The Backlash! - January 1996

• There are different ways to affiliate upward in a hierarchy. Merit is one, relegating others downward is another.

• Women tend to be very sensitive to status.

  Pop-feminists are expert at creating conflict.

• "Stop whining," said the pundits when Curt Cobain died. Had he been a woman, they would have fallen over one another to shout out eulogies.

• On NBC’s October 29, 1995, Dateline, feminist lawyer Gloria Allred noted that "There is a court of law and a court of public opinion." Which court does she do her business in?

• In the east, women wear the veil; in the west, men wear drab suits.

• Pop-feminists understand the human need to release repressed rage. To provide women with an environment in which it is safe for women to do this, they have made it unsafe for men to do this. What will be the inevitable result of repressing men’s rage?

• As a youth, when I heard "Women are doin’ it for themselves," I was relieved. Unfortunately, few women felt the same way.

• When a woman trembles, we say she is afraid; when a man trembles, we say he is angry. If, in fear, he strikes out, we lock him up; if, in anger, she strikes out, we say "poor dear."

• We hear a lot about the benefits of the "female style" of management, and there’s a lot of truth to that. But it’s an error to assume that just because a manager is a woman she will use that style, or that just because a manager is a man he will not. For this reason, perhaps it makes no sense to identify leadership styles by gender stereotypes.

• Silicon is common and of little perceived value, though its economic value is enormous. Gold, on the other hand, has little intrinsic economic value, yet those who have it in abundance possess great power. Sexual power is like gold.

• Ignore nothing; observe everything.

• When I mention the hate calls and death threats I often receive, women frequently say something like, "You love it." No, I don’t, but by asserting I do, they can ignore the hate and dismiss our cause. The same way Germans ignored the Nazi’s anti-Semitism and dismissed their Jewish victims.

• Pop-feminists are removing incentives to respect men, and the penalties for disrespecting men. Disrespected, men -- especially young men -- perceive little incentive to respect women. Pop-feminists have responded with harsh penalties for disrespecting women. The war is all one-sided, engendering a "guerrilla" response. Guerrilla warfare is bloody, harsh, and indiscriminate. Is this what authors like Susan Brownmiller describe in their books about male violence?

• Feminists complain that rape accusations are addressed with stringent evidentiary rules, and that this is a result of the "evil woman" stereotype; yet, sexual harassment complaints can be sustained solely on the basis of an assertion -- a "prima facie" case.

• If women are so good at handling the ambiguities implicit in human relationships, then why the big fuss over minor upsets that get escalated into major sexual harassment complaints?

• At age 18, who has greater social utility, men or women? Fact is, at that age women are more in demand than men. As women age, however, the demand for them as women decreases. Thus, the people with power are older men who earned, stole or inherited it, and younger women. This is intrinsically unfair. Monogamy and patriarchy balanced this by assuring older women a share of older men’s power, and younger men a share of younger women’s power. No doubt about it, there are inequities in this, and it is good that we should work to make things fairer. But the pop-feminists want to improve the lot of one sex without concern for the other. By definition, that is sexist.

• What percentage of young women become unwed mothers? What percentage of young men get them that way? Anecdotal evidence and such statistical data as is available on the topic suggests there are more unwed mothers than unwed fathers because the same guys are acting as "sperm donors" for more than one woman. If this proves true, then pop-feminists and the media are guilty of a grave injustice for stereotyping men as irresponsible.

• Among management theorists, it is axiomatic that whenever market conditions worsen, managers will tend to pull the reigns of control tighter, curbing creativity and flexibility right at the time when they need it most. Right now, managers and executives, feminist or not, are tightening control over the work environment in response to imposition of the feminist agenda. They brook no disagreement, and in their attempt to foster diversity they are killing it. There can be only one result: backlash.