I’m convinced Tucker Carlson is the only television host who understands the fallout of feminism and is willing to discuss it on national TV. During a recent interview with me on his program, Carlson noted the following: “I don’t think anything has changed our society more for the worse” than feminism.
Indeed, nothing has.
When I said something similar in 2011, I was called out by NPR’s Meghna Chakrabarti in an interview about my book, The Flipside of Feminism. In it, I wrote that feminism is the “single worst thing to happen to women,” that it didn’t liberate them at all.
On the contrary, feminism has made women’s lives (and by extension, men’s and children’s lives) immeasurably worse. According to a 2009 paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, “As women have gained more freedom, more education, and more power, they have become less happy.”
When this study was released, countless articles and news reports inquired about the irony of it all. How is it possible that women can be less happy after having been “liberated”?
In fact, it isn’t surprising at all when you consider that women have been lied to for decades about what constitutes a happy life. Academic and elite feminists, who reside in our universities, in the media, in politics, and in Hollywood, have told women all kinds of things that just aren’t true. Things that make women (and by extension, men and children) very unhappy.
Such as the idea that women don’t need a man and that children don’t need fathers: “Women are realizing more and more that you don’t have to settle, they don’t have to fiddle with a man to have that child,” noted Jennifer Aniston in this 2010 interview about an upcoming film.
Or that men and women must make the same life choices with respect to work and family to be deemed “equal”: “An equal world will be one where women run half our countries and companies and men run half our homes. We will not rest until we reach that goal,” said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in 2018.
Or that staying home to raise a family is less important, valuable, or satisfying than earning a living: “These women who act like staying at home, leeching off their husbands or boyfriends, and just cashing the checks is some sort of feminism because they’re choosing to live that life. That’s bullshit.” now-Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said in 2006.
Or that there’s no such thing as the biological clock: “Be cautious about metaphors like the ‘biological clock’— don’t take them literally,” writes Catherine Aponte Psy.D. at Psychology Today.
These are all lies. Unfortunately, women listened, and men followed. What choice did they have? And now here’s what we have to show for it:
- The complete breakdown of marriage. Over the past 30 years, America has witnessed a meteoric rise in cohabitation, creating a bona fide “shack up” culture. Many women can’t find “economically attractive” husbands with whom to settle down and start a family. And father-absent homes are rampant because of unilateral divorce initiated largely by women (around 70%) for no other reason that she isn’t “happy.”
- A persistent and relentless gender war. With gender roles thoroughly dismantled, men and women no longer know who’s supposed to do what. They have no idea how the other sex thinks and behaves or even wants, and as a result, are locked in a battle about who works harder than whom. Moreover, sexual activity among unmarried men and women has become a minefield, as evidenced by the excesses of #MeToo and the so-called campus rape culture.
- An explosion of kids who are in full-time day care and who are home alone after school, resulting in an epidemic of childhood obesity, and of lonely, disconnected kids who have ample opportunity to get into all kinds of trouble, including devising ways to shoot up their schools.
- A full-scale war on men. The utterly absurd notion that male nature is toxic or even diseased, resulting in a made-up concept known as “mascupathy,” has become the status quo. Ergo, half the U.S. population is now disenfranchised.
How dare Carlson say nothing has changed our society more for the worse than feminism! Where did he get such a crazy idea?
Suzanne Venker (@SuzanneVenker) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is an author, columnist, and radio host. Her newest book, WOMEN WHO WIN at Love: How to Build a Relationship That Lasts was published in October 2019. Suzanne’s website is www.suzannevenker.com.
