Who-Stole-Feminism.-How-Women-Have-Betrayed-Women

THE GENDER WARDENS 257at home to raise her children. Society should be totally different. Womenshould not have that choice, precisely because if there is such a choice,too many women will make that one." 4De Beauvoir thought this drastic policy was needed to prevent womenfrom leading blighted conventional lives. Though she does not spell itout, she must have been aware that her "totally different" society wouldrequire a legion of Big Sisters endowed by the state with the power toprohibit any woman who wants to marry and stay home with childrenfrom carrying out her plans. She betrays the patronizing attitude typicalof many gender feminists toward "uninitiated" women.An illiberal authoritarianism is implicit in the doctrine that women aresocialized to want the things the gender feminist believes they should notwant. For those who believe that what women want and hope for is"constrained" or "coerced" by their upbringing in the patriarchy are ledto dismiss the values and aspirations of most women. The next step maynot be inevitable, but it is almost irresistible: to regard women as badlybrought-up children whose harmful desires and immature choices mustbe discounted.Gender feminists, such as Sandra Lee Bartky, argue for a "feministreconstruction of self and society [that] must go far beyond anything nowcontemplated in the theory or politics of the mainstream women's movement."5Bartky, who writes on "the phenomenology of feminist consciousness,"is concerned with what a proper feminist consciousnessshould be like. In her book Femininity and Domination, she says, "Athorough overhaul of desire is clearly on the feminist agenda: the fantasythat we are overwhelmed by Rhett Butler should be traded in for one inwhich we seize state power and reeducate him." 6Bartky, however, doesnot advocate any authoritarian measures to protect women from incorrectvalues and preferences shaped by "the masters of patriarchal society." Shepoints out that at present we do not know how to "decolonize the imagination."7She cautions that "overhauling" desires and "trading in" popularfantasies may have to wait for the day when feminist theorists develop an"adequate theory of sexuality." In her apocalyptic feminist vision, womenas well as men may one day be radically reconstructed. We will havelearned to prefer the "right" way to live.Although they may disagree politically about what measures to takewith women who make the wrong choices, de Beauvoir and her latterdaydescendants share a common posture: they condescend to, patronize,and pity the benighted females who, because they have been "socialized"in the sex/gender system, cannot help wanting the wrong things in life.Their disdain for the hapless victims of patriarchy is rarely acknowledged.