To radical feminism and back

Way back in the 1970s when feminism began to acquire political power I thought, as many did, the idea of equality between men and women to be entirely unobjectionable - hardly worth discussing. That was a conclusion of my upbringing and the teaching of the Church. That idea of equality was not inconsistent with the observation of the normal person that men and women were not the same, that being female was not the same as being male. The Church spoke about the complementarity of male and female.

When the excesses of feminist theory and political action began to impress itself on me in the late 1970s I realised that Christian Civilisation's prevailing idea of equality between men and women - a given of the natural (moral) order - was not the 'equality' promoted by feminist theory and feminist political action. It was not until some years later, after formal study of philosophy, that I understood the theoretical basis of feminism to be metaphysical materialism, that as with other materialist philosophies feminism denied the natural order. Subversion of the natural order was the inevitable result.

Such a full theoretical understanding was not, as I say, available to me then. But what I did see was that feminism was destroying the natural relationship between men and women. The decades since have only confirmed by observation that initial perception.

There were many women then, and many since, that came to a similar conclusion. Unfortunately, many of those had not the political opportunity to speak out and those that did and possessed the skills were not given the publicity necessary to disseminate their views. Occasionally, there has been a breakthrough, though largely ignored as expected by the secular media. One of those is Lorraine Murray Ph.D.

In her book Confessions of a an Ex-Feminist she relates how she jettisoned her Catholic faith when she went to university from school and soaked up radical feminist theory, how she at length recognised the malignancy of that materialist view of life, and returned to the Faith - the fullness of the faith. Zenit Newsagency reported an interview with her. Below is an excerpt from that interview:

Q: What first attracted you to feminism?

Murray: I was quite enchanted by books such as “The Feminine Mystique” and “The Second Sex,” in which woman’s condition was painted with dark and dreary brushstrokes. Thinkers such as Betty Friedan and Simone de Beauvoir saw evidence of women’s oppression and misery everywhere they looked.

My own experience showed few signs of oppression: My mother had graduated from college, and I was pursuing a doctorate in philosophy and had received many honors and fellowships. Still, I saw signs of injustice in the world and thought that feminism had the answer.

In many ways, I clung to this “ism” as a way to achieve a utopian society on earth, in which everyone would be happy and equal. It took me a while to see that the cost of this feminist utopia was terrible indeed, since the “ideal world” envisioned by feminists was built on abortion and daycare centers.

Generally, the feminist agenda depicted children as a problem, not a blessing, and marriage as the source of women’s unhappiness, rather than as a wellspring of happiness, security and joy.

See this related article: The Goddess oversees the sacrifice of the unborn

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Comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com