Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality.

Book by Cathy Young. Published by The Free Press 1999
Young says that in 1980, when she emigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union at the age of 17, she was already a feminist, without even knowing the word. However at college she began to be concerned by what she saw happening to feminism. She noticed that "some young women were acting as volunteer thought police, ready to pounce whenever a professor imprudently used the word mankind. Anti pornography activists seemed to argue that sexuality itself demeaned women; the concept of rape was being expanded to include confused nonviolent drunken encounters. Many feminists were rejecting autonomy, logic and objectivity as ‘male values’."

She continues: "In the 1990’s….much of what had troubled me moved from the feminist fringe to the mainstream." In 1992 she watched an ABC television discussion on rape where the men and women in the studio audience had been seated apart to illustrate the gender divide. She says: "That night, my belief that feminism was helping make things better between the sexes died."
In the first chapter, "Men are from Earth, Women are from Earth", Young reviews and criticises the literature on gender difference. As the title suggests, she argues that the picture is far more complex than often portrayed, and wonders if she somehow fails to notice supposedly obvious differences between the sexes. She points out that "Much as they diverge ideologically, difference feminists and biological determinists have something in common: a propensity for sweeping statements based on modest evidence."
Her next six chapters expose some of the worst excesses of radical feminist misinformation and discriminatory practice in the areas of employment, education, health, domestic violence, law, sex crimes and child custody. As one of the most prolific journalists writing in this area in recent years, Young knows her subject thoroughly, and has plenty of solid material to draw on.
Just one example of Young’s uncompromising stance towards feminist orthodoxy is her recommendation for dealing with domestic violence:
"Take gender politics out of the war on domestic violence. The media should take a serious look at intimate violence by women, and popular culture should stop treating it as amusing. Police and the courts should enforce the law fairly for both sexes, and counselling programmes should demand that women, like men, take responsibility for their actions (and not blame it on ‘psychological provocation’.) Hearings in Congress and state legislatures on gender bias in domestic violence policies would be a good idea. The government and major charities such as United Way and the Young Women’s Christian Association, should also re-examine their connections to the battered women’s movement with its radical ideology. At a minimum, taxpayer money allocated for domestic violence should not go exclusively or primarily to organisations that espouse a view of battering as patriarchal oppression, and these organisations should not be permitted to dictate policy."
The men’s movement does not escape her scrutiny however. She criticises Warren Farrell’s ‘masculist’ analysis as "seriously flawed." In chapter nine she asks "Are Men Victims Too?" and concludes that "Since men’s problems often stem from overzealous attempts to correct real of perceived injustices towards women, developing a more critical attitude toward victim feminism would do more to help men than developing its male equivalent."
She says: "…while ‘masculism’ is not the answer….an equal rights movement that takes the rights and concerns of men seriously is essential. Such a movement must give the men’s movement credit for several key points that feminists have largely ignored:

• The evolution of gender roles must expand options for both sexes.
• Male privilege never meant that most men were free to do as they pleased, or that everything they did was for selfish reasons, or that women had a corner on suffering. The historical fact of male dominance does not negate the fact of male sacrifice, in wars or in work.
• In personal relationships, men and women have equally good reasons to complain about the other sex..
• Today, most gender issues are women’s and men’s issues - and if we don’t take the male perspective into account, we miss half the picture."

Young devotes her final chapter to what she calls "The Conservative Mistake." She acknowledges that "The principle alternative to this [feminist] party line comes from conservatives, including a number of conservative female voices that have emerged in recent years." However she points out that conservatives and liberals "…seem to agree that it should be a matter of special concern to protect innocent females from bad males and other bad things." She explains that: "Conservative and Liberal politicians easily join forces to be chivalrous, often taking the lead from female colleagues who believe that their mandate is to represent the interests of women." She shows how "The strange convergence of radical feminism and patriarchal conservatism" has lead to an "alienation of both ideologies from real life."
While Young acknowledges that conservatives have valid issues, she recommends that they "shouldn’t stake their hopes on a comeback of traditional roles, and certainly not on the vogue for sex difference."
In her conclusion, Young suggests we need to search for a new paradigm, because:
"…feminism as we know it is bankrupt. In some areas, it has promoted the dogma of ‘fifty-fifty’ equality that ignores the fact that men and women tend to differ in a number of interests and preferences, not to mention physical ability. On other issues, it has made a mockery of its own principles of gender neutrality in the name of protecting women. It has not only failed to condemn but in many instances has actively promoted antimale sexism and gender antagonism. It has fostered the ‘abuse excuse’ and less than equal accountability for women. It has endorsed a massive intrusion of the state and its bureaucracies into the personal lives of men and women."
"A conservatism that came to terms with women’s (and men’s) new roles would have much to contribute to the discussion of the issues of the day. So would a feminism that repudiated victimhood, gender warfare, and a knee-jerk alliance with the left. But to be relevant to the lives of millions of men and women living in a time of change and trying to find their own imperfect balance between the modern and the traditional, both movements must give up the identity politics of gender and see men and women as human beings - a vision missing from our public discourse today."
An accomplished journalist, Young’s writing is easy to read. Her overview of the growth of American men’s and fathers’ groups in recent years is particularly interesting. The brief section at the end, where she asks "Where Do We Go from Here?" has a 12-step programme to initiate reforms. With its 76 pages of references, this book is an important resource for any student of gender politics, and it is highly recommended.

Cathy Young's book is another feminist demand to accept as "given" all the feminist dogma and achievements of the past century and a half. She complains about feminists continuing to wage war on men, but her demand for "cease fire" is a demand that men accept the feminist occupation of our lives, our families, our businesses, our institutions, and our government. Cease fire with the femiNazi today would be similar to the Nazis asking for a "cease fire" while they occupied all of continental Europe, western Russia, and North Africa and were enslaving and exterminating millions. Ms. Young and other feminists like her need to realize that "cease fire" with them in domination is not acceptable.

In the words of John Paul Jones, an American hero, when asked to surrender, "I have not yet begun to fight!"


Blessings

Bob

Good old Bob. Always ready to put the boot in to foe and friend alike.

Yes, Cathy Young would like, perhaps, to keep the privileges but she sees the direction it is leading toward. She sees the stampede of women driving the horse and cart of civil life over the cliff. She is shouting and urging women to pull back on the reins, and Bob, mate, women are more likely to listen to her than to you, despite your erudite phrases and witty, intellectual approach. (Or is that me I'm talking about! )

Yet, I find I have to agree with some of what you say. To my mind it is well that women, even such a Cathy Young, take up the shout and the warning, but women have to change a whole lot. Massively.

Ceasefire is simply not enough.

Women have been driving change for forty years. They are used to it. They have changed the whole face and fabric of society. They have tried to change men, with moderate success. They have changed most men into shadow-beings, lurking in the fetid undergrowth of the female psychic swamp. Women have made the swamp too. Our modern society is the swamp they made.

Now women have to remake themselves. And not only themselves. They have to restore and make recompense, drain the swamp and rebuild. They are not used to hard work. They are past mistresses at forgiving themselves with that easy, cheap forgiveness that dismisses or minimises fault. "Move on", "I didn't mean it". But it is men's real, earned forgiveness that they will find very difficult to get.

They have to put away their greed and their thongs; their demanding, whining, victimhood; their cheating and lying; their theft; their child-murder; their sheer falseness that permeates like an awful perfume laying a stench cloud cutting them off from fresh air and life, stinking their clothes. They are dirty, as a gender, through to the soul.

Cathy doesn't tell the half of it.

But they have nothing else to put on their nakedness at hand. Nothing wholesome and clean. They have torn up the older clothes of the soul. They have so distanced themselves from Truth, Equality, Justice, Honesty, that these things are out of reach and it will take a Trek of wild west proportion for them to get them back to clothe themselves again. They have been rushing effortlessly downhill for forty years and they face an uphill return trip. They will have to put ten times the effort to regain their souls in any time left.

And they have to regain men's Trust.

I don't think they can do that. Too many have fallen too far over the cliff. Too few have steered away. The rest are singing and chanting and hissing and spitting their venomous way to oblivion.

I, for one, am not prepared to trust women again.

Women have blown it.

The ones who have successfully steered away, seen the writing on the wall, been horrified at the deliberate carnage, will have few men ready to turn to them - and many to turn on them. Who wants to breed with dirty women? And how is one to tell the difference?

God knows, I have been fooled. I have hoped and trusted. Twice. My hopes were dupes. Women have to make my fears liars.

I pity these good women. I weep for them as I weep for me. But the trust to a life with them is gone. Murdered like a baby.

Maybe another generation of men will fall for their newly found wholesome charms, but again, I think it won't be the next one. They are being schooled in dismissed disdain even now. And after them there may well not be a further generation.

Meanwhile Cathy is welcomed to preach her warnings. I applaude. But it is only for Truth's sake.

Julie may not realize that Cathy Young is not considered a "real" feminist by the sisters - too accommodating to men apparently

love your answers,"Bob"!

Quote from Percy:

I, for one, am not prepared to trust women again.

Women have blown it.

The ones who have successfully steered away, seen the writing on the wall, been horrified at the deliberate carnage, will have few men ready to turn to them - and many to turn on them. Who wants to breed with dirty women? And how is one to tell the difference?

God knows, I have been fooled. I have hoped and trusted. Twice. My hopes were dupes. Women have to make my fears liars.

I pity these good women. I weep for them as I weep for me. But the trust to a life with them is gone. Murdered like a baby.

Maybe another generation of men will fall for their newly found wholesome charms, but again, I think it won't be the next one. They are being schooled in dismissed disdain even now. And after them there may well not be a further generation.

It sounds like you're stereotyping an entire gender, Percy. I've been duped and fooled myself by men, as you have by women, and still I realize that not all men are like those men. Not all women are like what you're describing. Trust and peace has to start somewhere and if it can't start with you, that's fine. Let it start then with me.

Yes it does look like I am stereotyping the whole gender, doesn't it. I did discriminate between the good women and the ordinary though. And its that ordinariness that I suppose you are bridling against. Ordinariness is so broad, isn't it.

The ordinary woman supports abortion. At the very least she rarely condemns it. She supports female privilege or rarely acknowleges the unfairness. She joins in the daily demeaning of men. She considers that she has a 'right' to 'choices'. while ignoring the fact that men do not have them and denying their 'rights'. She demands commitment but fails to give it on more than a day to next day basis. She demands the right to work and then compalins that she has to. She complains and blames and casts herself as victim to men's 'oppressor' constantly.

Yep, I guess I am stereotyping. Gray pavements are gray pavements.

By the way, you use the word 'dupe' in an entirely different context. And then have the gall to compare your experience with mine and showing yourself, what...? Discriminating ? Courageous? I took the word from the poem by Arthur Clough (Say not the Struggle Naught Availeth), and the lines "If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars".

But if you are to compare then do so with better data. I was married for 22 years and supported a wife who went from not even a high school cert all the way to a Phd with my full encouragement. 14 years of full time education that I paid for and when she was eventually ready to help pay the mortgage, suddenly her earnings were hers and I was subjected to a barrage of false, disgusting and devastating accusation. That was just the tip of an ice-berg that could - and did - sink a fleet. I was always loving and kind, generous and encouraging. I worked hard. I supported my wife and family with a sincere willingness. It was rewarded with calumny and viciousness.

Putting that devastation behind, losing every penny and my children to a newly certified feminazi, I let my hopes in humanity regrow and cover the horrendous wounds infilcted. My hopes duped me into believing that good women existed and could remain good for more than five minutes. What a dull shit. What a Fool!

My second marriage to an angelic and adorable, mature woman lasted nine years and who despite her avowed declarations of love, took every penny of the second small fortune that I worked my arse off to earn. She did this behind my back when I was in friggin' hospital!

I could spend a year cataloging the crimes against my heart commited by these women that I loved. But instead I pointed to my own hopes duping me.

And, on cue, you misunderstood.

It is always a wonder to me that women claim to be empathetic. "Trust and Peace have to start somewhere", you say. Well, you may not have given them a go yet, but you are only 38. Plenty of time. I Trusted quite early on in the life business. Trust has been stomped on unto death under dancing feet.

Now I must go and walk the Black Dog.

Who is these days? It is out of control.

"Police and the courts should enforce the law fairly for both sexes, and counselling programmes should demand that women, like men"

Here in Australia they are in cahoots against men

the was a sign draped outside our local police station
"violence against women is a crime"

The Family Law Court here in Australia is an in camera star chamber staffed by feminist and manginas and it really shafts men 100% in terms of acces to children and matrimonial property disposition it is evil !!!

they should engrave a sign above its portal

"ABANDON HOPE ALL YE MEN THAT ENTER HERE"

Australia is a virtual gynorcracy and now we have a mangina for a
prime minister this dude is highly fluent in politically correct double talk

He want s to establish a republic here in Australia a similar move a few years ago was thrown out by Australians because the model for a president was a political cypher that could be dismissed at any time for no reason by the prime minister

I do believe that the current federal government in Australia is a clandestine Marxist movement masquerading behind a democratic form