opinion

Feminism does not empower women. It infantilizes them

I saw a revolting image on Facebook the other day: a nude woman on whose face and torso several men had evidently just ejaculated. The caption said, "Feminism. Because being a housewife wasn't degrading enough." That accusation — that feminism encourages such conduct — might sound counterintuitive, but there's something to it.

Granted, no woman who self-identifies as "feminist" would say that this behavior is what feminism is about. But the vulgarity currently associated with feminism — the deliberate, aggressive flaunting of tastelessness — certainly conduces to such memes.

I refer to "SlutWalks," where women parade in revealing, sexualized costumes to protest "rape culture"; Gwyneth Paltrow proudly revealing that she steam-cleans her "lady parts"; Gloria Steinem flaunting her "I Had An Abortion" T-shirt; the Internet video produced by FCKH8.com, a T-shirt company, titled "F-Bombs for Feminism."

That video features girls as young as 6 in princess costumes cursing and giving the finger to the camera. One shrieks, "I'm not some pretty f***ing helpless princess in distress! I'm pretty f***ing powerful." Another asserts, "My aspirations in life should not be worrying about the shape of my ass."

(By contrast, last November, scientists landed a robot on a comet about 25 million miles from Earth. But the news, according to many feminists, was that one of the participating physicists was wearing a shirt silkscreened with images of sexy-looking women during the worldwide telecast of this accomplishment.)

Contradicting these "empowering" acts of lewdness are feminists' suggestions that women have no agency; that women can't act but are merely acted upon; that women can't be expected to make prudent decisions. We see this in allegations of "rape culture" (the idea that rape has been normalized and made pervasive by societal attitudes). We see this in the assertion that it's not consensual sex if a woman gets drunk at a party and does something she regrets later.

That kind of sex, we're told, is rape. To suggest that the woman bears any responsibility for her own behavior is "victim-blaming." It's the man's job to determine whether or not this weaker vessel knows what she's doing, and protect her from Worse Than Death. (It's an unpleasant truth, but truth nonetheless, that some women get blotto so they can have conscience-free sex.)

Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz (aka "Mattress Girl") habitually walks around campus carrying a mattress, by way of complaining that her alleged rapist hasn't been punished. She never reported this alleged rape to the police and didn't report it to the school for months. When the school, and later the district attorney, investigated, they agreed that no evidence of rape existed. Yet Sulkowicz is outraged because the school won't wreck a man's life entirely on her say-so.

It's said that women never falsely accuse men of rape — but that thing that never happens just keeps on not happening, from the University of Virginia to Oberlin to Duke. It keeps not happening, so often that there's a near-epidemic of this never-happens thing never happening.

Any woman who accuses a man of rape must be shielded from any scrutiny of her background or motives. If her story collapses, many feminists insist, she shouldn't be punished for bearing false witness: That would deter other women from lodging similar accusations!

In other words, feminists demand that we withhold punishment when a woman lies, just as we might indulge a child who hasn't yet reached the age of reason. Yet feminists demand respect and equality.

I'll keep saying it and saying it: Feminism does not empower women. It infantilizes them. It turns potentially strong, capable women into petulant, pearl-clutching, entitled, potty-mouthed little girls.