* Re: "Backlash"
Topics: Sexism
10 Feb 1994
From: ervan
> [ The best part was the anecdotes. I believe the backlash exists. ]
I have not gotten that far yet. And, yes, I agree with, what I regard
as, her weak conclusions, there is a backlash and the media does a
dreadful job of reporting.
As far as I have gotten, I see several problems:
1) She confounds sexism and opposition to the feminist agenda, constantly.
For instance, I'm opposed to the Family Leave Act because it is bad
for women and men. In Faludi's reasoning that makes me part of the
backlash and sexist. Now, regardless of whether I'm right or wrong
about its effect, it's invalid to say I'm opposed because I'm sexist.
She made similar comments about everyone from Reagan to Limbaugh.
2) She operates under the assumption that all women want the same thing.
She blames sexism for women making less money even though many women
choose to stay at home with their kids, for instance.
3) Her data is flawed. She claimed that the disparity between
working women's income and men's is getting worse. The Statistical
Abstract (not some libertarian magazine) flatly contradicts that.
She claims that reports of rape have gone up 70% in the past
decade. Well, maybe. But the actual incidence of rape has gone
down, again from the Statistical Abstract. What may be happening
is that "date rape" has been reclassified over that period and thus
inflates her statistics.
4) Her data is meaningless. "Polls show women think they are worse
off". Pish Posh. Polls show that people think crime is much worse
too. It's just not true. Polls reflect concern about such matters
as much as they reflect the substance.
----Ervan
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