Belfort Bax

I have come across this long article written in 1910’s, when women suffragists were campaigning hard for women’s right to vote, in the era of the so-called first wave of feminism, which many people, including people who normally take an anti-feminist stand, view somehow favorably as a more benevolent kind of feminism, a classical, original, or “good” feminism before it devolve into a virulent anti-man movement in the 60’s and the 70’s with the advent of the second and the third wave of feminism.

Well, it seems it is not so simple – as in old days of original, true feminism was good, only modern incarnation of it is bad.

By glancing through this classic article written by Belfort Bax, a noted Socialist but also known for his ardent anti-feminism views at the time, you would immediately see that even early feminism is fundamentally the same as the modern gender feminism. Both are based on the principles of equality (or sometimes superiority) of women under law as well as preservation of women’s special privileges that ironically have roots in old times when women were regarded and treated as second class citizens.

Entire article could be accessed here;
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Fraud_of_Feminism

This is truly a classis anti-feminist article. I have rarely seen an article this long, written by a prominent figure, devoted exclusively on the subject of problems of feminism. Though in the article the author express his disdain for giving voting rights for women (even I cannot agree with him on this point), the article shows that double standards, special privileges for women, unequal law (criminal, matrimonial, etc.) and its enforcement, execution for men and women, male sympathizers (“femi-nabler” to use a word suggested in one of the comments to this blog) in government, judiciary, press, in other words, all the ingredients of modern-day anti-male gender feminists movement are all there as early as in the 1910’s.

Now does this give us a hope? Nope. To know that those problems associated with gender feminists are actually not unique to them, that they have history of nearly a century and deeply rooted in the original feminist movement, led me to think that anti-male characters of feminist movement will not simply go away, just because some courageous people (mostly women) voice their skepticism against them.

Some quotes from the article;

“Personal violence on the part of the husband is severely punished; on the part of wife she will be let off with impunity.”

Hmmm. Looks like the same charade has been going on for a century now.

“…should be legally compelled to pay a certain sum to his wife, ostensibly as wages for her housekeeping services, no matter whether she performs the services well, or ill, or not at all.."

Did Hillary and other feminists get their idea that government (who else?) should pay for the work for housewives here?

“..demand that in the case of the murder by a woman of her illegitimate child, the putative father should be placed in the dock as an accessory! In other words, a man should be punished for a crime of which he is wholly innocent,”Purely absurd, but this is feminism.“This sex hatred, so often vindictive in its character, of men for men, which has for its results that: "man-made" laws invariably favor the opposite sex, and that "man-administered justice" follows the same course, is a psychological problem which is well worth the earnest attention of students of sociology and thinkers generally.”

“I must confess to being unequal to the task of accurately fathoming the psychological condition of the average man who hates man in general and loves woman in general to the extent of going contrary to..”

I completely agree. I think that some (men) needs to take a comprehensive look into the minds of feminist male, to see what motivates them into this “sex-hatred’ phenomena. (my personal view is that those feminist male are motivated by the expectation that they, as ardent male feminists from early on, will be rewarded handsomely in the coming (or so they think) “feminist-run utopia”)

“A man murdered by a woman is always the horrid brute, while the woman murdered by the man is just as surely the angelic victim.”

Sounds familiar….

"The mere physical fact of sex was never for a moment regarded as of itself sufficient to entitle the woman to any special homage, consideration, or immunity, over and above the man.."

In the Medieval period, the word “chivalry” did not mean what it generally means today.

"Sir Walter Besant, entitled "The Revolt of Man," depicting the oppression of man under a Feminist regime, an oppression which ended in a revolt and the re-establishment of male supremacy."

This must be also a “must-read”

“…that woman is, as Herbert Spencer and others have pointed out, simply "undeveloped man"--in other words, that Woman represents a lower stage of evolution than Man.”

“Take the instance of Madame Curie. When radium was first discovered in the laboratory of the late Professor Curie we were told that the latter had made the discovery, it being at the same time mentioned that he possessed in his wife a valuable aid in his laboratory work. We were afterwards told that the discovery of radium was the joint work of both, the implication being that the honors were equally divided. Now, Feminist influence has succeeded in getting Madame Curie spoken of as herself the discoverer of radium!”

Mr. Kristof - Part 5 "Token" women indeed

The article also advances ther tired argument of “token” women;

"There are a couple of issues I didn’t have space for. One is a point that Marie Wilson of the White House Project makes in her excellent book, Closing the Leadership Gap: Add Women, Change Everything. She notes that it’s important not just to have a token woman or two, but some critical mass. As she puts it: “A single woman leader or a few women in a larger group are tokens; each token has to prove she’s man enough for the job.”"

But actually they are right. They are TOKENS, definitely. They are nothing other than the expression of company’s commitment to politically-correct notion of gender equality, that a company is willing to sacrifice some degree of competitiveness and productivity by hiring second-rate person who doesn’t merit to be there, that company is paying price, to play along with feminists' game.

What the White House project doesn't understand is that;

1) even a large company cannot afford to have too many "tokens", the cost become simply too much for a company to bear. It is especially so in the times of economic downturn like now. it is correct when feminists complain that current economic downturn hit women's career prospect harder than that of men's, but wrong in blaming discrimination as a reason. It's just a bad time to expect affirmative action for women.
These are indeed difficult times for women and other under-qualified people to get ahead.

2) people who advance this line of argument also imply that women cannot begin to function if they find themselves to be in a demographic minority. Why should company even bother to promote or hire a woman who will just freak out to find out that she is mostly surrounded by males colleagues in a boardroom and is too frighten or "disempowered" to work?

Mr. Kristof - Part 4 Hidden costs of affirmative action

I think there are quite large social and economic costs for trying to artificially increase women in senior posts just to satisfy statistic-obsessed people like Mr. Kristof and feminists. These are:

1. costs for the campaign to put more women in senior posts, such as campaign ads, time and energy that could have been used otherwise for other, more productive purpose.

2. costs for the company that was pressured to hire second-rate people (affirmative-actioned women) in senior posts, which is essentially a productivity decrease by bypassing the most qualified people for the job (sorry Mr. Kristof and other readers but they are most likely men) and hiring under-qualified women.

3. further costs for the company that was put in disadvantageous position against other companies that hire the most qualified person whom it had to pass simply because that person was a male.

4. costs associated with setting up and operating government agencies tasked with monitoring percentage of women in senior jobs.

Now, let's look at the benefits of having second-rate women as senior managers:

1. It will make Mr. Kristof and other feminists happy; nothing could give them more pleasure than sipping coffee and glancing at a pie chart showing more women are getting senior jobs.

2. It will make women who got unusually fast promotion happy - who doesn't like promotion, which means more power, more status and more money!?

Remember, if you know economics even a little bit, all the costs for the above 1-4 will eventually be passed on to general public in the long run. The only winner in this bizarre gender-equity game is Mr. Kristof and some women who would get undeserved promotion, who could not rise to senior posts otherwise.

Mr. Kristof - Part 3

Well, if the Wall Street had been estrogen-filled rather than testosterone-filled, actually I would agree with Mr. Kristof that there would not have been financial crash, since there would not have been rapid economic development in the first place! Remember what put you in an “prestigious” position to have a “crash”. You cannot have a financial sector “crash” in Rwanda (which by the way Mr. Kristof lauds for having highest female representation in politics) if all your possession is pigs and chickens and if there is no functioning financial market in the country. (Mr. Kristof, where are all the benefits that feminists' rule are supposed tobring in this poverty-stricken country?) Remember, testosterone is what made it possible for Mr. Kristof to woe about this crash on internet (who created internet?) in his comfortable office equipped with latest computer (who made his computer?) and other gismo in a high-rise office building (who built buildings?)

You could live in an alternative matriarchy universe in which technology and social, economical development is stuck in the Middle Age (no testosterone, no printing machines, no ocean-sailing ships, no gunpowder) where you don’t have to worry about financial meltdown, mortgage crisis and so on. And better yet, you don’t have to worry about global worming (no testosterone, no internal combustion engine) or nuclear war (no testosterone, no nuclear science).

Mr. Kristof - Part 2, my suggestions

I think the best thing Mr. Kristof could for advancing the feminist cause to which he so emphatically pander (although this quite advanced level of pandering is still not enough for some of more hard-core feminists: ), is to resign as a columnist of NYTimes. Rather than simply preaching the beauty and benefits of world ruled by women, in one move, he can;

-reduce the percentage of white, hetero-sexual, educated, middle-age, male.

Better yet, after resigning (or actually before resigning and while on the job) he can do something abhorrent like sexually assault one of the young female interns in NYT. In this way he can;

-Further damage the reputation of white-middle-aged man, which he tried so hard to tarnish over the years

-make it much more difficult for large companies to hire white males in respectable positions, columnists or editors or managers, etc., which perfectly suits his agenda of reducing proportion of white males in those positions.

I suggest that Mr. Kristof insists his position be taken over by;

black(or hispanic or Asian or Indian or any other under-represented minority group), homosexual, uneducated, disabled women (or better yet, transsexual person) so that there would be more “diversity” as diversity sounds like the single most important thing in turning around economy and make world a better place. If possible, it is suggested that this person is not only uneducated (can score high on anti-elitist point), but not brilliant/capable or even retarded or has mental problem (so that we can overcome prejudice against retarded person or people worth mental disability).

Mr. Kristof - Part 1

Mr. Kristof’s unending pandering to women is nothing new. When not calling attention of international community for man-made catastrophe (there is no “women-made” catastrophe as such, since anything women do is good according to his worldview) in Sudan or somewhere in Africa, “particularly” the plight of women (this “particularly” part is important as it actually means “exclusively”), he is busy these days kow-towing to man-hating feminists.

What are the possible reasons for this Mr. relentless cozying up to feminists? Here is a list of possible reasons;

a. It’s politically in vogue.

b. NYT senior management will see you in favorable light as you champion their favorite progressive cause.

c. It givers you a bump reader’s rating, mostly from progressive and female-heavy NYT readers.

d. He fancy a good place in an eventual world to be ruled by women (according to him), for embracing their cause from early on.

e. He actually it makes economic sense.


Now let’s analyze each of possible reason;

a. probably, could be one of the reasons

b. also probably yes

c. again, also probably yes

d. Does he seriously believe that men would have any place in a new matriarchy run by man-hating feminists? If so, I must say he must been deluded. The only possible exceptions in a new matriarchy are gay or trans-gendered person(male to female), I would think –but former may not be still technical and medically male, so they would be treated as any other “males”; even the latter is a XY choromosne holder at cell level so not sure about them either.

e. Please study economic 101

What’s the good terms for this kind of male-feminists, (defeatist?, femi-Nazi collaborator?) We need a name, a catchy one for this kind of people. And what could be the reason / motivation for these guys to pander to a group of people who think of you as nothing other than possible rxpist? Some possible reasons are listed above but there could be others. And how are the inner psychology of these men? Masochist?

"Gray rape" part 2

Part 2 on the "gray rape"


It looks quite strange that people who look most remote from chance sex encounters (such as sexual assault experts who may not have had one date when they were in college, busy attending women's study class or going to "take back the night" rally) are defining and determining for the rest of us what legitimate sexual encounters is and what is not (therefore automatically qualifies as a rape) it's as though people who never seen basebll and in fact hate it more than anything in the world trying to call the baseball games.

Also there are some strange males that appear in the original column, the so-called male actvisits against rape - those people may think that if they cry the feminist-approved slogan loudest, they would be exempt from feminists' persecution of men, but they should know that that kind of moral posturing would not save them from feminists ire.

There are a group of people who take responsibility for their own actions and words, and held to a higher standard - they are called MEN.

There are also a group of people who do not have to take responsibility for their own actions or words, who can change the mind after the thing happened, and who are held to a lower (or no) standard - they are called WOMEN. Oh, I also forgot to add in the latter category people like kids, teenagers, mentally-challenged persons, etc.

It is kind of strange to see gender feminists endorse my viewpoint - that since men are more capable, they should be held to a higher standard - men are totally up to that challenge, as we have done so in the past millenia.