Modern academic feminism is hurting women by teaching them to see themselves as victims rather than empowered individuals, according to American Enterprise Institute scholar Christina Hoff Sommers.
Hoff Sommers, in an interview with Clay Routledge of Psychology Today, argued that women in academia are being treated like children.
“Women are not children. We are not fragile little birds who can’t cope with jokes, works of art or controversial speakers,” Hoff Sommers said. “Trigger warnings and safe spaces are an infantilizing setback for feminism — and for women.”
Routledge, too, brought up this notion of “women as victims,” suggesting that the narratives being pushed by feminists in academia (most notably through women’s studies programs) is a form of “benevolent sexism.” That is, “the idea that women need to be cherished and protected, that they are innocent, precious and perhaps childlike.”
It certainly seems that way on today’s college campuses, where women are constantly bombarded with claims that they stand a good chance of being sexually assaulted (not just by random strangers, but by their best guy friends) or are somehow oppressed in America.
One of the favorite arguments (of feminist scholars but also female politicians such as Hillary Clinton) is to claim women do not earn equal pay for equal work. They throw away that line as an accepted truth, without disclosing that women don’t earn as much as men largely because they are not doing the same jobs for the same hours.
When faced with this fact, many feminists, politicians and the media will claim that women only accept lower-paying jobs because society tells them to do so. I’ve often wondered: Do these people think women make any decisions for themselves?
The reason victimhood is so cherished today (suddenly) is unclear, but Hoff Sommers says part of the problem comes from a lack of ideological diversity in many areas of academia.
“The true-believers fashion the theories, write the textbooks and teach the students. When journalists, policymakers and legislators address topics such as the wage gap, gender and education, or women’s health, they turn to these experts for enlightenment,” Hoff Sommers said.
“For the most part, they peddle misinformation, victim politics and sophistry. They claim that their teachings represent the academic consensus, but that is only because they have excluded all dissenters.”
There is a lot more in the interview, which I encourage you to read in its entirety.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
