I suppose if you want to attempt a neutral definition of something like “feminism,” Save Jerseyans, then you can start with good old Encyclopedia Brittanica…
feminism, the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. Although largely originating in the West, feminism is manifested worldwide and is represented by various institutions committed to activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.
First came the Suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony and Esther Hobart Morris who achieved legal equality. Then the Sally Ride and Sandra Day O’Connor generation achieved equality of opportunity. Then the Left moved the goal posts to equality of outcome, and now… the aim is a scientifically-ignorant gender “fluid” world in which everyone can be a woman? Or whatever else they desire on a whim? Does femininity still mean anything in post-factual world in which reality is personal?
The West’s most famous female figures in 2024 aren’t winning the right to vote (like Anthony) or earning a spot at the table in a formerly exclusively male space (like outer space). It’s a lot harder to explain what they’re after. It’s arguably easier to ascertain if they know what they’re after. I’d argue: no.
Kamala Harris? A woman of questionable intelligence and no notable accomplishments (policy or otherwise outside of the public sector) other than making it to high office, our incumbent vice president makes an ass out of herself on an almost daily basis and seems to only champion one issue as America’s highest-elected female: the right to unrestricted infanticide (abortion). Is defending the ability to kill one’s own young truly belong in the same pantheon of rights as suffrage and growing up to work at NASA or the Supreme Court?
Taylor Swift? She’s a thoroughly average artist but an admittedly above average entertainer/marketer who is the patron saint of relatively affluent and “educated” white women. Her ascendency was originally attributed, in part, to her relatively wholesome brand relative to other pop favorites. As of late, her increasingly profane song catalog and “fuck the patriarchy” crowd chants make the singer’s notorious obsessively anti-male song lyrics seem a whole lot less innocent and yes, wholesome.
Alexandria Ocasio Cortes? The most infamous Leftist female congresswoman is a tad more coherent on the stump than Kamala, but her content isn’t an better and her strange antics raise serious questions as to whether she belongs in Congress or a padded cell. She’s nevertheless a heroine to millions of similarly socialist women.
This week, everyone is talking about the “Hawk Tuah” girl. Did she invent a revolutionary new app? Cure a brutal disease? Produce a magnificent work of art? Nah. She gave a “man on the street” interview to a social media influencer in Nashville and, when asked if she could recommend a move that would drive men crazy in bed, the young lady colorfully advised “spit on that thing” with an otherwise charming Southern twang. Rather than feel any embarrassment for her overt display of crassness, she’s leaning in by selling hats and reportedly signing with a talent agency.
Meanwhile, a truly successful and empowered woman like Condi Rice is routinely castigated for sharing the wrong views. A quick overview of the Internet will reveal more scorn for “Tradwives” than millennial moms who take their young children to sexually-explicit drag shows where men parody women. Huh?
So what is feminism in 2024?
What is a feminist in 2024?
Is it really Kamala Harris? Taylor Swift? AOC? Hawk Tuah girl?
My best guess: these days, America’s women of the Left desire the perceived privileges and freedoms associated with their caricature of men and the “patriarchy.” But the problem with a quest for a fantasy is that it inevitably leads… well, nowhere. Because the end point isn’t real as it does not exist, and since it’s in actuality a caricature, it isn’t somewhere that any sane person in search of a relatively stable and happy life should want to go.
Doing whatever the hell you want to do – aborting your baby, urging fans to hate men, giving blowjob advice on social media, and so on – isn’t liberating. It isn’t a path to equality. It isn’t “destroying the patriarchy” as it doesn’t advance young women towards the fulfillment they think they want out of a liberalized, modern society.
What today’s “feminists” are really doing: pursuing license, not liberty, and in so doing living increasingly hectic, sexualized, objectified, superficial, stressful, and emotionally isolated lives all in a pursuit of a fantasy. You don’t need to believe me. Just consider how young women are leading an explosion in usage rates for anxiety medication. If things don’t feel like they’re getting “better” for America’s relatively privileged women? It might have less to do with the mythical patriarchy than the emptiness of their own ideology and the dark places to which it’s leading our nation.
Speaking here as someone with a daughter: here’s hoping someone figures it out before this country’s next female generation inherits a warped, corrupted, and completely unusable feminist legacy that the early champions would dismiss as unrecognizable tripe.
