Thread: Feminist Lies Exposed; equal pay, D.V., media bias, etc.

Oh Judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts: Feminism’s...err...mistakes!

By M.A.L.E. - Men Against Libelous Editors

Facts about equal pay, domestic violence, feminist hoaxes, anti-male bigotry, gender politics, and media bias.

Equal Pay or Special Treatment?

A summary of a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Let's start with the widely believed mis-information that women are discriminated against in wages. Goldin's study showed less than a sixth of women who finished college between 1966 and 1972 have both a successful career and children. Nearly half of the women who had a successful career did not have children. But, it's interesting to note how Goldin defines ''success.'' Women have to earn more than the bottom quartile of male college grads for two to three consecutive years.

That raises the question of a gender gap in pay. As Goldin notes, women get as many college degrees as men, and they are getting record numbers of advanced degrees. But what do they study?

A recent report from the Pacific Research Institute by Michael Lynch and Katherine Post shows that women study subjects that pay less. Women have 81 per cent of all degrees (bachelor's and higher) in nursing and pharmacy health technologies. They have nearly three-fourths of all degrees in education, and almost two-thirds of all degrees in liberal arts. Those with a B.A. in these subjects - including men - stand to earn average pay of just over $2,000 a month.

By contrast, men hold 91 per cent of degrees in engineering, three-fourths of degrees in physical sciences, and over two-thirds of degrees in business. Wages are 50 per cent higher for people with a B.A. in those fields. No one forces men and women to study different subjects. Feminists, of course, like to blame society rather than individual choice for the fact that the market sets a higher wage for ''men's'' work than ''women's.''

That induces women to stay home for lack of real career opportunity, they say. But, Goldin's NBER study makes a different point. Many women make career choices knowing they will take time off. And some careers are simply more flexible. Someone with a career in such male-dominated fields as science and computers will fall behind quickly if he or she takes time off. That isn't true for teaching. This is why a gender gap in pay exists. Among men and women around the age of 30 with no children, there is no pay gap.

Women spend nearly 15 per cent of their working years away from the workplace, eight times as much as men. And workers with ten years' seniority get paid 25 per cent more, another study found. Moreover, lack of seniority has made it hard to move up the corporate ladder. Women make up only between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of senior management at big firms, although that represents a three-fold jump in the past decade, Post and Lynch say. And women made up 46 per cent of the country's labor force in 1993. That year, they held 42 per cent of all management jobs. It would seem that women ARE climbing up that ladder.

Nearly eight million have bypassed it completely, setting up their own firms. That figure has jumped more than 40 per cent in the past eight years. Women-owned firms now employ 35 per cent more people than the Fortune 500 firms do worldwide.

Excerpts from: Investor's Business Daily - Perspective (02/07/96)

Nearly 10 years ago, Dr. Warren Farrell blew the whistle on the feminist myth of a gender pay gap. Some of the following statistics are out of date, but the argument and logic is still valid. The research quoted above is not new. In 1986 Dr. Farrell wrote the following: (with permission of the publishers)

Myth: Women Earn 59 Cents to the dollar for the Same Work as Men
Warren Farrell, Ph.D.

Item: Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Geraldine Ferraro and Walter Mondale agreed on but one statistic during the 1984 election: that full time working women earn "59 cents to men's dollar." The importance of this statistic? Millions of couples, planning children, focus on the man's career due in part to the greater ease it is assumed that man has producing income. And for many women, the belief that women still get paid but 59 cents to men's dollar... " encourages women to "marry up" for economic security. He feels pressure to be the "up."

She perceives a "great American man shortage" because she overlooks millions of creative, intelligent, sensitive, single male artists, actors, writers, photographers, and musicians unless they have the "potential" for earning more than enough to support themselves. If they fail, they become ineligible, or rather, invisible. Fearing invisibility to women, men learn success is the best preventive medicine to avoid the cancer of female rejection. The statistic, then, helps the women's movement recruit. It does not encourage women to pursue careers. Nor men to pursue careers they enjoy more if they earn less.

After a full year of researching pay equity for "Why Men Are The Way They Are," I discovered 13 variables that make the "59 cents" comparison a myth. Here are a few of the more startling.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (USBLS) reports men who work full time average eight hours more per week than women who work full time. Their equal qualifications -- "full time" -- make them appear equal. But the eight hours difference makes "full time" unequal.

Men are much more likely to hold two workplace jobs. But statistically he is considered one full time worker. So we are often comparing his two jobs to her one job. This does not mean women work less than men. Full time working women put in more work time at home. But they put in less at work for which they are paid and this is what the statistic compares. Let's look more closely.

When the USBLS says "full time" they mean as little as 35 hours per week, as few as 26 weeks per year. Women are much more likely to work 35 hours per week; men much more likely to work 40-60 hours per week. Women are much more likely to work 26 weeks per year; men 52 weeks per year. Equal is not equal.

None of this is women's fault. Women are still forty-three times more likely than men to leave the workplace for six months or longer (for family reasons). A couple decision. But if she returns to work her income is impacted. Even professional women have ten fewer years in the workplace by the time they reach their forties than professional men.

All of this helps us understand why women who have never married earn 93 per cent of what never married men earn: they are more involved in the workplace. And why black mothers with young children earn one dollar for each 50 cents white mothers with young children earn: they are more involved in the workplace. (No one dares assume it is because black mothers benefit from discrimination.)

If women really earned 59 cents to the dollar for the same work as men what business could compete effectively by hiring men. At any level?

One of the most important reasons women's and men's full time pay differs is because of their different career choices. Both sexes have equal knowledge that engineers will average a higher income than a French Literature or Art History major. Yet even in 1986, more than 90 percent of engineer majors are male and more than 90 percent of the French Literature and Art History majors are female. As for secretaries, 99 percent are female? Why? If a man is a secretary, he knows a female secretary will look right past him to a male executive. He knows the male physician will marry the female nurse, but the female physician will not marry the male nurse.

Men, then, narrow their career options to jobs everyone knows pay more whether or not they enjoy the work. Including jobs that involve a 600 percent higher incidence of work-related accidents (over 2 million disabling injuries and 14,000 deaths each year).

The myth that women earn 59 cents to the dollar for the same work as men reinforces traditional roles. It does not encourage women to control their own lives. It does encourage women to find male "success objects." In brief, the myth may be good for the women's movement; it is not good for women.


WF

For more than 10 years journalists have known about the "pay gap myth". Why does the myth of the gender pay gap seem so persistent? Our guess is that these kind of statistics and arguments would never see the light of day in the establishment press. Newspapers and television news organizations lack editorial courage, have lots of feminist employees, and practice political correctness as an intentional policy. The really hot story here is how feminists have twisted the truth and misled the entire nation with the help of the media establishment. Are there any editors who have the courage to tell this story?


The Feminist Myth of Domestic Violence

One of the most pervasive myths of our society is that domestic violence is something men do to women. Solid scientific research reveals that domestic violence is something women do to men at least twice as often as men do it to women. While it is true that men account for most violence outside the home, women instigate most domestic violence and they injure men more frequently and more severely.

The Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, under grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, recently finished the last of three national studies on domestic violence. The first two studies revealed results similar to the latest study. Anyone who would like a copy of the paper may order it from the University of New Hampshire (ask for document V55). The data tape and documentation of the 1975 and 1985 studies are available from the Interuniversity Consortium For Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan. Original data is also available on CD-ROM from Sociometrics, Inc. in Palo Alto, CA.

Average results in the "severe assault" category covering 30 years of research (1975, 1985, and 1995) studies are reported below:

Severe Assault per 1000 couples:

Wives report they have been severely assaulted by husband: 22 per 1000
Wives report they have severely assaulted husband: 59 per 1000

Husbands report they have been severely assaulted by wives: 32 per 1000
Husbands report they have severely assaulted wives: 18 per 1000

Husbands & wives both report wife has been assaulted: 20 per 1000
Husbands & wives both report husband has been assaulted: 44 per 1000

There are dozens of other studies that reveal similar findings. Women are 3 times more likely than men to use weapons in domestic violence. Women initiate most incidents of domestic violence. Women commit most child abuse and most elder abuse. Women hit their male children more frequently and more severely that they hit their female children. Women commit 40 per cent of all murders and the majority of their adult victims are men. Women commit 50 per cent of spousal murders. More than 80 per cent of the people of both genders experience violence for the first time at the hands of their mothers.

There is much controversy about whom to believe in the debate about domestic violence. On one side we have domestic violence advocates and feminists who rely on "reported violence", and law enforcement statistics. On the other side we have social scientists who rely on scientifically structured studies. Unfortunately, the results of scientific studies do not receive media attention. Therefore, the public perception, and the perception of many domestic violence advocates, is almost the reverse of the more balanced perception of social scientists. The typical response of feminists upon first hearing the results of the scientific studies is to "shoot the messenger". You can almost hear their minds snap closed.


Domestic Violence in Other Countries

We think it is important to note that there have been the same kind of studies done in many countries. There is cross cultural verification that women are more violent than men in domestic settings. When behavior has cross cultural verification it means that it is part of human nature rather than a result of cultural conditioning. Females are most often the perpetrators in domestic violence in all cultures that have been studied so far. That leads many professionals to conclude that there is something biological about violent females in family situations. The most common explanation being that women are "territorial" about the home. Maybe American women can find some comfort in the fact that they are not the only females who are more violent than their male counterparts in the family.

Here are the studies Susan Steinmetz,Ph.D. has done so far: A cross-cultural comparison of marital abuse. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 8, 404-414.

Married couples from 9 different cultures.

.1: Finland, n=44; .2:Puerto Rico, n=82; .3:British Honduras(all), n=231; .4:B.H., Spanish speaking, n=103; .5:B.H., Creole, n=79; .6:B.H., carib, n=37; .7:USA, n=94;.8:Canada, n=52; .9:Isreal(all), n=127;.10:Israel Kibbutz, n=63;.11:Israel, city, n=64.

Below is a summary of the most recent and significant studies we could find about domestic violence in Canada. There were two waves of data collection. The first was done in 1990 the second was finished in 1992.

This study was done by "Ms." Reena Sommer, Ph.D., a research associate with the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation. I emphasize the "Ms" to call attention to the fact that scientific studies of DV are dominated by female social scientists. Someone mentioned that the figures might reveal a gender bias as if all scientists are male. In this field many of the recognized experts are women.

Female vs. Male perpetrated violence as a percentage of all respondents:

Minor Violence

Threw an Object (Not at Partner)

per cent of Females

23.6

per cent of Males

15.8

Threatened to Throw Object

per cent of Females

14.9

per cent of Males

7.3

Threw Object at Partner

per cent of Females

16.2

per cent of Males

4.6

Pushed, or Grabbed

per cent of Females

19.8

per cent of Males

17.2

Severe Violence

Slapped, punched or kicked

per cent of Females

15.8

per cent of Males

7.3

Used weapon

per cent of Females

3.1

per cent of Males

0.9

A survey of couples in Calgary, Canada found that the rate of severe husband-to-wife violence was 4.8 per cent, while severe wife-to-husband violence was 10 per cent. Brinkerhoff & Lupri, Canadian Journal of Sociology, 13:4 (1989)

Abuse shelter advocates and feminists have severely distorted the DV picture and deliberately produce fraudulent statistics and disinformation. Even when they quote well grounded statistics, they misuse the information. Here is an example: One of the favorite statistics quoted by abuse shelter advocates is that a women is the victim of domestic violence every 15 seconds. This statistic is deduced from a well conducted piece of research which was published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, a well respected professional journal for marriage and family therapists. The Abuse Shelter advocates arrived at this figure by using one of the conclusions of the study, i.e.; 1.8 million women suffer an assault from a husband or boyfriend per year. What Abuse shelter advocates always ignore is another finding of the same study, i.e.; 2 million men are assaulted by a wife or girl friend per year, which translates as, a man is the victim of domestic violence ever 14 seconds. Abuse shelter advocates and feminists only present half the DV story. This is typical of the wide spread deception practiced by abuse shelter advocates. America's press establishment is a party to this deception and shares blame for exacerbating the DV problem by perpetuating a false diagnosis.

Women usually initiate violent episodes (they hit first), and women hit more frequently, as well as using weapons three times more often then men. This combination of violent acts means that the efforts of finding solutions to the domestic violence problem need to focus on female perpetrators. We need to recognize that women are violent, and we need nationwide educational programs that emphasize the women's role as perpetrators. Other studies show that men are becoming less violent at the same time that women are becoming more violent. Educating men seems to be working. Educating women to be less violent should now be the main thrust of public education programs. Any domestic violence program which accepts the "male abuser - female victim" paradigm is not worthy of support. These kind of domestic violence programs actually perpetuate the problem of domestic abuse.

Let us quote from a book on the subject by McNeely, R.L.. and Robinson-Simpson, G. (1987) The Truth about Domestic Violence: A Falsely Framed Issue: "Yet, while repeated studies consistently show that men are victims of domestic violence at least as often as are women, both the lay public and many professionals regard a finding of no sex difference in rates of physical aggression among intimates as surprising, if not unreliable, the stereotype being that men are aggressive and women are exclusively victims."

However, a vital part of the feminist agenda is to make men look as bad as they can. The American press cooperates with this libelous portrayal of men.

"Recent studies show that every 7 seconds a feminist tells a lie about male character!"

Now, there is nothing to back up this statement. No studies, no cites, not even a clue as to where the statement originated. We made it up, pure and simple. That is exactly how many feminists write news releases. The press is so obsequious about feminist propaganda that they publish unfounded statements like this without ever checking.

Patricia Ireland was a guest on the Charlie Rose show on PBS. She said, "According to the March of Dimes, the leading cause of birth defects is men beating their wives." This statement was reported as fact in the national media. The March of Dimes says the story has become a widespread urban myth The March of Dimes never said it, there are no studies to support it. Time Magazine later retracted the story, but it was repeated by a local shelter movement advocate and published by our local press just recently.

Ireland knew she was caught telling a lie, but she had the audacity to repeat the same lie in a speech she gave months later.

In 1993 a coalition of feminists, aided by a media propaganda organization called FAIR (believe it or not, Fairness And Accuracy in Reporting) pulled off a nationwide hoax about spouse abuse. They claimed that Super Bowl Sunday is "the biggest day of the year for violence against women. Forty percent or more women will be battered on Super Bowl Sunday." They sent media kits to all major outlets and asked them to warn women, "Don't remain home with him during the game." There was no data to support this outrageous claim, but the press obliged the feminists by publishing or broadcasting most of their press kit claims verbatim. Ken Ringle of the Washington Post was evidently the only journalist who checked. He blew the whistle on the hoax. Ringle contacted a scholar at the University of Virginia who had been quoted as a source for a study by the feminists. The response of the scholar, "That's not what we found at all." Later, the FAIR representative admitted that she knew all along that the study had been misrepresented.

It leaves this person to wonder...why do you suppose conventional news sources convey the feminist point of view so readily, and ignore the evidence of the social sciences?

Feminists and domestic violence advocates are very powerful politically. They are also know to play dirty. A few examples:

When Dr. Warren Farrell was making the talk show circuit to promote his latest book, The Myth of Male Power, feminists nationwide lobbied media outlets to boycott his appearances. This book is a real eye opener for most men. We suggest that anyone who is interested in gender issues read Dr. Farrell's book as well as Who Stole Feminism? by Christina Hoff Sommers. Dr. Sommers has also been harassed by feminists.

When Dr. Suzan Steinmetz published her book The Battered Husband Syndrome she received death threats against her children from outraged feminist who were afraid they would lose the political advantage of being "victims". Imagine the irony of being threatened with violence by people who were afraid of being labeled violent.

The DV issue has been the subject of overt bogus statistics generated by abuse shelter advocates and feminists. The media has been duped or actively involved in creating a false perception of the problem.

Journalism is rife with feminists. Our own local newspaper has a "Family Section" which is reserved for feminist propaganda. Our letters and faxes often fall victim to the censorship of these feminist employees.

Another theory to explain the wide spread misperception of the DV issue is that men will do almost anything to avoid looking like a victim. Many women hold onto their victim status like Silas Marner held onto his gold. The idea of men as victims and women as perpetrators is unpalatable to both genders. You will not win friends or influence people by talking about the scientific studies that agree with Kipling's comment. "The female of the species is more deadly than the male."

Feminists have been using this falsely defined domestic violence issue the same way for many years. Their twisting the truth about the DV issue is probably their most successful hoax to date. Its time we called them on it.


Feminist Lies Exposed



There are many objective studies that contradict feminist propaganda. In the past few months we have presented many fact based exposes of the feminist "party line".

1. We have learned that domestic violence isn't what the feminists would have us believe. Women are more violent than men in the home.
2. We have learned that the "pay gap" isn't what the feminist say it is. Women who participate in the job market the same way as men, are paid the same way as men.
3. We have seen feminist hoaxes exposed. Feminists use everything from slander by innuendo to overt deceit in their propaganda war against men. Feminists use statistics like a fish uses a bicycle.
4. We have learned about the feminist zealots in academia who are violating the standards of honesty, rational inquiry, and objective research. These same "Women's Studies" gurus are brainwashing young women to believe the "big lie" that men are evil and that women are oppressed. In Sandra Harding's The Science Question and Feminism we find that Alfred North Whitehead, and Bertrand Russell's classic treatise on mathematics, Principia Mathematica for which they won the Noble Prize, should be called "Newton's Rape Manual". It seems that math and science is a male conspiracy to keep women oppressed.
5. We have seen documentation of the anti male bias in domestic court. Men are overtly discriminated against in matters of family law. This legal bias against men is the most blatant example of gender discrimination in our society. Where is the press coverage on this issue?
6. We have seen many examples of the seething hatred for men that obsesses many feminists. Some examples of this hatred will happen to you if you copy this news release and pass it around.

We are talking about a wide spread cultural pathology here, not individual manifestations of that pathology, i.e. Gloria Allred. Our focus is on "FEMINISM", not individual feminists. Many "isms" are pathological. Feminism is a sick kind of "ism". We do not hate feminists! We see individual feminists as victims of a dangerous "cult", more to be rescued rather than reviled. We honestly believe feminism is a pathological cultural movement. We oppose feminism for the same reason decent people have always opposed politically radical hate groups. We really see feminism as more dangerous than other hate groups. Why, because it strikes at the heart of civilization. It destroys marriages and families. It corrupts everything with which it comes into contact.


What follows is some more objective data that exposes the false, hate filled, "party line" of feminism.


Issue # 1 : Rape & False Rape Charges



Actual incidences of false rape charges are much higher than these studies indicate because in these studies, in order to be counted as a "false charge", three conditions must be met:

1. There are no corroborating witnesses, i.e. it's her word against his.
2. There is no physical evidence of a rape.
3. Here's the tough one - before trial, the woman had to recant her testimony and admit she made it up.

Formal studies have found the rate of "false rape charges", using only these restrictive criteria, to vary from 27 per cent to over 60 per cent. Makes you wonder how many guys are behind bars because the accuser didn't get cold feet about sending an innocent man to jail.


One of the "informal" studies was done by the Washington Post when they couldn't bring themselves to believe a press release about one of the formal studies. So they sent reporters out to interview police and DA's all over suburban Maryland. The number they brought back was about 50 per cent false charges. Death threats were made against the reporter who wrote the article on false rape charges. Bomb threats were made against the newspaper. Are there any studies that measure the degree of danger from telling the truth within 100 miles of N.O.W headquarters?

The problem of false charges of rape is as large as the crime of rape itself. The most common answers given by women as to why they brought a false charge in the first place were spite and revenge for something unrelated.


Issue #2 Eating disorders and women

The press about the girls killing themselves by anorexia is bogus. Numbers of 150,000 deaths per year were presented by Naomi Wolf, president Clinton's new "Woman's Issues Advisor". Naomi Wolf somehow makes men responsible for anorexia and compares males to Hitler in the same sentence: "When confronted with a vast number of emaciated female bodies starved not by nature but by men one must notice a certain resemblance." According to the Centers for Disease Control, deaths from anorexia tend to be around 75 to 100 per year; deaths from bulimia are zero. Remember that anorexia is a disease. You wonder why we guys go nuts about media feminists... here they are claiming that a rarely fatal disease is actually killing hundreds of thousands of women, and blaming this "plague" on men.


Issue #3: Girls are victims of patriarchal culture

Between 1950 and 1980, the suicide rate for males 15 to 24 increased more than three times as much as the rate for females the same age. The male rate increased 211 per cent, the female rate 65 per cent. (American Review of Public Health, v.8 p.424)

In the age group 25-34, the suicide rate for males increased 26 per cent. The rate for women went down 33 per cent. The suicide rate for males in this age group is now 4 times that of the rate for females.

Watch what happens as boys become aware of their sex roles:

Suicide rates by age and sex per 100,000 population

(Vital Statistics of the United States, USGPO 1991)

Age

(1) 5-9 (2) 10-14 (3) 15-19 (4) 20-24

Male

(1) 0.1 (2) 2.1 (3) 18.0 (4) 25.8

Female

(1) 0.0 (2) 0.8 (3) 4.4 (4) 4.1

See how girls' self-esteem drops as they enter high school? That's all you hear about in the press. No mention of boys' suicide rate increasing 760 per cent at the same time, is there? Girls get all the press. Why?

Feminists are on-purpose trying to teach boys that what they are is evil; that their fate is grow up to be wife-beating, child-abusing, daughter-raping, deadbeat dads, the very scum of the Earth. Imagine what it must be like to be an 8 or 9 year old boy, white, and to be taught that "white males" are the scourge of the earth; a cancer on the planet, the violent oppressors of all. Everyday, young men have their self esteem aggressively assaulted by feminist lies. The damage of this assault on male children will haunt our culture for years to come.

Issue #4: Criminal prosecution & sentencing

per cent of murder victims in domestic violence

Males

55.5

Females

44.5

per cent of spouses acquitted for murder of a spouse

Males

1.4

Females

12.9

per cent of spouses who receive probation for murdering a spouse

Males

1.6

Females

16.0

Average sentence (in years) for murdering a spouse

Males

17.0

Females

6.0

A man convicted of murder is twenty times more likely to receive the death penalty than a woman. Only one woman who received the death penalty has actually been executed since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty, and that was at her request.

A North Carolina study found that men who committed second degree murder received sentences an average of 12.6 years longer than women who committed second degree murder.

How about other violent crimes? According to a national Department of Justice study, men were sentenced to an average of 159 months for rape, women 117. Men were sentenced to 83 months for aggravated assault, women 49.

The difference is not just the seriousness of the crime, either. A study conducted in the state of Washington, a state with rigid sentencing guidelines, found women were 57 times more likely than men to receive treatment sentences rather than prison sentences, even when the crimes and offense histories were the same.

CAUTION - the above are law enforcement statistics, thus they only reflect anti-male bias after conviction. The actual anti-male bias in the justice system is worse than these statistics indicate. These statistics do not reflect that police are more likely to suspect a man, juries more likely to convict, solely because the accused is a man, and prosecutors know this, so they are more likely to offer a deal with a woman. After sentence treatment differs as well, with men less likely to be released early.

Three times as many men are murdered than women, yet we have a "Crimes Against Women" law!

The Oppressed Class With a Privileged Status

The feminist claim that women are an oppressed class of people is one of the biggest lies of all time. It would be impossible to find a single example in history in which a group that cast more than 50 per cent of the vote got away with calling itself the victim of oppression. Or an example of an oppressed group which chooses to vote for their "oppressors" more than it chooses to have its own members take responsibility for running for office. Women are the only minority group that is a majority, the only group that calls itself "oppressed" that is able to control who is elected to every office in virtually every community in the country. Power is not in who holds the office, power is in who chooses who holds the office. Blacks, Irish, and Jews never had more than a small fraction of America's vote.

Women are the only "oppressed" group to share the same parents as the "oppressor;" to be born into the middle-class and upper-class as frequently as the "oppressor;" to own more of the culture's luxury items than the "oppressor;" the only "oppressed" group to own the majority of wealth in a nation, the only "oppressed" group to have 142 per cent more net worth than the "oppressor", the only "oppressed" group whose "unpaid labor" or unearned income, enables them to buy most of the fifty billion dollars' worth of cosmetics sold each year; the only "oppressed" group that spends more on high-fashion, brand name clothing than their "oppressors;" the only "oppressed" group that watches more TV during every time category than their "oppressors."

If men are the "Ruling Class", they must be the most self sacrificing, and benevolent bunch of dictators in history!

"If you think it is hard being a woman, just try being a man."

Contact: 1-941-591-1987 or e-mail 72752.76@compuserve.com

Source Link.

This article points out the various myths that feminists have fabricated out of thin air to slander males. It's from 1996 yet still pretty spot on.


Here's another handy article:

The Ten Most Common Feminist Myths
Courtesy of the Independent Women's Forum
April 17, 2001

TAKE BACK THE CAMPUS
Are you tired of male-bashing and victimology?
Have you had your fill of feminist "Ms./Information"?
Have you been mislead by factually challenged professors?

TAKE THIS TEST:
Campus feminism is a kind of cult: as early as freshman orientation, professors begin spinning theories about how American women are oppressed under "patriarchy." Here is a list of the most common feminist myths. If you believe two or more of these untruths, you may need deprogramming.

The Ten Most Common Feminist Myths:

1. Myth: One in four women in college has been the victim of rape or attempted rape.
Fact: This mother of all factoids is based on a fallacious feminist study commissioned by Ms. magazine. The researcher, Mary Koss, hand-picked by hard-line feminist Gloria Steinem, acknowledges that 73 percent of the young women she counted as rape victims were not aware they had been raped. Forty-three percent of them were dating their "attacker" again.
Rape is a uniquely horrible crime. That is why we need sober and responsible research. Women will not be helped by hyperbole and hysteria. Truth is no enemy of compassion, and falsehood is no friend.
(Nara Schoenberg and Sam Roe, "The Making of an Epidemic," Toledo Blade, October 10, 1993; and Neil Gilbert, "Examining the Facts: Advocacy Research Overstates the Incidence of Data and Acquaintance Rape," Current Controversies in Family Violence eds. Richard Gelles and Donileen Loseke, Newbury Park, CA.: Sage Publications, 1993, pp.120-132; and Campus Crime and Security, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, 1997. *According to this study, campus police reported 1,310 forcible sex offenses on U.S. campuses in one year. That works out to an average of fewer than one rape per campus.)

2. Myth: Women earn 75 cents for every dollar a man earns.
Fact: The 75 cent figure is terribly misleading. This statistic is a snapshot of all current full-time workers. It does not consider relevant factors like length of time in the workplace, education, occupation, and number of hours worked per week. (The experience gap is particularly large between older men and women in the workplace.) When economists do the proper controls, the so-called gender wage gap narrows to the point of vanishing.
(Essential reading: Women's Figures: An Illustrated Guide to the Economic Progress of Women in America, by Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Christine Stolba, published by the Independent Women's Forum and the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C. 2000.)

3. Myth: 30 percent of emergency room visits by women each year are the result of injuries from domestic violence.
Fact: This incendiary statistic is promoted by gender feminists whose primary goal seems to be to impugn men. Two responsible government studies report that the nationwide figure is closer to one percent. While these studies may have missed some cases of domestic violence, the 30% figure is a wild exaggeration.
(National Center for Health Statistics, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1992 Emergency Department Summary , Hyattsville, Maryland, March 1997; and U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence-Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments: Washington, D.C., August 1997.)

4. Myth: The phrase "rule of thumb" originated in a man's right to beat his wife provided the stick was no wider than his thumb.
Fact: This is an urban legend that is still taken seriously by activist law professors and harassment workshoppers. The Oxford English Dictionary has more than twenty citations for phrase "rule of thumb" (the earliest from 1692), but not a single mention of beatings, sticks, or husbands and wives.
(For a definitive debunking of the hoax see Henry Ansgar Kelly, "Rule of Thumb and the Folklaw of the Husband's Stick," The Journal of Legal Education, September 1994.)

5. Myth: Women have been shortchanged in medical research.
Fact: The National Institutes of Health and drug companies routinely include women in clinical trials that test for effectiveness of medications. By 1979, over 90% of all NIH-funded trials included women. Beginning in 1985, when the NIH's National Cancer Center began keeping track of specific cancer funding, it has annually spent more money on breast cancer than any other type of cancer. Currently, women represent over 60% of all subjects in NIH-funded clinical trails.
(Essential reading: Cathy Young and Sally Satel, "The Myth of Gender Bias in Medicine," Washington, D.C.: The Women's Freedom Network, 1997.)

6.Myth: Girls have been shortchanged in our gender-biased schools
Fact: No fair-minded person can review the education data and conclude that girls are the have-nots in our schools. Boys are slightly ahead of girls in math and science; girls are dramatically ahead in reading and writing. (The writing skills of 17-year-old boys are at the same level as 14-year- old girls.) Girls get better grades, they have higher aspirations, and they are more likely to go to college.
(See: Trends in Educational Equity of Girls & Women, Washington, D. C.: U.S. Department of Education, June 2000.)

7. Myth: "Our schools are training grounds for sexual harassment... boys are rarely punished, while girls are taught that it is their role to tolerate this humiliating conduct."
(National Organization of Women, "Issue Report: Sexual Harassment," April 1998.)
Fact: "Hostile Hallways," is the best-known study of harassment in grades 8-11. It was commissioned by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) in 1993, and is a favorite of many harassment experts. But this survey revealed that girls are doing almost as much harassing as the boys. According to the study, "85 percent of girls and 76 percent of boys surveyed say they have experienced unwanted and unwelcome sexual behavior that interferes with their lives."
(Four scholars at the University of Michigan did a careful follow-up study of the AAUW data and concluded: "The majority of both genders (53%) described themselves as having been both victim and perpetrator of harassment -- that is most students had been harassed and had harassed others." And these researchers draw the right conclusion: "Our results led us to question the simple perpetrator-victim model...")(See: American Education Research Journal, Summer 1996.)

8. Myth: Girls suffer a dramatic loss of self-esteem during adolescence.
Fact: This myth of the incredible shrinking girls was started by Carol Gilligan, professor of gender studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Gilligan has always enjoyed higher standing among feminist activists and journalists than among academic research psychologists. Scholars who follow the protocols of social science do not accept the reality of an adolescent "crisis" of confidence and "loss of voice." In 1993, American Psychologist reported the new consensus among researchers in adolescent development: "It is now known that the majority of adolescents of both genders successfully negotiate this developmental period without any major psychological or emotional disorder [and] develop a positive sense of personal identity."
(Anne C. Petersen et al. "Depression in Adolescence," American Psychologist February 1993; see also, Daniel Offer, and Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, "Debunking the Myths of Adolescence: Findings from Recent Research," Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, November 1992.)

9. Myth: Gender is a social construction.
Fact: While environment and socialization do play a significant role in human life, a growing body of research in neuroscience, endocrinology, and psychology over the past 40 years suggests there is a biological basis for many sex differences in aptitudes and preferences. In general, males have better spatial reasoning skills; females better verbal skills. Males are greater risk takers; females are more nurturing.
Of course, this does not mean that women should be prevented from pursuing their goals in any field they choose; what it does suggest is that we should not expect parity in all fields. More women than men will continue to want to stay at home with small children and pursue careers in fields like early childhood education or psychology; men will continue to be over-represented in fields like helicopter mechanics and hydraulic engineering.

Warning: Most gender scholars in our universities have degrees in fields like English or comparative literature--not biology or neuroscience. These self-appointed experts on sexuality are scientifically illiterate. They substitute dogma and propaganda for reasoned scholarship.
(For a review of recent findings on sex differences see a special issue of The Scientific American "Men: The Scientific Truth," Fall 2000.)


10. Myth: Women's Studies Departments empowered women and gave them a voice in the academy.

Fact: Women's Studies empowered a small group of like-minded careerists. They have created an old-girl network that is far more elitist, narrow and closed than any of the old-boy networks they rail against. Vast numbers of moderate or dissident women scholars have been marginalized, excluded and silenced.
(Essential reading: everything by Camille Paglia; Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge--Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies; and Christina Hoff Sommers--Who Stole Feminism? How Women have Betrayed Women)

**Should you encounter an item of Ms/information in one of your classes, in a textbook, or a women's center "fact" sheet, let us know. We will print it on our campus website, SheThinks.org, correct it with accurate information, and politely inform the source of the mistake.
We are a women's group dedicated to restoring reason, common sense and open discussion to the campus.

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