• Conservatives Are Wrong to Dismiss Feminism by S. Quinlan

I am a conservative who has been saying much of the same things this author says in this editorial (below). Too many other conservatives automatically discredit any and all arguments or concerns of feminists, in part because they wrongly conflate feminism with liberalism.

Even if it were true that all feminists are liberals (which is not the case), it does not stand that every point they raise is wrong.

I’ve also noticed for a long time now that a lot of conservatives misunderstand some of the terms or concepts feminists discuss.

I agree with about 99% of the following piece by S. Quinlan; there may be one or two points I do not fully agree with, however.

I was a lifelong Republican until a few years ago. I left the Republican party for several reasons, one of which is I do see double standards – Republicans really do not respect women; a lot of conservative men really are sexist (as are some of the women on the right, who at times pen editorials denying the barriers their own biological sex face).

I, however, cannot join the left or the Democratic Party, because they also adhere to sexist double standards, as well.

Conservatives Are Wrong to Dismiss Feminism

Snippets:

by S. Quinlan

Today’s feminists have some valid concerns, and those on the right would benefit from listening.

Last week, Representative Martha McSally (R., Ariz.) revealed that she had been sexually abused in high school by a coach. Her #MeToo story is a reminder that conservatism cannot afford to dismiss the modern feminist movement.

In the six months since the #MeToo movement began, conservatives have, at times rightly, questioned or criticized some aspects of it. But too often they have wrongly downplayed, ignored, or completely dismissed the impetus of the movement.

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• Let’s Say Good-Bye To The Straw-Feminist by Cordelia Fine

Let’s Say Good-Bye To The Straw-Feminist by Cordelia Fine

I would really hope that the reader of this blog post clicks on the link I am providing to this editorial, because the few excerpts I provide don’t do it justice.

(Your primer about me: I’m an ex-Republican who is a moderate conservative who disagrees with feminists on some topics but who agrees with them on others.)

I typically try not to excerpt too much from an author’s page, but sometimes, it’s hard for me to know when and where to stop quoting, if a page or article is so very good. This is one of those times.

Let’s Say Good-Bye To The Straw-Feminist by Cordelia Fine, published in 2011

“This was not a permissible hypothesis”.

That was social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s recent explanation of the outrage that followed Lawrence Summers’ speech at a conference on the under-representation of women in science and engineering, in which he suggested that women are on average intrinsically less capable of high-level mathematical and scientific thinking.

Haidt’s depiction of the way in which scientific thinking can be distorted by “sacred values”, and his portrayal of Lawrence Summers as the victim of censorious political correctness, evoke two familiar protagonists in the sex differences debate. There’s the hero, who doesn’t let political values get in the way of the search for scientific truth. And then, there’s the villain of the piece.

That bogeywoman – the truth-fearing feminist – haunted me during a photo shoot I endured shortly after my book, Delusions of Gender, was published last year.

…In the interminable sex differences debate it always seems to be those who are critical of scientific claims of essential differences who are accused of allowing political desires to blinker them to the facts of the case.

• The Anti-Feminism Conservative Bias – (written by a Conservative)

The Anti-Feminism Conservative Bias (written by a Conservative)

I’m a conservative. I’ve never been a liberal in my entire life.

I used to be a Republican, too; now, I am not affiliated with any political group.

I keep noticing in critiques about feminism (which is generally of liberal, secular, feminism, but can be of feminism in general by conservatives and others) is that there is a bias- there is an anti-feminism bias percolating under the editorials and papers I’m seeing.

However, those writing these anti-feminism pieces pretend as though they themselves have no bias, but they argue that feminists have a bias, which therefore means that feminist commentary or research cannot or should not be trusted.

Anyone who criticizes feminism or feminist theory – and usually, but not always, these individuals are conservative themselves, or are quoted favorably by conservatives who hate feminism – depicts themselves as being purely factual, seeking only to repeat scientific facts, without an agenda.

Furthermore, these anti-feminism conservatives like to portray any and all feminists (or those, like me, who aren’t feminist but who agree with some of their positions) as being blinded by an agenda, too emotional, not rational or logical enough, and as being too prejudiced to be objective.

• These Ideas About Sexual Attraction May Be Based on Shoddy Science by M W Moyer

(Link): These Ideas About Sexual Attraction May Be Based on Shoddy Science

by M W Moyer

Snippets:

Last week, the technology magazine Ars Technica published a (Link): bombshell of a story questioning the integrity of the work of French psychologist Nicolas Guéguen.

You may not have heard of Guéguen, but you’ve almost certainly heard of his research. It’s even been covered by New York. “One French Scientist Found Five Research-Backed Ways to Get a Woman’s Number,” a helpful Science of Us (Link): piece touted in 2014.

Time covered one of his studies in a story titled “Science Proves It: Men Really Do Find High Heels Sexier.” The (Link): Atlantic and the (Link): New York Times have written about his work, too.

The Ars Technica story describes the dogged efforts of two scientists, Nick Brown and James Heathers, who started asking questions of Guéguen in 2015 after noticing weird things. It started with a study they laughed over one evening — one that reported that men are less likely to help women whose hair is tied up in a bun or ponytail.

When they carefully read the study, they noticed that many of Guéguen’s reported numbers didn’t make sense considering the calculations involved.

Things smelled fishier when they saw just how huge the differences were that he was reporting — differences that are, in social science research, highly improbable.

• Women (and the men) Who Argue Against Feminism, Who Claim Men and Masculinity Are Under Attack, Or Who Insist That There is Little, to No, Sexism In The U.S.A.

Women (and the men) Who Argue Against Feminism, Who Claim Men and Masculinity Are Under Attack, Or Who Insist That There is Little, to No, Sexism In The U.S.A.

I am in the process of writing two or three different posts for this blog, and they are in Draft status. This post is an off-shoot of one I’m working on right now.

I may go ahead and publish this post right away, but it’s one I may come back to in order to edit, to add more thoughts or more links.

Most of the content below was originally part of another, separate post I’m working on.

I discuss Sommers quite a bit below. She is an anti-feminist feminist.

Sommers is certainly not the only woman I’ve come across online I’ve seen who criticizes feminism, or who insists masculinity is under attack, or who thinks that boys are treated unfairly in schools, or, perhaps, my biggest pet peeve:

Sommers is not the only woman to make the argument that girls and women in the United States have life just great, sexism is a thing of the past, and…

Because, supposedly, the Sommers-types of the world think, American women generally don’t face as severe a level of sexism as often as their Muslim counterparts in the Middle East, that American women who bring up American sexism are either…

• Whiny cry babies
• Lying about sexism
• Reveling in perpetual Victim-hood Status
• or Manufacturing outrage

Most of the research I was doing in regards to sexism and so on, for another post I was working on, kept turning up results for Sommers, which is why a large portion of this post focuses on her.

At this stage, I don’t really have the energy or time to devote a more thorough investigation and report on this. I may at a later date edit this post to add more examples of women such as Sommers, or in regards to related subjects.

At any rate:

LIVED EXPERIENCE

I am right wing.

I have never been a liberal, nor do I use the label “feminist” to describe myself, because, far too often, the word “feminist” is associated with far left wing causes and views I don’t agree with or support.

I am a conservative. In the past, I’ve always voted Republican.

On these issues of sexism, marriage, sexual harassment, and so on, I take things on a “case by case” or “issue by issue” basis.

I believe both the left and right wings, both the pro and anti feminists, get a lot of things wrong, but both sides also get some issues correct.

I am not fully on one side or the other (depending on the particular topic).

One of the things I can say as a conservative woman, who was brought up in a traditional values, Christian household: sexism and sexual harassment are real, both do do exist, and I’ve been personally subjected to them from the time I was  girl and in my adulthood as well.

• It’s Time to Admit That Allowing Men Into the Workplace Was a Mistake by R. Graham

It’s Time to Admit That Allowing Men Into the Workplace Was a Mistake by R. Graham

I often feel the need to remind anyone who may visit this blog I’m actually a conservative. I do occasionally agree with liberal feminists at times, but not usually.

I do think – regarding the subject of sexism – that other conservatives (or centrists) get quite a few things incorrect, or they misunderstand what left wing feminists are trying to say.

Below you will find a link to what is a parody piece by a person, Ruth Graham, who I take it is a liberal feminist – this editorial teed off a few other conservatives I saw on Twitter who were discussing it.

Personally, I’m board with it. I get what she’s trying to accomplish with it, and I think she succeeded.

• Complementarian Marketing To Men Doesn’t Work, but It Doesn’t Stop Comps From Blaming Women – Churches Are Not “Too Feminine”

Complementarian Marketing To Men Doesn’t Work, but It Doesn’t Stop Comps From Blaming Women – Churches Are Not ‘Too Feminine”

Gender complementarians have turned male leadership, masculinity, and the male biological sex into idols that they worship.

And this obsession and strategy has not worked to draw in men to churches or to keep them in church – and complementarians, most of them anyway, keep assuming it will work.

This fixation on masculinity and making churches more masculine in feel does not account for women who have begun dropping out of church in large numbers the last several years, either (The Resignation Of Eve).

Male hierarchy, and defending and promoting it, now takes precedence over about any thing else with complementarian Christians, and, at times, it causes them to do and say some very weird (and unbiblical) things.