormous extension of women's power, allowing any sort of criticism of either women or feminist ideas to fall under the watchful eye of their ideological guardians."<ref>Patai and Koerge, ''Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies'', (2003)</ref>.

Other feminists such as media critic ] claim that these women use the feminist label as a ruse. In describing what she believes is a method of so-called "rebel feminists" who use "Leftist lingo to gain rebellious credibility in a supposedly politically correct culture", she identifies what she argues is a contradiction: "Become vocally indignant at refusal to tolerate 'dissenting feminist voice'" and then to "Go directly to the media. Do not pass up the college lecture circuit. Do not turn down close to $200K in Right Wing grants" and wait "for the money to come rolling in". She goes on to further counter claims of silencing debate or criticism: "Use your role as 'rebel feminist' to denounce every feminist concern other than women's economic advancement." and "(...) substantiate your claims by using faulty research methods and superficial interviews. Rarely contact the authors, activists and psychologists you libel."

==Antifeminism in Nietzschean philosophy==
In '']'', ] expresses his belief that women are naturally more cruel and contemptuous of truth than men, and that the emancipation of women threatens to compromise what he considers these admirable feminine qualities.
:<blockquote>Since the French Revolution the influence of woman in Europe has grown smaller in proportion to the increase in her rights and demands, and the "Emancipation of Woman," to the extent that that is desired and demanded by women themselves (and not just by superficial men), has, as a result, produced a peculiar symptom of the growing weakening and deadening of the most feminine instincts. There is a stupidity in this development, an almost masculine stupidity, about which a successful woman—who is always an intelligent woman—would have to feel thoroughly ashamed.</blockquote>

He goes on to write that, "The thing in woman that arouses respect and often enough fear is her nature, which is 'more natural' than man's nature, her genuine predatory and cunning adaptability, the tiger's claws under the glove, the naiveté of her egotism, her uneducable nature, her inner wildness, the incomprehensibility, breadth, and roaming of her desires and virtues," and concludes that these superior qualities can only thrive when women are repressed or relegated to subordinate roles. He attacks the men of his time he sees as "idiotic friends of women and corrupters of women among the scholarly asses of the male sex who counsel woman to de-feminize herself in this manner and to imitate all the foolish things which make 'man' in Europe and European 'manliness' sick, people who want to bring woman down to the level of a 'common education,' perhaps even to reading the newspapers and discussing politics. Here and there they want even to make women into free spirits and literati: as if a woman without piety were not something totally repulsive and ridiculous to a profound and godless man."

Nietzsche also writes that if a woman is "corrupted" by having the same freedom as men, it "make her incapable of her first and last profession, giving birth to strong children." Although ]'s own expressed views on women were generally more empathetic and less inflammatory than Nietzsche's, Spengler endorsed the Nietzschean opposition to feminism for many of the same reasons. Spengler also expressed concern that both men and women in Western countries no longer wanted to get married and raise children, claiming this would eventually result in the destruction of Western Civilization. But while Nietzsche argued for stricter societal controls on women, Spengler found it deplorable for either society or the state to force women to meet a "standardized type... in body, in clothes, in mind," which he considered a sign of cultural decline or inferiority. In ''The Hour of Decision'' Spengler attacks both feminism and modern misogyny as signs of Western culture in decline.

Much of feminism also conflicts with the Nietzschean view of world history, continued by admirers and emulators such as Spengler, which rejects the traditional linear notion of world history headed toward a greater goal. Because feminist ideology chooses to portray history by the relations of what it identifies as victims and oppressors in a subjective way, claiming to represent the victim's perspective, it falls under the category of "slave morality." Furthermore, feminism positions itself as an ideology that revolves around what it claims to be intellectual assertions about relations between the sexes, and thus runs in opposition to the fundamental core of Nietzschean declared anti-rationalism.


==Antifeminist organizations== ==Antifeminist organizations==
] the most successful antifeminist organisation in the US is STOP ERA, founded by ] in October 1972. Schlafly successfully mobilised thousands of people to block the passage of the ] in the USA<ref name="wse2">{{cite book | title=Women's Studies Encyclopedia| url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/unisouthernqld/Doc?id=10017897&ppg=106| last=Tierney| first=Helen|date=1999| pages=p. 95| publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated| location=Westport, CT, USA}}</ref>. It was Schlafly too who forged links between STOP ERA and other conservative organizations, as well as single-issue groups against abortion, pornography, gun control, and unions. By integrating STOP ERA with the so-called ] she was able to leverage a wider range of technological, organisational and political resources, successfully targeting pro-feminist candidates for defeat<ref name="wse2">{{cite book | title=Women's Studies Encyclopedia| url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/unisouthernqld/Doc?id=10017897&ppg=106| last=Tierney| first=Helen|date=1999| pages=p. 95| publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated| location=Westport, CT, USA}}</ref>. ] the most successful antifeminist organisation in the US is STOP ERA, founded by ] in October 1972. Schlafly successfully mobilised thousands of people to block the passage of the ] in the USA<ref name="wse2">{{cite book | title=Women's Studies Encyclopedia| url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/unisouthernqld/Doc?id=10017897&ppg=106| last=Tierney| first=Helen|date=1999| pages=p. 95| publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated| location=Westport, CT, USA}}</ref>. It was Schlafly too who forged links between STOP ERA and other conservative organizations, as well as single-issue groups against abortion, pornography, gun control, and unions. By integrating STOP ERA with the so-called ] she was able to leverage a wider range of technological, organisational and political resources, successfully targeting pro-feminist candidates for defeat<ref name="wse2">{{cite book | title=Women's Studies Encyclopedia| url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/unisouthernqld/Doc?id=10017897&ppg=106| last=Tierney| first=Helen|date=1999| pages=p. 95| publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated| location=Westport, CT, USA}}</ref>.


==Further reading==
==Critique of Antifeminism==
Critics dispute studies, and conclusions drawn from studies, of the behaviour of children from fatherless homes labelling them as misleading and alarmist and refer to counter-research to support their claims:<blockquote>Research on the impact of father involvement on children provides evidence that high levels of paternal participation tends to increase children's cognitive competence, empathy, and internal locus of control. These children are also characterized by reduced sex-stereotyped beliefs. However, these positive outcomes may result because the fathers sampled wanted to be and enjoyed being involved in childcare, not just because they were involved per se. <ref></ref></blockquote>


===Literature about antifeminism===
Australian pro-feminist sociologist ] responds that although children of two-parent families generally do better psychologically and educationally than children of single-parent families, that does not necessarily mean that correlation between these two factors implies that one is the cause of the other, and that neither divorce, nor fatherlessness in themselves are the cause of it. In his discussion paper he uses studies to argue that it is the quality of parenting and the child's relationship with the parents that plays the main role. That children are negatively influenced by the situations in families characterized by violence, psychological problems, substance abuse, or economic insecurity and that it is the couples where such situations are frequent that are more likely to get divorced.
*''Redefining the New Woman, 1920-1963 (Antifeminism in America: A Collection of Readings from the Literature of the Opponents to U.S. Feminism, 1848 to the Present)'', Howard-Zophy
*''Un-American Womanhood: Antiradicalism, Antifeminism, and the First Red Scare'', Kim E. Nielsen
* ], ''Right-Wing Women: The Politics of Domesticated Females'' (1983; ISBN 0-399-50671-3).
* ], ''Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women'' (1992; ISBN 0-385-42507-4)
* Cynthia D. Kinnard, ''Antifeminism in American Thought: An Annotated Bibliography'' (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1986, ISBN 0-8161-8122-5)
* Jane J. Mansbridge: ''Why We Lost the ERA,'' Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1986
* G. Swanson, ''Antifeminism in America: A Historical Reader'' (2000) ISBN 0-8153-3437-0


===Antifeminist literature===
In an article released in the American Psychologist (June 1999) , feminist psychologist and researcher Louise B. Silverstein and psychologist and researcher in coding and analysis Carl F. Auerbach explained the conclusions their research brought them to:<blockquote>We have found that the stability of the emotional connection and the predictability of the caretaking relationship are the significant variables that predict positive child adjustment.</blockquote>
* ], ] (2007) ISBN 0553384279

They state also that, "ur research with divorced, never-married, and remarried fathers has taught us that a wide variety of family structures can support positive child outcomes."

==Further reading==
===Literature critical of feminism===
* ], ] 2007 ISBN 0553384279
* Alan J. Barron, ''The Death of Eve: Women, Liberation, Disintegration'' (1986) ISBN 0949667366 * Alan J. Barron, ''The Death of Eve: Women, Liberation, Disintegration'' (1986) ISBN 0949667366
* Alan Carlson, ''The Family in America: Searching for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age'' (2003) ISBN 0765805367 * Alan Carlson, ''The Family in America: Searching for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age'' (2003) ISBN 0765805367
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* ], ''A Generation of Vipers'' (1942) ISBN 1-56478-146-1 * ], ''A Generation of Vipers'' (1942) ISBN 1-56478-146-1


==Antifeminist authors==
===Literature about antifeminism===
*''Redefining the New Woman, 1920-1963 (Antifeminism in America: A Collection of Readings from the Literature of the Opponents to U.S. Feminism, 1848 to the Present)'', Howard-Zophy
*''Un-American Womanhood: Antiradicalism, Antifeminism, and the First Red Scare'', Kim E. Nielsen
* ], ''Right-Wing Women: The Politics of Domesticated Females'' (1983; ISBN 0-399-50671-3).
* ], ''Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women'' (1992; ISBN 0-385-42507-4)
* Cynthia D. Kinnard, ''Antifeminism in American Thought: An Annotated Bibliography'' (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1986, ISBN 0-8161-8122-5)
* Jane J. Mansbridge: ''Why We Lost the ERA,'' Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1986
* G. Swanson, ''Antifeminism in America: A Historical Reader'' (2000) ISBN 0-8153-3437-0

==See also==
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]

===Individuals linked to antifeminism===
*] *]
*] *]
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*] *]


==See also==
==External links and on-line resources==
*]
*]
*]
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*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]

==Web links==
* , by Elizabeth Anderson, review of "Scrutinizing Feminist Epistemology" concluding " failure by its own evaluative standards of civility and avoiding gross error, tribalism, cynicism, and political correctness." * , by Elizabeth Anderson, review of "Scrutinizing Feminist Epistemology" concluding " failure by its own evaluative standards of civility and avoiding gross error, tribalism, cynicism, and political correctness."
* , Der Spiegel, special edition 5, 1998, translated by Walter H. Schneider. Feminism critique, could be seen as antifeminist perspective on current state of affairs. * , Der Spiegel, special edition 5, 1998, translated by Walter H. Schneider. Feminism critique, could be seen as antifeminist perspective on current state of affairs.
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* ] * ]


==Notes== ==References==

{{reflist}} {{reflist}}


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] ]
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] ]
] ]

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Antifeminism is opposition to feminism in some or all of its forms.

Antifeminism among "Libertarian Feminists"

Libertarian feminists such as Camille Paglia, Christina Hoff Sommers, Jean Bethke Elshtain and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese have been labeled "antifeminists", or holders of antifeminist views, by other feminists. Some argue that in this way the term "antifeminist" is used to silence academic debate about feminism, and represents "an enormous extension of women's power, allowing any sort of criticism of either women or feminist ideas to fall under the watchful eye of their ideological guardians.".

Jennifer Pozner, a feminist media critic, claims that libertarian feminists use the "feminist" label as a ruse. In describing what she believes is a method of so-called "rebel feminists" who use "Leftist lingo to gain rebellious credibility in a supposedly politically correct culture," she identifies what she argues libertarian feminists have a strategy:

Anti-feminist women who attack feminism under the guise of the liberal cause of women's advancement are far less easy to dismiss than right-wing critics such as Phyllis Schlafly or Rush Limbaugh. Yet Schlafly and Sommers are both listed in the speakers guide of the Young Americas Foundation, a group which routinely gives $10K grants to student groups to bring conservative lecturers to their campuses. Sommers is also a speaker for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, another right think tank, which dishes out the dollars to sponsor lecturers who "counter the Marxists, radical feminists, deconstructionists, and other 'politically correct' types on your campus." The media seize the rhetoric of self-proclaimed "feminist dissenters" such as Sommers and Rophie as proof that feminism is failing women ("See," we are supposed to think, "even the feminists now admit their movement is passé"). They are compensated highly for their complicity: Sommers received over $164,000 in grants from the conservative Olin, Bradley and Carthage foundations for Who Stole Feminism, in addition to a six-figure advance from her publisher, Simon and Schuster.
Some questions arise in response to Roiphe's smug assertion that "some feminisms are better than others." Which "brands" of feminism should be considered beneficial to women, and which should be discounted? Whose "feminism" should we trust: the feminism of young activists who lead self-defense workshops, staff battered women's shelters and rape hotlines, push for anti-discrimination legislation, and study and teach women's history, or that of ideologically Right "feminist dissenters" such as Sommers and Roiphe, who constantly mock young women as neo-Victorian wimps? The answer is simple—using Leftist lingo does not make the package any less conservative. Sommers' and Roiphe's "feminisms" consist of one overriding premise: that activists for women's rights are intellectually and sexually naive, and should not be taken seriously when they speak in the classroom or of the bedroom. This is classic backlash fare, and should be dismissed as such. Feminism, in its most pure form, is an ideological movement for women's political, social, and economic equality. These goals—along with complete sexual autonomy for women—form the vision of contemporary campus feminists. Their agenda, not faux-feminists' distorted picture of their movement, is the version of feminism that is truly "better than others.

— Uncovering the Right on Campus, copyright 1997 by the Center for Campus Organizing

Antifeminist organizations

As of 2006 the most successful antifeminist organisation in the US is STOP ERA, founded by Phyllis Schlafly in October 1972. Schlafly successfully mobilised thousands of people to block the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the USA. It was Schlafly too who forged links between STOP ERA and other conservative organizations, as well as single-issue groups against abortion, pornography, gun control, and unions. By integrating STOP ERA with the so-called New Right she was able to leverage a wider range of technological, organisational and political resources, successfully targeting pro-feminist candidates for defeat.

Further reading

Literature about antifeminism

  • Redefining the New Woman, 1920-1963 (Antifeminism in America: A Collection of Readings from the Literature of the Opponents to U.S. Feminism, 1848 to the Present), Howard-Zophy
  • Un-American Womanhood: Antiradicalism, Antifeminism, and the First Red Scare, Kim E. Nielsen
  • Andrea Dworkin, Right-Wing Women: The Politics of Domesticated Females (1983; ISBN 0-399-50671-3).
  • Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (1992; ISBN 0-385-42507-4)
  • Cynthia D. Kinnard, Antifeminism in American Thought: An Annotated Bibliography (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1986, ISBN 0-8161-8122-5)
  • Jane J. Mansbridge: Why We Lost the ERA, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1986
  • G. Swanson, Antifeminism in America: A Historical Reader (2000) ISBN 0-8153-3437-0

Antifeminist literature

  • Helen Andelin, Fascinating Womanhood (2007) ISBN 0553384279
  • Alan J. Barron, The Death of Eve: Women, Liberation, Disintegration (1986) ISBN 0949667366
  • Alan Carlson, The Family in America: Searching for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age (2003) ISBN 0765805367
  • Alan Carlson, Family Questions: Reflections on the American Social Crisis (1991) ISBN 1560005556
  • Gilbert K. Chesterton, Brave New Family (1990; essay collection) ISBN 089870314X
  • Thomas Fleming, The Politics of Human Nature (1988) ISBN 1-56000-693-5
  • Maggie Gallagher, The Abolition of Marriage: How We Destroy Lasting Love (1996) ISBN 0895264641
  • George Gilder, Men and Marriage (1992) ISBN 0882894447
  • Steven Goldberg, Why Men Rule: A Theory of Male Dominance (1993; originally published 1971) ISBN 0812692373
  • Steven Goldberg, The Inevitability of Patriarchy (1977) ISBN 0812692373
  • F. Carolyn Graglia, Domestic Tranquility: A Brief Against Feminism (1998) ISBN 0965320863
  • Mary A. Kassian, The Feminist Mistake (2005) ISBN 1581345704
  • Linda Kelly, Disabusing the Definition of Domestic Abuse: How Women Batter Men and the Role of the Feminist State (2003)
  • Myron Magnet, Modern Sex: Liberation and Its Discontents (2001) ISBN 1566633842
  • Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture (2001) ISBN 0773522727
  • Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young, Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systemic Discrimination Against Men (2006) ISBN 0773528628
  • John Piper and Wayne A. Grudem, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (1991) ISBN 0891075860
  • Mary Pride, The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality (1985) ISBN 0891073450
  • Phyllis Schlafly, The Power of the Positive Woman (1977) ISBN 0-87000-373-9
  • Phyllis Schlafly, Feminist Fantasies (2003) ISBN 1890626465
  • Howard Schwartz, The Revolt of the Primitive: An Inquiry into the Roots of Political Correctness (2003) ISBN 0765805375
  • Lionel Tiger, The Decline of Males (2000) ISBN 0312263112
  • Esther Vilar, The Manipulated Man (1972) ISBN 0953096424
  • Alan J. Barron, The Death of Eve: Women, Liberation, Disintegration (1986) ISBN 0-949667-36-6
  • Alan Carlson, The Family in America: Searching for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age (2003) ISBN 0-7658-0536-7
  • Alan Carlson, Family Questions: Reflections on the American Social Crisis (1991) ISBN 1-56000-555-6
  • Gilbert K. Chesterton, Brave New Family (1990) ISBN 0-89870-314-X
  • Danielle Crittenden, What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us (2000) ISBN 0-684-85959-9
  • Midge Decter, The New Chastity and Other Arguments Against Women's Liberation (1974) ISBN 0-399-50307-2
  • Thomas Ellis, The Rantings of a Single Male (2005) ISBN 0-9762613-1-6
  • Thomas Fleming, The Politics of Human Nature (1988) ISBN 1-56000-693-5
  • Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Feminism is Not the Story of My Life (1996) ISBN 0-385-46790-7
  • Maggie Gallagher, The Abolition of Marriage: How We Destroy Lasting Love (1996) ISBN 0-89526-464-1
  • George Gilder, Men and Marriage (1992) ISBN 0-88289-444-7
  • Steven Goldberg, The Inevitability of Patriarchy (1977) ISBN 0-8126-9237-3
  • Steven Goldberg, Why Men Rule: A Theory of Male Dominance (1993) ISBN 0-8126-9237-3
  • F. Carolyn Graglia, Domestic Tranquility: A Brief Against Feminism (1998) ISBN 0-9653208-6-3
  • Richard T. Hise, The War Against Men (2004) ISBN 1-930859-61-9
  • Domestic Violence: The 12 Things You Aren't Supposed to Know; Thomas P. James, Aventine Press, 2003, ISBN 1-59330-122-7
  • Gertrude Himmelfarb, The De-moralization Of Society (1996) ISBN 0-679-76490-9
  • Christina Hoff-Sommers, The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men (2001) ISBN 0-684-84957-7
  • Christina Hoff-Sommers, Who Stole Feminism? (1995) ISBN 0-684-80156-6
  • Mary A. Kassian, The Feminist Mistake (2005) ISBN 1-58134-570-4
  • Linda Kelly, Disabusing the Definition of Domestic Abuse: How Women Batter Men and the Role of the Feminist State (2003)
  • The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability, Laura Kipnis, 2006
  • The Lipstick Proviso: Women, Sex & Power in the Real World; Karen Lehrman, 1997, ISBN 0-385-47481-4
  • Myron Magnet, Modern Sex: Liberation and Its Discontents (2001) ISBN 1-56663-384-2
  • Harvey C. Mansfield, Manliness (2006) ISBN 0-300-10664-5
  • Diane Medved and Dan Quayle, The American Family: Discovering the Values That Make Us Strong (1997) ISBN 0-06-092810-7
  • Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young, Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systemic Discrimination Against Men (2006) ISBN 0-7735-2862-8
  • Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture (2001) ISBN 0-7735-2272-7
  • Kate O'Beirne, Women Who Make the World Worse (2005) ISBN 1-59523-009-2
  • John Piper and Wayne A. Grudem, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (1991) ISBN 0-89107-586-0
  • Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies; Daphne Patai and Noreta Koertge, 1995, ISBN 0-465-09827-4
  • Erin Pizzey, Prone to Violence (Hamlyn, 1982; ISBN 0-600-20551-7)
  • Mary Pride, The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality (1985) ISBN 0-89107-345-0
  • Phyllis Schlafly, Feminist Fantasies (2003) ISBN 1-890626-46-5
  • Howard Schwartz, The Revolt of the Primitive: An Inquiry into the Roots of Political Correctness (2003) ISBN 0-7658-0537-5
  • Lionel Tiger, The Decline of Males (2000) ISBN 0-312-26311-2
  • Esther Vilar, The Manipulated Man (1972) ISBN 0-9530964-2-4
  • Philip Gordon Wylie, A Generation of Vipers (1942) ISBN 1-56478-146-1

Antifeminist authors

See also

Web links

References

  1. "Anti-feminist." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989
  2. Judith Stacey, Is Academic Feminism an Oxymoron?, Signs, Vol. 25, No. 4, Feminisms at a Millennium. (Summer, 2000), pp. 1189-1194
  3. Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich, Review: 'Feminist Attacks on Feminisms: Patriarchy's Prodigal Daughters', Feminist Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1. (Spring, 1998), pp. 159-175
  4. BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine,by Margaret Cho (Foreword), Lisa Jervis (Editor), Andi Zeisler (Editor), 2006
  5. Patai, Daphne. Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies. ISBN 0739104551. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Tierney, Helen (1999). Women's Studies Encyclopedia. Westport, CT, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated. pp. p. 95. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
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