Antifeminism

For the Japanese band, see Anti Feminism.

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

Definition

The Oxford English Dictionary defines feminism as "the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes." Therefore, the dictionary also defines Antifeminist as "one opposed to women or to feminism; a person (usu. a man) who is hostile to sexual equality or to the advocacy of women's rights."

Many anti-feminist groups, such as A Voice For Men, Men's Rights Edmonton, and Antifeministtech however, argue that the institutionalization of feminism, as the biased phrasing of the OED definition itself demonstrates, indicates that feminism has become so entrenched that it can no longer credibly claim to be an ideology of equality, and is instead concerned with political dominance and its own perpetuation.

Anti-feminists, often also known as male rights advocates, point out that Western women enjoy many advantages that men do not:

• Longer life expectancy (e.g., 76 for men and 81 for women in the United States; 78 for men and 85 for women in France)
• Lower rate of homelessness (67% of single homeless people in the US are male)
• Preferential treatment in most areas of law (American men are over three times as likely to be charged with a crime as women)
• The Violence Against Women Act (which makes assault upon a woman a more serious crime than assault upon a man)
• Women may enlist in the United States Armed Forces, but they are exempt from Selective Service (the draft)

Antifeminists struggle to unseat what they perceive as the unequal and unjust prerogatives established by feminists.

Contesting the term

The term Antifeminism is viewed by some as a loaded word. Writers such as Camille Paglia, Christina Hoff Sommers, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Katie Roiphe and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, who define themselves as feminists, have been labeled "antifeminists" by others because of their positions regarding oppression and lines of thought within feminism. Authors Patai and Koertge argue that by labeling these women "antifeminists", the intention is to silence them and prevent any debate on the state of feminism.

History

19th century

In the nineteenth century, the centerpiece of antifeminism was opposition to women's suffrage. Opponents of women's entry into institutions of higher learning argued that education was too great a physical burden on women. In 'Sex in Education: or, a Fair Chance for the Girls (1873), Harvard professor Edward Clarke predicted that if women went to college, their brains would grow bigger and heavier, and their wombs would atrophy. He based his prediction on the observation that college-educated women had fewer children than non-college-educated women. Other antifeminists opposed women's entry into the labor force, or their right to join unions, to sit on juries, or to obtain birth control and control of their sexuality.

Antifeminist stances

Some antifeminists argue that feminism has resulted in changes to society's previous norms relating to sexuality, which they see as detrimental to "traditional values" or conservative religious beliefs. For example, the acceptability of homosexuality, pornography, and casual sex are mentioned as negative consequences of feminism.

Others opposed women's entry into the workforce, political office, and the voting process, as well as the lessening of male authority in families. Antifeminists argue that a change of women's roles is a destructive force that endangers the family, or is contrary to religious morals. For example, Paul Gottfried maintains that the change of women's roles "has been a social disaster that continues to take its toll on the family" and contributed to a "descent by increasingly disconnected individuals into social chaos".

Some antifeminists argue that the feminist movement has achieved its aims and now seeks higher status for women than for men.

Organizations

Symbol used for signs and buttons by ERA opponents

Founded in the US by Phyllis Schlafly in October 1972, STOP ERA, now known as Eagle Forum lobbied successfully to block the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the USA. It was also Schlafly 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 thus-dubbed New Right she was able to leverage a wider range of technological, organizational and political resources, successfully targeting pro-feminist candidates for defeat.

In India, the Save Indian Family Foundation is an antifeminist organization opposing what they view as biased legislation relating to dowry harassment and domestic violence.

In some other countries, antifeminist organisations have had little success. In Australia, Babette Francis has led the Endeavour Forum (formerly "Women Who Want to be Women") for over twenty-five years but has failed to halt ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), as well as the eventual introduction of medical abortion in Australia, and the successive liberalization of laws related to abortion in Australia within every state and territory.REAL Women of Canada was similarly unsuccessful when it came to preventing decriminalisation of abortion in Canada and same-sex marriage in Canada, while New Zealand's Women For Life became the "Family Education Network" before disappearing altogether.

See also

2

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
• Kampwirth, Karen. 2006. "Resisting the Feminist Threat: Antifeminist Politics in Post-Sandinista Nicaragua" NWSA Journal. Vol. 18, No 2. (Summer). pp. 73–100.
• Kampwirth, Karen. 2003. "Arnoldo Alemán Takes on the NGOs: Antifeminism and the New Populism in Nicaragua" Latin American Politics and Society. Vol. 45. No. 2. (Summer) 2003. pp. 133–158.
• Kampwirth, Karen. 1998. "Feminism, Antifeminism, and Electoral Politics in Post-War Nicaragua and El Salvador" Political Science Quarterly Vol. 113, No. 2. (Summer) pp. 259–279.
• Cynthia D. Kinnard, Antifeminism in American Thought: An Annotated Bibliography (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1986, ISBN 0-8161-8122-5)
• Laura Kipnis, The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability (Pantheon, 2006).
• Jane J. Mansbridge: Why We Lost the ERA, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1986
• Schreiber, Ronnee (2008). Righting Feminism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533181-3.
• G. Swanson, Antifeminism in America: A Historical Reader (2000) ISBN 0-8153-3437-0

Antifeminist literature

• Helen Andelin, Fascinating Womanhood (2007) ISBN 0-553-38427-9
• 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; essay collection) ISBN 0-89870-314-X
• Thomas Fleming, The Politics of Human Nature (1988) ISBN 1-56000-693-5
• George Gilder, Men and Marriage (1992) ISBN 0-88289-444-7
• Steven Goldberg, The Inevitability of Patriarchy (1973) ISBN 0-8126-9237-3
• F. Carolyn Graglia, Domestic Tranquility: A Brief Against Feminism (1998) ISBN 0-9653208-6-3
• 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)
• Myron Magnet, Modern Sex: Liberation and Its Discontents (2001) ISBN 1-56663-384-2
• Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture (2001) ISBN 0-7735-2272-7
• Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young, Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systemic Discrimination Against Men (2006) ISBN 0-7735-2862-8
• John Piper and Wayne A. Grudem, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (1991) ISBN 0-89107-586-0
• Mary Pride, The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality (1985) ISBN 0-89107-345-0
• Phyllis Schlafly, The Power of the Positive Woman (1977) ISBN 0-87000-373-9
• 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
• 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
• George Gilder, Men and Marriage (1992) ISBN 0-88289-444-7
• 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 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
• 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
• Philip Gordon Wylie, A Generation of Vipers (1942) ISBN 1-56478-146-1