I must admit, I do feel that feminism has lost it's original goals, and become far far more than it was ever intended to be.
For the record, I am entirely for the original goals of feminism. That is, equal rights for both men and women. Equal work most definitely deserves equal pay. Discrimination against women should indeed be abolished.
However...
Modern feminism has radically changed. It is no longer about those goals. Instead, it seems to have become something more out of Animal Farm. 'All animals equal, but some animals are more equal than others.'
Some examples to show how things have changed.
Women's Only Gyms: These are widespread, prevalent in our society today. The general reason for their existence is 'to allow women a place to exercise without having to be stared at by men.' I'll ignore how this portrays all men as lechers, and denies that any woman can look at a man the same way. I've always wanted to take the exact same wording, contracts, rules, etc that these places operate under and swap the terms 'men' and 'women', and open a "Men's Only Fitness" gym just to see what would happen. Of course, we all know what would happen. One woman would walk in, demand membership, and sue my ass off for discrimination when she didn't get it. How is this 'equality'?
Male-Bashing: Nowadays, it seems to be completely politically correct to portray all men as wife-beating, date-raping, spawns of Satan. According to one survey:
In a new report released Thursday, the agency said that seven per cent of women and six per cent of men end up abused by their current or former partners. - Story on CBC website (
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/07/ ... 50714.html).
Read that quote. Then read it again. See where it says "and six per cent of men"? Show me one domestic violence hotline for men. Show me one shelter for battered men. What's worse is that in today's society, a man cannot even DEFEND himself if his wife abuses him. As soon as he does, she can then yell 'spousal abuse' and it's the man who winds up in jail. There are other examples in this category, such as how in an amazing majority of divorce cases, custody of any children is given to the mother, even if the father may be in a better position to nurture and support the children. Nowadays, even step-parents or common law partners can be on the hook for support, no matter how many others are paying support.
Some of you have probably thought by this point that this type of thing is only fair. After all, women were discriminated against throughout history, so some turnabout is only just. That is not 'fighting for equality'. That is revenge. That is discrimination. And it makes you no better than any of those who discriminated against women for so long.
Reading this, you will likely assume I'm some knuckle-dragging misogynist. That is not the case. I was raised by a single mother, and I know all too well the problems they face. Those are the types of inequalities that we all should be working towards overcoming. I will fight for equality. I will also fight against discrimination, no matter what form it takes.