Feminism. It’s a subject that I am more than familiar with, having experienced it in a personal and up-close manner in my own family. To be more exact, my twin sister. She was one of its earliest and most fervent adherents and it astonishes me to the present day.
That she could see herself as “victimized” and “hard-done by” defied the most elemental logic and common sense. At the time she became enamoured by this subject, she was living in the south of England with her husband and two young children. Given her husband’s position in the Canadian military, she was allotted a nanny and a housekeeper. All day long. Five days a week. She spent her days playing tennis, meeting friends for lunch in London and partying endlessly in the evenings. It was almost like a scene from THE GREAT GATSBY.
You might wonder if she was deprived as a child due to lack of opportunity or encouragement. Not at all. My mother, an RN, was widowed at the age of 49 (she had us at the age of 43) and was an advocate for education and independence at every level. My mother, herself, was a great model in this regard. Although she had never learned how to drive before we were born, she made up for this lack in a hurry. At the age of 51, she started driving lessons and bought herself a new car. Within two weeks of getting her license we were off on a road trip to New York state to visit our aunt. So, no: there was no lack of diligence on my mother’s part in wanting the best for us in every way. So: what made my sister lean so dramatically in this direction of feminism?
One thing I noted: Very early on, she became obsessed with the uber-feminist icon, Gloria Steinem. This woman was extolled religiously in all mainstream media in a relentless and fawning manner. You couldn’t turn on a TV without seeing her image. My sister thought Steinem was so sophisticated, so clever, so glamorous! She bought all of her books, saw all of her interviews (it seemed to me) and—grace upon grace, got her to autograph all of her books! When the family returned to Canada, my sister made sure to attend her lectures, even when this entailed considerable travel to do so.
It was a strange attraction because my sister and Gloria Steinem had absolutely nothing in common: Gloria had a terrible childhood. She grew up in Toledo, Ohio and her parents divorced when she was 10 at which time she was left to take care of her severely mentally ill mother who was in and out of sanitariums on a regular basis. Her father had long since departed for California. Gloria had an abortion when she was 22 and become a vociferous propogandist for the abortion movement.
To my knowledge my sister was not a pro-abortion person at all. Up until this time abortion was viewed as a shameful thing, abhorred by even the mainstream media. So, what caused so many to embrace such an ideology? What caused the majority of women to embrace such a thing? I remember being a teacher in the staff room: And God help the lone dissenter who disagreed with the “sisterhood”! Could the media have played a role? Even a significant role, in seemingly “brainwashing” so many?
Psychologist Solomon Asch conducted a series of experiments in the 1950’s at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, to discover the role of peer pressure in society. They were known as conformity studies. In the study eight male participants were involved in each experiment. Seven of the members were “actors” and only one was the actual study subject. He did not know that the others were fake, of course. All were in the same room together and witnessed each other’s responses. Each person was shown two cards, one with a single line drawn on it, and the second card illustrating three lines, one of which was identical in length to the line on the first card. All seven gave an incorrect answer. The “study” subject, although looking increasingly puzzled and concerned would give the incorrect answer most of the time, even though he knew he was giving the wrong answer. Desire to fit in with the group and fear of rejection and ridicule seemed to be the paramount motivation. Asch was actually horrified by the results: “That intelligent, well-meaning young people are willing to call white, black, is a matter of concern” he said.
And then there were the Milgram experiments: Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted studies in 1961 to discover the willingness of people to conform to the demands of an authority figure even when being asked to perform acts which conflicted with their own conscience (in the guise of administering painful electric shocks to another person). In reality there were no electric shocks administered although the participants did not know this. Milgram discovered to his chagrin that a significant percentage of subjects (65%) were willing to obey the authority figure even when the “victims” were crying out for mercy or yelling that they were having a heart attack! It was mandatory that the person in charge had to wear a lab coat at all times. The fact that it was in the prestigious Yale university added to the gravity of the demands, apparently!
And what authority the media seemed to play! When all the main newspapers and TV networks carried the same message—well who is to go against such a tsunami? After all, feminism was the darling of the CBC, The Toronto Star, and Canadian Living Magazine. Could that have played a role in my sister’s fascination with feminism?
I remember a trip to Ottawa where my husband and I were taking one year to attend the March for Life in the capital. We decided to take a few days off after the March and visit the sites. We were registering at the hotel and were impressed with the friendliness and sweetness of the woman at the reception desk. She could not have been nicer! When she asked if we were there to visit the Parliament buildings, we told her that our main reason for being in Ottawa was not to visit the Parliament buildings but rather to attend the March for Life. You would not believe the change in demeanour of this young woman. She looked at us with such ferocity! And anger. And that ended the rapport.
Perhaps she was watching too much CBC, which believes its purpose is to encourage the spread of left-wing opinion in Canada. |
