Who Is a Feminist?

Two of my favorite bloggers at odds? over feminism. Ann Althouse (fairly liberal, feminist law professor)  addresses one of Stacy McCain's (arch conservative journalist) posts on feminism:

"Men are enemies and oppressors of women, sexual intercourse is an act that 'perfectly expresses' male domination..."

"... every male is potentially a rapist, male and female roles are the 'pathology of oppression,' and sex roles must be destroyed — this is what feminists believe. If you do not believe these things, guess what? You are not a feminist."

Robert Stacy McCain makes an argument for a very strong and quite offensive definition of feminism.

This is an interesting form of argument, where you take a central term that people have infused with various meanings, adapting it to their preferences and purposes, and present evidence that the truest, most historically accurate meaning of that term refers to things that those who've been embracing it would find repellent. . .

By Hydrargyrum CC BY-SA 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37831314

I don't reblog most, or even a significant fraction of Stacy's feminism posts, not so much because I don't agree with much of them, but because I do think he's bringing too much attention to the academic feminists trying to enforce a radical view of feminism. I believe he fears their ability to shift the Overton window.

Even if they are not being wholly accepted, you can see their work in the recent claims of a "rape epidemic" in colleges.

More simply, I think he is taking them at their own words.