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Feminism

The most grievous effect of the lunacy surrounding the feminist movement is that all the moaning and gender-talk bring women back to their entrails: We are our hormones, we are frail creatures constantly being preyed on by men and we need protection, preferably involving lots of government regulation and money.

Women don't have an easy time of it in the workplace. A lot of men are uncomfortable with, if not hostile to, their very presence, with everything that entails. But it isn't a conspiracy. Men don't have an easy time of it, either. Some of the sexual-harassment firebrands might be surprised to know how few men are sitting at their desks dreaming of getting their hands on their women colleagues. Most of them are worried about their bosses, their mortgages, and their kids, which is pretty much what women worry about, perhaps not in the same order.

Sexual harassment is real, but most of what is called sexual harassment isn't. Crying wolf all the time just confirms a lot of men's opinions that women can't pull their share, don't know how to play the game and will always squeal to the teacher.

The subject of relations between men and women is extremely interesting and nothing new. But you certainly wouldn't know it from consulting university press catalogues, where what passes for scholarship is a lot of offensively stupid tripe on the subject now offensively titled gender, which ignores that the war between the sexes is sometimes a lot of fun.

If it's so important to have female role models, as professional feminists tell us, why do we so love talking about Marilyn Monroe? Why are we more interested in Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton than in Eudora Welty or Flannery O'Connor? Why are there no feminist books cheering for Margaret Thatcher? You don't have to agree with her politics to see that she is a feminist heroine.

The existence of s studies program suggests that women are too stupid to get real degrees. They have replaced sociology and psychology and as the soft fields where girls could get good grades while waiting to meet Mr. Right. The only thing a woman can do with a women's studies degree is become a university professor of women's studies.

Knowledge is power. Girls who want to make their mark on this world should be competing for the best degree in the best- college they can work their way into. If they are interested in studying literature, as professors of women's studies clearly are not, they should study literature, and that means studying what is great, all those dead while European males and Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson.

--Katherine Knorr, International Herald Tribune April 28, 1993, p. 7

Outlines responding to "Feminism"

1. Thesis: In modern times women still are disadvantaged concerning higher education and work.

SP 1: There are special women's studies programs which implie that women are to stupid to get real degrees.

SP 2: In some jobs women get less money, even if they do the same work as men.

SP 3: If there are a man and a woman applying for the same job, the man is preferred in general.

2. Thesis: Women have more problems at workplaces then men have.

SP 1: Women are less respected than men.

SP 2: Often women are objects of harassment.

SP 3: Women often get less money for their work.

SP 4: Women are expected doing housework and not earning the money.

3. Thesis: I disagree with the thesis: "The war between the sexes is sometimes a lot of fun."

SP 1: War is never fun.

SP 2: The people suffer under the war.

SP 3: Men and women should rather be friends to strengthen their power.

My comments:

1. Ok, except for SP 1. This is Knorr's opinion. How does it support your thesis?

2. These SPs cry out for examples, and you will have to take care to present examples of SP 1 as different from examples of SP 2 (or else combine them in one SP). SP 4 does not support the thesis.

3. Express your thesis positively: "The war between the sexes is..." (what?). SP 1 is weak, since obviously here "war" is a metaphor and any comparison with real wars is going to be far-fetched. SP 2 is ok, but again, you're dealing with a metaphor that will first have to be translated into concrete instances to show how people actually suffer from this so-called war. SP 3 is much too vague. In what sense should men and women be "friends," and how will that increase their "power"? Power to do what?