THE FLIPSIDE OF FEMINISM

Feminism's legacy: 'Heartache, STDs, abortion'

'It turns out human nature cannot be repealed by judicial fiat'

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Posted: March 08, 2011
9:12 pm Eastern
By Anita Crane
© 2011 WorldNetDaily

"The truth is that feminism is the single worst thing that happened to American women."
So wrote Suzanne Venker and her aunt, Phyllis Schlafly, in "The Flipside of Feminism" What Conservative Women Know – and Men Can't Say."
And if that doesn’t elicit feminist fury or bewilderment, what will? But it's more reason for feminists and non-feminists to read this new title published by WND Books.

After all, you'll see people you know, people you love – maybe even yourself – in "The Flipside of Feminism," the authors say.  "My hope is that any person between the ages of 18 and 50, male or female, who feels as though they've absorbed feminist ideology, will read this book," said Venker, who describes herself first and foremost as a wife and mom, even though she's authored a previous book and numerous articles.

Schlafly, author or editor of 20 books, founder of the Eagle Forum, and Supreme Court attorney most famous for leading the Equal Rights Amendment defeat, hopes that the young will read "Flipside" before they make "too many mistakes.  "I want them to understand that everything the feminists are telling us is really a lie," said the widow, and proud mother and grandmother. "Feminism teaches young women to think of themselves as victims of the patriarchy. That's so unfortunate because American women are the most fortunate who have ever lived – we can make anything we want of our lives."

What, then, is this thing that Venker and Schlafly call the "F word"?  In brief, feminism is the radical agenda of what they dubbed "the Feminine Left."



For example, typically feminists seek all the powers of men while hating men and ultimately despising their own feminine nature. This is but one contradiction in feminist agenda. And once feminists declared men unnecessary, they engineered big government to take the place of husbands and fathers, the authors say.

"The animus against men is very evident in what they're doing," said Schlafly. "They look upon marriage as a dreary life. Betty Friedan called the housewife 'a parasite who lives in a concentration camp.' Gloria Steinem said you become a 'semi-nonperson' when you get married. A lot of these feminist leaders came out of dysfunctional families and they're projecting their personal problems onto society."

As the authors explain, "feminism is in the air." Liberal or unwitting parents indoctrinate their children at home, teachers push it in school and college, then in college or work, young women are taught to think only of themselves, chasing careers rather than love and family. As a result, many women resort to casual sex, spend long hours at work, and wake up in midlife realizing their lives are empty.  Other women marry, concentrate on their careers, and abandon their families with no-fault divorce, they write.

Nevertheless, Schlafly and Venker, who write in a scholarly but fluid, tough-love and maternal way, found that most women want to be married and even more want to have children.  "Heartache, broken relationships, failed marriages, sexually-transmitted diseases, abortion, and skyrocketing rates of emotionally wounded children have been the real legacy of feminism. It turns out – no surprise – that human nature cannot be repealed, overturned by judicial fiat, or reshaped by media messages," said Schlafly.

For these authors, the wreckage of feminism isn't just some study. Like many American men, it seems Venker's first husband had taken feminism to heart. "In our chapter on marriage, and in the last chapter with our roadmap, I talk about how geography is an issue for women today," said Venker. "Because so many women go away to school and get degrees so far away from home, their chances of meeting someone from out of state and then staying away are great. It's making motherhood stressful because mothers don't have support and help from their own moms. That's what happened in my case.

"We were living in New York and I wanted to come back to St. Louis, but my husband was a New Yorker and I just couldn't get him to do that," she said. "When I explained to him that family, specifically motherhood, was going to be the focus of my life and I wanted to be near my family, it just didn't work with him because he had absorbed feminist ideology: He was fine with abortion, casual sex and then he wasn't willing to move so that we could have family at the center of our lives."

Heartache isn't the only expense of feminism. Schlafly stressed that because of broken families, especially single mothers, 40 percent of Americans now depend on government for all or part of their living expenses, and that cost to taxpayers is about $1 trillion per year.  Considering today's turbulent times and tea party activism, one of the best parts of "Flipside" tells how and why the Equal Rights Amendment failed.

Yes, years after Betty Freidan told Phyllis Schlafly, "I'd like to burn you at the stake," left-wing tactics are just as ugly and violent today.  While Venker said that "feminism has sabotaged women's happiness," she wrote the book because she believes it's never too late for women and men to change.

"It's my hope that people get charged – a renewed hopefulness – from having someone open up the door to a completely different way of viewing women in society, marriage, motherhood, work and sex and all things," said Venker. "I hope that women – and men – realize that the [natural] things they're thinking are good and they're tired of having to follow the path set forth by all the feminists they've known, maybe feminist mothers or feminist professors. I hope they use this book to chart a new course."
"The Flipside of Feminism," by Suzanne Venker and Phyllis Schlafly will be available March 15.

Read more: Feminism's legacy: 'Heartache, STDs, abortion' http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=272353#ixzz1GSSv4Sk9