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

THE GENDER WARDENS 275Roiphe, Midge Decter, Mary Lefkowitz, Cathy Young, Erica Jong, DianeRavitch, Karen Lehrman, and Wendy Kaminer, women who are not fazedby being denounced as traitors and backlashers. We may expect that moreand more women will be expressing their frustration and annoyance withfeminists who speak in their name but do not share their values. Whenthat happens, we may expect that the public will become alert to whatthe gender feminists stand for; their influence should then decline precipitously.For some time to come, the gender monitors will still be there—in the schools, in the feminist centers, in the workplace—but, increasingly,their intrusions will not be welcome.The reader of this book may wonder whether there is anything I likeabout the gender feminists. I have sat among them in many a gatheringand have occasionally found myself in relaxed agreement with them. ForI do like the features they share with classical feminism: a concern forwomen and a determination to see them fairly treated. We very muchneed that concern and energy, but we decidedly do not need their militantgynocentrism and misandrism. It's too bad that in the case of the genderfeminists we can't have the concern without the rest of the baggage. Ibelieve, however, that once their ideology becomes unfashionable, manya gender feminist will quietly divest herself of the sex/gender lens throughwhich she now views social reality and join the equity feminist mainstream.I do not think this will happen tomorrow, but I am convinced itwill happen. Credos and intellectual fashions come and go but feminismitself—the pure and wholesome article first displayed at Seneca Falls in1848—is as American as apple pie, and it will stay.