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Antifeminism is opposition to feminism in some or all of its forms.

Definition

The Oxford English Dictionary defines an anti-feminist as "one opposed to women or to feminism; a person (usu. a man) who is hostile to sexual equality or to the advocacy of women's rights." The Oxford Online Dictionary defines an anti-feminist as "(adjective) opposed to feminism; (noun) a person opposed to feminism." Collins English Dictionary defines anti-feminism as "the opposition to feminism." In common parlance, anti-feminist is often used to describe an opposition to some or all of organized political activism identified as feminism, especially that which is perceived to be of an extreme or unjust nature.

Sociologist Michael Flood argues that antifeminism denies at least one of three general principles of feminism: that social arrangements among men and women are neither natural nor divinely determined; that social arrangements among men and women favor men; or that there are collective actions that can and should be taken to transform these arrangements into more just and equitable arrangements. Michael Kimmel, a men's studies scholar, defines antifeminism as "the opposition to women's equality." He says that antifeminists oppose "women's entry into the public sphere, the re-organization of the private sphere, women's control of their bodies, and women's rights generally." This, he says, is justified by antifeminists through "recourse to religious and cultural norms, and sometimes... in the name of 'saving' masculinity from pollution and invasion." He argues that antifeminists consider the "traditional gender division of labor as natural and inevitable, perhaps also divinely sanctioned."

Melissa Blais and Francis Dupuis-Déri write that "little research has been done on antifeminism whether from the perspective of the sociology of social movements or even of women's studies", and that antifeminism has mostly taken the form of masculinism arguing "that men are in crisis because of the feminization of society".

"Antifeminism" is viewed by some as a loaded word because antifeminism is widely seen as an attempt to undermine legitimate concerns of women's rights and propagate misogynistic ideology. Writers such as Camille Paglia, Christina Hoff Sommers, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Katie Roiphe and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, who define themselves as feminists, have been labeled "antifeminists" by others because of their positions regarding oppression and lines of thought within feminism. Daphne Patai and Noreta Koertge argue that by labeling these women "antifeminists", the intention is to silence them and prevent any debate on the state of feminism.

Antifeminist stances

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Some antifeminists have argued that feminism has resulted in changes to society's previous norms relating to sexuality, which they see as detrimental to traditional values or conservative religious beliefs. For example, the ubiquity of casual sex and the decline of marriage are mentioned as negative consequences of feminism. Many of these traditionalists oppose women's entry into the workforce, political office, and the voting process, as well as the lessening of male authority in families. Antifeminists argue that a change of women's roles is a destructive force that endangers the family, or is contrary to religious morals. For example, Paul Gottfried maintains that the change of women's roles "has been a social disaster that continues to take its toll on the family" and contributed to a "descent by increasingly disconnected individuals into social chaos".

Some antifeminists view feminism as a denial of innate differences between the genders, and an attempt to reprogram people against their biological tendencies. Antifeminists also frequently argue that feminism, despite espousing equality, ignores rights issues unique to males. Some believe that the feminist movement has achieved its aims and now seeks higher status for women than for men via special rights and exemptions.

History

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2011)

19th century

In the 19th century, the centerpiece of antifeminism was opposition to women's suffrage. Opponents of women's entry into institutions of higher learning argued that education was too great a physical burden on women. In 'Sex in Education: or, a Fair Chance for the Girls (1873), Harvard professor Edward Clarke predicted that if women went to college, their brains would grow bigger and heavier, and their wombs would atrophy. He based his prediction on the observation that college-educated women had fewer children than non-college-educated women. Other antifeminists opposed women's entry into the labor force, or their right to join unions, to sit on juries, or to obtain birth control and control of their sexuality.

20th century

According to historian Landon Storrs, in the period following World War II, American antifeminism was deeply rooted in anticommunism. The House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy led anticommunist crusades against people they considered subversive, sometimes because they did not fit into traditional gender norms. This included homosexuals, women working outside the home and men with powerful wives. Many of the people investigated by HUAC were women within the government. These women inherently broke traditional gender roles by working outside of the home, garnering criticism and suspicion from the members of HUAC. Some of the women under investigation were prominent activists for issues such as minimum wages, national health insurance and other causes that advanced the rights of working class women. The attacks were effective in debilitating their leftist causes. One of the criteria that women under investigation for communist ties were judged on was their gender performance. Conservative antifeminists “represented Communist women as either devoid of femininity or as exploiting their femininity in order to serve the Soviet cause. Unfeminine Communist women appeared as ‘mannish’ lesbians, as robotic workers who competed with men at work rather than taking care of men at home, as bad mothers whose sons became dancers (that is, homosexuals), as domineering, even murderous wives.” Alleged communist women were judged by a subjective notion of acceptable femininity where any type of femininity could be seen as inappropriate—and therefore, subversive. Antifeminist media utilized the rhetoric of anticommunism as well. Popular conservative activist and antifeminist writer, Phyllis Schlafly, compared the American capitalist system with the “dreary and unending” chores of her Soviet contemporaries. She argued that women in America do not need feminism or the women’s liberation movement. The patriotic and anticommunist rhetoric used in The Power of the Positive Woman are important to the way that anticommunist and antifeminist rhetoric became inextricably linked in Cold War America.

In the latter 20th century, the term antifeminist was used to describe various opposing beliefs or attitudes surrounding a contentiously debated legislative movement created by feminists known as the Equal Rights Amendment or ERA.

21st century

Contemporary issues surrounding antifeminism include concerns of fairness in matters of "Family Law", regarding things like child custody, paternity liability, and child support payment. Concerns of sex or gender inequality in the criminal justice system, such as fairness in sentencing for like crimes.

Organizations

Founded in the U.S. by Phyllis Schlafly in October 1972, STOP ERA, now known as Eagle Forum lobbied successfully to block the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the USA. It was also Schlafly who forged links between STOP ERA and other conservative organizations, as well as single-issue groups against abortion, pornography, gun control, and unions. By integrating STOP ERA with the thus-dubbed New Right she was able to leverage a wider range of technological, organizational and political resources, successfully targeting pro-feminist candidates for defeat.

In India, the Save Indian Family Foundation is an antifeminist organization, organization is opposed to a number of laws that they claimed to have been used against men. REAL Women of Canada was unsuccessful when it came to preventing decriminalisation of abortion in Canada and same-sex marriage in Canada.

See also

Further reading

Literature about antifeminism

• Redefining the New Woman, 1920-1963 (Antifeminism in America: A Collection of Readings from the Literature of the Opponents to U.S. Feminism, 1848 to the Present), Howard-Zophy
• Un-American Womanhood: Antiradicalism, Antifeminism, and the First Red Scare, Kim E. Nielsen
• Kampwirth, Karen. 2006. "Resisting the Feminist Threat: Antifeminist Politics in Post-Sandinista Nicaragua" NWSA Journal. Vol. 18, No 2. (Summer). pp. 73–100.
• Kampwirth, Karen. 2003. "Arnoldo Alemán Takes on the NGOs: Antifeminism and the New Populism in Nicaragua" Latin American Politics and Society. Vol. 45. No. 2. (Summer) 2003. pp. 133–158.
• Kampwirth, Karen. 1998. "Feminism, Antifeminism, and Electoral Politics in Post-War Nicaragua and El Salvador" Political Science Quarterly Vol. 113, No. 2. (Summer) pp. 259–279.
• Cynthia D. Kinnard, Antifeminism in American Thought: An Annotated Bibliography (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1986, ISBN 0-8161-8122-5)
• Laura Kipnis, The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability (Pantheon, 2006).
• Jane Mansbridge: Why We Lost the ERA, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1986
• Schreiber, Ronnee (2008). Righting Feminism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533181-3.
• G. Swanson, Antifeminism in America: A Historical Reader (2000) ISBN 0-8153-3437-0

Antifeminist literature

• Helen Andelin, Fascinating Womanhood (1963; reprint 2007) ISBN 0-553-38427-9
• Alan J. Barron, The Death of Eve: Women, Liberation, Disintegration (1986) ISBN 0-949667-36-6
• Alan Carlson, The Family in America: Searching for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age (2003) ISBN 0-7658-0536-7
• Alan Carlson, Family Questions: Reflections on the American Social Crisis (1991) ISBN 1-56000-555-6
• Gilbert K. Chesterton, Brave New Family (1990; essay collection) ISBN 0-89870-314-X
• Danielle Crittenden, What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us (2000) ISBN 0-684-85959-9
• Midge Decter, The New Chastity and Other Arguments Against Women's Liberation (1974) ISBN 0-399-50307-2
• Thomas Ellis, The Rantings of a Single Male (2005) ISBN 0-9762613-1-6
• Thomas Fleming, The Politics of Human Nature (1988) ISBN 1-56000-693-5
• Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Feminism is Not the Story of My Life (1996) ISBN 0-385-46790-7
• George Gilder, Men and Marriage (1992) ISBN 0-88289-444-7
• Steven Goldberg, The Inevitability of Patriarchy (1973) ISBN 0-8126-9237-3
• F. Carolyn Graglia, Domestic Tranquility: A Brief Against Feminism (1998) ISBN 0-9653208-6-3
• Gertrude Himmelfarb, The De-moralization Of Society (1996) ISBN 0-679-76490-9
• Richard T. Hise, The War Against Men (2004) ISBN 1-930859-61-9
• Thomas P. James, Domestic Violence: The 12 Things You Aren't Supposed to Know (2003) ISBN 1-59330-122-7
• Mary A. Kassian, The Feminist Mistake (2005) ISBN 1-58134-570-4
• Linda Kelly, Disabusing the Definition of Domestic Abuse: How Women Batter Men and the Role of the Feminist State (2003)
• Karen Lehrman, The Lipstick Proviso: Women, Sex & Power in the Real World (1997) ISBN 0-385-47481-4
• Myron Magnet, Modern Sex: Liberation and Its Discontents (2001) ISBN 1-56663-384-2
• Harvey Mansfield, Manliness (2006) ISBN 0-300-10664-5
• Diane Medved and Dan Quayle, The American Family: Discovering the Values That Make Us Strong (1997) ISBN 0-06-092810-7
• Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture (2001) ISBN 0-7735-2272-7
• Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young, Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systemic Discrimination Against Men (2006) ISBN 0-7735-2862-8
• Kate O'Beirne, Women Who Make the World Worse (2005) ISBN 1-59523-009-2
• Daphne Patai and Noreta Koertge, Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies (1995) ISBN 0-465-09827-4
• John Piper and Wayne Grudem, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (1991) ISBN 0-89107-586-0
• Erin Pizzey, Prone to Violence (Hamlyn, 1982; ISBN 0-600-20551-7)
• Mary Pride, The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality (1985) ISBN 0-89107-345-0
• Phyllis Schlafly, The Power of the Positive Woman (1977) ISBN 0-87000-373-9
• Phyllis Schlafly, Feminist Fantasies (2003) ISBN 1-890626-46-5
• Christina Hoff Sommers, Who Stole Feminism? (1995) ISBN 0-684-80156-6
• Christina Hoff Sommers, The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men (2001) ISBN 0-684-84957-7
• Howard Schwartz, The Revolt of the Primitive: An Inquiry into the Roots of Political Correctness (2003) ISBN 0-7658-0537-5
• Lionel Tiger, The Decline of Males (2000) ISBN 0-312-26311-2
• Esther Vilar, The Manipulated Man (1972) ISBN 0-9530964-2-4
• Philip Gordon Wylie, A Generation of Vipers (1942) ISBN 1-56478-146-1
• Éric Zemmour, Le Premier sexe (2006) ISBN 2-20725-744-4

References

1. "Anti-feminist". Oxford English Dictionary. 2010.
2. "Anti-feminist". Oxford Dictionaries Online.
3. "Antifeminism". Collins English Dictionary.
4. Flood, Michael (2007-07-18). "International encyclopedia of men and masculinities". ISBN 978-0-415-33343-6. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
5. ^ Kimmel, Michael (2004). "Antifeminism". In Kimmel, Michael (ed.). Men and Masculinities: A Social, Cultural, and Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 35–7.
6. Blais, Melissa; Francis Dupuis-Déri (19 Dec 2011). "Masculinism and the Antifeminist Countermovement". Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest. 11 (1): 21–39. doi:10.1080/14742837.2012.640532. Retrieved 11 May 2013. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
7. Judith Stacey, Is Academic Feminism an Oxymoron?, Signs, Vol. 25, No. 4, Feminisms at a Millennium. (Summer, 2000), pp. 1189–1194
8. Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich, Review: 'Feminist Attacks on Feminisms: Patriarchy's Prodigal Daughters', Feminist Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1. (Spring, 1998), pp. 159–175
9. BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine, by Margaret Cho (Foreword), Lisa Jervis (Editor), Andi Zeisler (Editor), 2006
10. Patai and Koertge, Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies, (2003)
11. Mary A. Kassian, The Feminist Mistake (2005) ISBN 1-58134-570-4
12. Carrie L. Lukas, The politically incorrect guide to women, sex, and feminism, Regnery Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1-59698-003-6, ISBN 978-1-59698-003-7
13. Gottfried, Paul (2001). "The Trouble With Feminism". LewRockwell.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-30. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
14. Wattenberg, B (1994). "Has Feminism Gone Too Far?". MenWeb. Archived from the original on 13 October 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-30. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
15. Pizzey, Erin (1999). "How The Women's Movement Taught Women to Hate Men". Fathers for Life. Archived from the original on 26 September 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-30. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
16. Janice Shaw Crouse (2006). "What Friedan Wrought". Concerned Women for America. Retrieved 2006-09-30.
17. Clarke, Edward H. (1873). Sex and Education. Wildside. pp. 29, 55. ISBN 978-0-8095-0170-0.
18. Landon Storrs, “Attacking the Washington ‘Femmocracy’:AntiFeminism in the Cold War Campaign Against ‘Communists in Government’” Feminist Studies 33, (Spring, 2007) 124
19. Landon Storrs, “Attacking the Washington ‘Femmocracy’:AntiFeminism in the Cold War Campaign Against ‘Communists in Government’” Feminist Studies 33, (Spring, 2007) 127
20. Phyllis Schlafly, The Power of the Positive Woman, (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers, 1977), 19
21. Mustard, David. "RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND GENDER DISPARITIES IN SENTENCING: EVIDENCE FROM THE U.S. FEDERAL COURTS".
22. ^ Tierney, Helen (1999). Women's Studies Encyclopedia. Westport, CT, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated. p. 95.
23. 52 J. Legal Pluralism & Unofficial L. 49 (2006) Playing off Courts: The Negotiation of Divorce and Violence in Plural Legal Settings in Kolkata; Basu, Srimati
24. Rohit K. Dasgupta; K. Moti Gokulsing (2013). Masculinity and Its Challenges in India: Essays on Changing Perceptions. McFarland. p. 65.

External links

• The dictionary definition of antifeminism at Wiktionary
• Template:Dmoz

1. Warren Farrell "The Myth of Male Power," Berkeley Publishing Group, 1996

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