What feminist don't want you to know
Ideology
Feminist seem unable to make a logical and reasonable argument for their position and they abuse copyright claims and site flag features to censor ideas online. Their ad hominem [1] attacks are usually confined to a few words or phrases like rape apologist, misogyny, woman-hater, and sexist. Usually this is their sole attempt at an argument or a method to end the discussion. I have yet to find a feminist who can make a fact based argument with logic and reason based on evidence.
Their efforts are not limited to online venues. Feminist have torn down posters about equality at a construction site in Canada. [2] The sole issue with the posters was not the message but simply the ideology of feminism was being attacked.
Feminist protested a conference held by the organization CAFE [3] covering issues facing men today. [4] After verbally assaulting several people at the conference, the feminist also blocked the entrance and the police had to be called. During the lecture, they pulled the fire alarm to force the end of the meeting. [5] I would urge anyone to look at CAFE's website and find a single sentence that is hateful of anyone.
A lecture [6] by Warren Farrell [7] was violently protested by feminist where he was discussing how men today are in crisis. [8] Mr. Farrell has been anti-feminism at times but nothing in his speech or books are anti-woman. His lectures focus on issues facing men in our society.
After all, belief systems or ideologies like feminism are not allowed to be criticized. Why would any reasonable person be against a discussion of issue facing men?
Right to Vote
The first claim about feminist working toward equality is usually a bumper sticker statement about a women's right to vote. This claim is revisionist history because the right to vote for women wasn't done by feminist nor was it about equality. The story of the right to vote is complicated and can't be explained by a simple statement. The right to vote was only given to citizens and every state had a different definition of what a citizen was. Most of the states didn't directly restrict a woman's right to vote and more than half the states allowed women to vote prior to the 19th amendment. [9] The 19th amendment streamlined voting laws across all the states. The majority of states coupled the vote with owning property and nothing prevented women from owning property. Some restrictions were in place where property owned by a woman were under the control of the man if she were married. When laws like this existed there were balances called covertures in place to protect the woman from abuse of the law by the man. [10]
The right to vote was different for each state and nearly all had some restrictions based on race, wealth, or religion. These laws were more about restricting the right to vote to the rich or the majority. While the laws restricted a woman's ability to vote, it also prevented most men from voting too.
Many women at the time were against getting the vote because one of the conditions of being a citizen was conscription. This was obvious by the "white feather campaign" and the suffragettes who helped enforced the male obligation by shaming men into serving the military. [11] The suffragettes took time out of campaigning for the right to vote by giving a white feather to any male who was not in uniform. This was to publicly label them a coward. Children were often targeted by these women as well. This method was so effective that wounded servicemen were given special silver badges to prevent them from being targeted by the white feather campaign. This was only done after large numbers of veterans committed suicide after receiving a white feather thinking they cowards for not dying on the battlefield.
The supreme court ruled in 1918 that a citizen had to serve when called as a part of being a citizen. There were few exceptions and were for religious groups like the Amish, Mennonites, and Quakers. Men who refused service were sentenced to death or life in prison with hard labor. The last execution for refusing service took place as late as 1917. The draft applied to all men on average of 18 or older while most of those men forced to serve in the military did not have the ability to vote just on age alone. The minimum draft age changed depending on the needs of the military. However there were plenty of discussions of what the minimum should be. In 1951 the assistant Secretary of Defense, Mrs Anna Rosenberg, proposed that the age be lowered to 18 from 19 because potential enemies like China draft at 16. [12]
Most of the suffragettes were talking about rights for the middle class women and often ignored the lower class working women. The women's suffrage movement didn't have much support among women. In 1913, polls showed that the majority of women opposed it. (85%) [13] This anti-suffrage sentiment among women continued in 1915. [14] It seems odd that in a span of 4 years public opinion would change from an overwhelming majority opposed to women's suffrage to a slight majority supporting it. A possible motivation for this change was racism since many of the women leaders in the suffragettes expressed this sentiment:
"You have put the ballot in the hands of your black men, thus making them political superiors of white women. Never before in the history of the world have men made former slaves the political masters of their former mistresses"
Anna Howard Shaw, 1847-1919 (Physician, Methodist minister, president of the National Woman Suffrage Association.)
"The enfranchisement of women would insure immediate and durable white supremacy, honestly attained, for upon unquestioned authority it is stated that in every southern State but one there are more educated women than all the illiterate voters, white and black, native and foreign, combined. As you probably know, of all the women in the South who can read and write, ten out of every eleven are white. When it comes to the proportion of property between the races, that of the white outweighs that of the black immeasurably"
Belle Kearney, 1863-1939 (Orator, novelist, Mississippi state senator)
"What will we and our daughters suffer if these degraded black men are allowed to have the rights that would make them even worse than our Saxon fathers"
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815-1902 (Social activist, abolitionist, author)
"The white men, reinforced by the educated white women, could ‘snow under’ the Negro vote in every State, and the white race would maintain its supremacy without corrupting or intimidating the Negroes"
Laura Clay, 1849-1940 (Founder of Kentucky’s first suffrage group)
"Alien illiterates rule our cities today; the saloon is their palace, and the toddy stick their scepter. The colored race multiplies like the locusts of Egypt".
Frances Willard, 1839-1898 (Feminist lecturer, founder of the National Council of Women, anti-child abuse activist)
"White supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by women's suffrage".
Carrie Chapman Catt, 1859-1947 (Founder of the League of Women Voters)
"I do not want to see a negro man walk to the polls and vote on who should handle my tax money, while I myself cannot vote at all, When there is not enough religion in the pulpit to organize a crusade against sin; nor justice in the court house to promptly punish crime; nor manhood enough in the nation to put a sheltering arm about innocence and virtue—-if it needs lynching to protect woman’s dearest possession from the ravening human beast so then I say lynch, a thousand times a week if necessary".
Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton, 1835-1930 (First woman to serve in the Senate)
In 1919, women were given the vote but never the obligation of service which men weren't allowed to refuse. Men had to wait another 50 years before the draft was ended in 1970. Men paid for the right to vote with blood while women got it for having a vagina. Women are the only group who received the right to vote by asking for it and without bloodshed. Even in the military today, men over 97% of all war casualties [15] and all men are still required to register for the draft which is now called "selective service". According to the selective service website, those who don't register by the age of 26 will be disqualified for federal student loans, jobs, and job training. They could also face five years in jail and/or a fine of $25,000. Male immigrants who become a citizen before they are 26 are required to register to obtain citizenship. On top of federal penalties, nearly every state their own penalties including denial of a driver's license. Women are still completely except from the draft.
For more information on the suffrage I would recommend reading books on the anti-suffrage movement. One book is titled "No Votes for Women" and it is available on Amazon.
What women want
For about the last 40 years women have been the majority of voters at the polls. [16] This majority is why most politicians pander to the women demographic during elections. The fact is that women are a major influence in elections and they don't want to be drafted.
In an poll in 1957, more females than males thought the draft was needed and only 4% of the females thought women should be drafted compared to 40% of the males. [17]
The Carter Administration wanted to make the draft gender neutral and in 1980 another poll showed that a majority of women thought the draft was needed but the majority of women also didn't want to be drafted. This contrast with the majority of men who wanted women to be drafted too. [18] These opinions were nearly identical a year later in another poll. [19]
A poll in 2013 shows that opinions on the draft remain nearly unchanged today. In the poll, 59% of men supported females being drafter while a majority of the woman (48%) opposed it. [20]
The majority of men (59%) in 1980 supported the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The major opposition to the ERA was the fact it would required women be subject to the draft because exemptions based on gender would be unconstitutional. The opposition mainly came from conservatives in the southern states. [21]
In 1981, congresswoman, Clare Boothe Luce, pushed for the draft to be made equal across race and class without any college exceptions because our military should represent all Americans. Her ideas of being equal excluded women who would remain exempt from the draft. [22]
The military in the United States has been opening up to females over the last decades and females still only make up 14% of the personell. [23] Israel probably has the most integrated military and actively drafts females. Despite the draft, females only make up 3% of the combat forces and are given exemptions that are not available to their male peers.
Topics
"What feminist don't want you to know"Sources: (Revision 2)
I would like to give special thanks to the people at Exposing Feminism for their assistance with the research. The credit for the Suffragettes quotes goes to Kristal Garcia (@KristalDGarcia)
- https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ad-hominem
- http://youtu.be/3Jz63_lGuSE
- http://equalitycanada.com
- http://youtu.be/M2KPeMcYsuc
- http://youtu.be/AY3dI3tpjrw
- http://youtu.be/P6w1S8yrFz4
- http://www.warrenfarrell.org/
- http://youtu.be/iARHCxAMAO0
- http://constitutioncenter.org/timeline/html/cw08_12159.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverture
- http://greatwarfiction.wordpress.com/white-feathers-stories-of-courage-cowardice-and-recruitment-at-the-start-of-the-great-war/
- http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2229&dat=19510204&id=EkVAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7v8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1454,3043993
- The Tribune Republican, 11/14/1913; Page 16: http://www.scribd.com/doc/208179458/85-Percent-of-the-Women-in-Tue-US-Either-Opposed-or-Were-Indifferent-to-Womens-Suffrage-1913
- San Francisco Chronicle, 10/21/1915, http://www.scribd.com/doc/208352464/Majority-of-Women-on-East-Coast-Opposed-Their-Own-Right-to-Vote-in-1915
- http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22452.pdf
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2012/11/08/exit-polls-the-gender-gap/
- http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19570207&id=WfxXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6PYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7082,1347485
- http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19800202&id=U6ROAAAAIBAJ&sjid=z_oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6934,323561
- http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1891&dat=19810721&id=WKofAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iNYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=906,3278142
- http://bigstory.ap.org/article/listen-ladies-uncle-sam-might-want-you-too
- http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19800131&id=ztJWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=c0INAAAAIBAJ&pg=1116,4335416
- http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19810309&id=94ZQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DhIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6761,1408605
- http://www.statisticbrain.com/women-in-the-military-statistics/
- http://www.idf.il/1086-14000-EN/Dover.aspx
