A Review of Susan Pinker, The Sexual Paradox
Things Are Not What They Seem Comment: Although the author of the book and essay are evolutionists, this book and review exposes Sharper Iron readers to current women’s liberation thought.
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Boy, that sounds familiar! I was genuinely surprised to read that the idea of feeling like a fraud, that people will realize you’re just really good at faking it - even when the truth is that you’re NOT faking it - is a feeling that many women share. I thought that was just my own personal psychosis. ;)
The book sounds to me like a new feminism.
Old feminism: “Men have all the power and women should get an equal share by being just like them.”
New feminism: “Women should have as much power as men but get it and use it in their own way” (usually with a fair amount of “The scales are currently heavily tilted in men’s favor and that needs to be corrected” still mixed in….as with the old feminism)
I’m not much fonder of the more nuanced version, but at least there is a beginning of movement away from the “Men and women are really the same” nonsense.
Better: “God designed men and women to be different and have different roles including some roles that involve very different kinds and amounts of power.”
I’m over-simplifying here, but I was aiming for a hundred words or less.
Old feminism: “Men have all the power and women should get an equal share by being just like them.”
New feminism: “Women should have as much power as men but get it and use it in their own way” (usually with a fair amount of “The scales are currently heavily tilted in men’s favor and that needs to be corrected” still mixed in….as with the old feminism)
I’m not much fonder of the more nuanced version, but at least there is a beginning of movement away from the “Men and women are really the same” nonsense.
Better: “God designed men and women to be different and have different roles including some roles that involve very different kinds and amounts of power.”
I’m over-simplifying here, but I was aiming for a hundred words or less.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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