Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Persistent Myths and Fictions in Feminist Scholarship: The "Scholarly" Merchants of Hype

Over the years, the feminist fictions have made their way into public policy. They travel from the women's-studies textbooks to women's advocacy groups and then into news stories. Soon after, they are cited by concerned political leaders. President Obama recently issued an executive order establishing a White House Council on Women and Girls. As he explained, "The purpose of this council is to ensure that American women and girls are treated fairly in all matters of public policy." He and Congress are also poised to use the celebrated Title IX gender-equity law to counter discrimination not only in college athletics but also in college math and science programs, where, it is alleged, women face a "chilly climate."

The president and members of Congress can cite decades of women's-studies scholarship that presents women as the have-nots of our society. Never mind that this is largely no longer true. Nearly every fact that could be marshaled to justify the formation of the White House Council on Women and Girls or the new focus of Title IX application was shaped by scholarly merchants of hype like Professors Lemon and Seager.

~From Christina Hoff Sommers' commentary in today's Chronicle of Higher Education (also at the AEI website here).

10 Comments:

At 6/30/2009 1:04 PM, Blogger misterjosh said...

Will they be doing the same to encourage men to take gender studies, Women in History, Women Authors of the 18th century?

 
At 6/30/2009 2:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Death of Macho

Manly men have been running the world forever. But the Great Recession is changing all that, and it will alter the course of history.

http://bit.ly/ehOvR

-------

Good Riddance

Why macho had to go.

http://bit.ly/h0j2c

 
At 6/30/2009 2:49 PM, Blogger juandos said...

"Will they be doing the same to encourage men to take gender studies, Women in History, Women Authors of the 18th century?"...

Interesting question misterjosh but I wonder if there already isn't an answer for that?

 
At 6/30/2009 3:05 PM, Blogger misterjosh said...

FYI Anonymous, I'm not going to follow a bit.ly redirect link from an anonymous poster, and I would discourage others from doing so. That's how viruses get passed around.

 
At 6/30/2009 4:50 PM, Blogger juandos said...

"Why macho had to go"...

Mind you I'm just guessing here (since I like misterjosh won't take a redirect link from an anon) but could this link be yet another witless, whining screed by that man hating prof at BYU, Valerie Hudson?

 
At 6/30/2009 5:40 PM, Anonymous Dr. T said...

Thank you, Anonymous, for you words of foolishness.

First, men don't run the world. No one runs the world. We have these entities known as nations, each of which usually runs itself. So your sweeping rhetoric doesn't go over well.

Why don't you take a look at national leaders in all major countries since 1800 AD and categorize the leaders as women, regular men, wimpy men, or manly men. When you've done that you will discover that the proportion of manly men as leaders has declined substantially, and the percentage of women leaders has increased substantially. Perhaps then we can say to you and your prediction, "Good Riddance."

 
At 6/30/2009 8:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here are the real links ....

FROM FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE. Is that source legitimate enough for you? Read the last paragraph. Does this get your attention?

"The axis of global conflict in this century will not be warring ideologies, or competing geopolitics, or clashing civilizations. It won’t be race or ethnicity. It will be gender. We have no precedent for a world after the death of macho. But we can expect the transition to be wrenching, uneven, and possibly very violent."

Enjoy copying the links from blogger. It's such a joy. I was just trying to help.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/18/the_death_of_macho?page=full

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/19/good_riddance

Lighten Up!

 
At 7/01/2009 6:49 AM, Blogger juandos said...

"FROM FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE. Is that source legitimate enough for you?"...

Only if one is a libtard anon...

"Lighten Up!"...

I have a better idea anon, how about you getting a clue instead...

 
At 7/01/2009 9:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...
The Death of Macho...

Good Riddance"

Yeah, like we need more Nancy Pelosis, Barbara Boxers, and Cynthia McKinneys to offset "macho men".

Sure that does wonders.

 
At 7/04/2009 3:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's an intelligent discussion on the Foreign Policy article since none can be found here:

http://novaseeker.blogspot.com/2009/07/reihan-salam-main-21st-century-conflict_03.html

 

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