By Laurel Conrad
The Huffington Post recently released a video entitled “Why We Need To Talk About White Feminism.” It gives an introduction to the term “White Feminism” and its alleged relevance. It’s filled with pseudo-intellectual jargon like “cis white men,” “intersectionality,” and more. (If you are not familiar with the term “cis,” it is short for “cisgender” and is a word invented by the Left to describe someone who is the opposite of transgender.) The video condescendingly describes how being a White Feminist “doesn’t make you a bad person, it just means you have a lot to learn.”
The real kicker is at the end: after the two feminists describe how their criticism of White Feminism “isn’t about silencing those women,” the women in the video then tell White Feminists to “shut the f— up.”
This video perfectly illustrates everything I detest about the modern day radical feminist movement. Rather than fighting for important things, like the suffragettes who fought for the right to vote, today’s radical feminists squabble over who can speak in the most politically correct terms.
One of the women I admire most is CBLPI’s namesake, Clare Boothe Luce, who identified with the original suffragette feminism, which is equal treatment of men and women under the law. But when today’s feminists tell other women to STFU – all in the name of feminism – I have a hard time respecting them.
Clare Boothe Luce hard at work on her award winning play, the Women. This is a preview of CBLPI’s upcoming 2016 calendar cover. If you are a student and would like to receive a free copy, please email your address and school to info@cblpi.org.
Telling any woman to STFU is not ok. It’s simply crude and demeaning to women. Whatever happened to classiness, poise, and graciousness? To womankind’s determinant, these reputable qualities are being traded in for crassness by radical feminists.
Unfortunately, as a conservative woman, this is not my first experience with feminists telling other women to STFU. Take for instance what happened when Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers tried to deliver a speech entitled ‘What’s Right (and Badly Wrong) with Feminism?’ this year at a CBLPI-sponsored lecture at Georgetown University. Instead of being open to any discussion of ways feminism can be improved, the radical feminist students decided to protest Dr. Sommers’ right to speak on campus instead.
This is why it is ironic to me how my bandwagon feminist friends think they are being brave and bold by posting links to videos such as The Huffington Post one. In reality, it takes a lot more courage today to make any sort of critique of feminism. Why do the radical feminists now feel entitled to tell certain types of women to STFU? I believe it’s because they are so successful at silencing dissenters. They know that many people will not dare to disagree, because people are worried about being labeled “anti-woman.”
If feminism is actually about equality for women and men, then there is no need for feminists to tell any woman – conservative, white, or otherwise – to “shut the f— up.”
Stay #classy, modern feminists.
Laurel Conrad is lecture director at CBLPI.