Feminism: A Cruel Hypocrisy

Radical feminism is an ideology that has always baffled me. I spoke with a clearly radical feminist today at Starbucks and I was shocked at the utter hatred she seemed to harbor for "the patriarchy" and the supposed oppression of women in this allegedly male-dominated society. It seems they think that women are still treated like second-class citizens. While feminism would have been perfectly understandable a century ago, as women fought for the right to vote, own property and have reproductive rights, it appears tired and hypocritical today.

Feminists seem to strive for equality by focusing on the plight of only one gender, yet they completely overlook many key areas where society clearly favors them.

Rape is a particularly heinous crime. I've known a few rape victims and I could see how it affected them. In my opinion, it's the worst possible violation a woman can suffer, and rapists deserve whatever they get.

This reminds me of a story I heard a while back. A woman in Europe caught a man breaking into her store. Rather than calling the police, she captured him and tied him in the back room. She then force-fed him Viagra and raped him repeatedly for three days. Of course, there was great public outcry and she was brought to justice, right? Wrong. When the news broke, most people hailed her as a hero, claiming that the man got what he deserved.

Now, let's reverse the situation. Imagine a man owned the store, caught a woman breaking in and raped her for three days. Would people be on his side? Hardly. It's safe to say that they would be calling for his head on a stick. So tell me, where's the equality in that?

Another little known fact to feminists is that on average, women receive milder sentences than men for the same crimes. Society thinks nothing of putting a man to death in the U.S., yet the media seems to keep count of how many women have been executed.

Now, to be fair, violent crimes are more often committed by men, so there will be a gap in terms of death sentences, but this doesn't mean that women should get off more easily simply because of their gender. I've never heard a feminist fight for women's rights to equal sentencing. Of course, that's because it doesn't suit them.

Divorce laws have a clear tendency to favor women, even if the woman in question is less fit than the father to handle children. Again, I've seen this happen. So where are the feminists there? Where are their cries of protest about being equal in that respect? I'm yet to hear it. Society seems to think that mothers are better at raising children, even if the father is clearly a wiser choice. Radical feminist probably love this, as it gives them some passive-aggressive form of revenge on the men who are clearly holding them down...

Everyone knows the case of Katherine Becker, the woman who cut off her husband's penis and stuffed it in a garbage disposal. To any male, this is pretty heinous, but don't tell that to the chattering morons on "The View". In case you haven't seen the YouTube clip, these women were laughing about the whole situation.

Let's reverse this. What if Katherine's husband cut off her breast, for example? Would society tolerate a group of men going on TV and laughing about it? Of course not. It's only sexist when men do it.

I don't know about the U.S., but here in Canada, you'll frequently find this question on a job application: "Do you belong to any of the following groups?" It then lists Aboriginals, ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities and women.

It seems that employers, in their attempt to create equality, are in fact contributing to inequality. Genetics and gender shouldn't be the deciding factor as to whether you are better suited for a position, yet this question is on every application, from human resources jobs to burger-flipping.

Remember, this was created by the same patriarchy that feminists claim is oppressing them. Funny, I don't hear any complaints about it..

Here's an ironic fact. Although women are allowed to serve in the military -- and rightfully so -- they're still not subject to conscription. Society has no problem sending sons, brothers, husbands and fathers to fight and possibly die against their will. Why aren't feminists fighting for the right to be drafted? It's part of generating equality, is it not?

To be clear, I have nothing against feminists or feminism. Moderate feminists actually focus on issues that matter, like breast cancer awareness and even many of the inequalities I mentioned above. Radical feminists, however, are not approaching equality in a sincere way. They focus on the supposed plight of women, yet they only strive for equality where it benefits them. All feminists need to work with men, not against them, to address inequality across the board. The us vs. them mentality created by the radicals only creates animosity and resistance on both sides.

I actually presented the above arguments to the feminist in question, and all she did was dodge the subject, saying that women have to put up with WAY more inequality. She felt that once all of the feminist's grievances were settled, they'd work on the less pressing stuff. Unfortunately, no fundamentalists will listen to reason and they definitely have no desire to end the war that only exists in their minds.