Monday, October 10, 2011

[ajdzavrd] Women opposing feminism, etc.

I've heard that the greatest enemies of feminism are ironically women. The prototypical example is a woman on a jury of a rape case refusing to convict because the female victim was dressed like a slut, so deserved getting raped. A man might say this too, but the woman is more convincing: it cannot be dismissed as bigotry.

Is the general statement true? 

If true, exactly what is the mechanism by which women oppose feminism?  Whatever it is, it has two surprising characteristics.

In a world with political power seemingly dominated by men, it is surprising that women are exerting significant political power about anything, and in particular to impede feminism, a cause that has a lot of support, organization, and dedicated people behind it.  I don't think it's mere apathy.

Usually any cause has its champions, perhaps charismatic leaders who encourage people to support it.  But the "anti-feminist women" cause seems to have no champions; it seems to be a completely decentralized show of power.  Politically, this is surprising and interesting.  Can other causes be organized and succeed this way?

I wildly speculate that feminism may be at odds with how evolution has programmed women to think and behave: this is the heart of anti-feminism in women.  If so, then we have a biological explanation to a political phenomenon, an astounding leap between fields.  Then, how can a democracy shield itself from such biological forces, assuming feminism is actually a desirable cause?

Are there any other political realms where women are exerting significant influence like this?  I speculate destruction of freedom of speech.  Instead of absolute freedom of speech, many people are okay with censoring pornography.  But once it's acceptable to censor one thing, then the seed is planted, and it becomes acceptable to censor other things, too.  Once again, I speculate a biological explanation for why enough women make pornography an exception to freedom of speech: it prevents the mates from thinking about and seeking a more attractive partner.

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