“Education is best served when the whole range of ideas are presented to the person and the individual is allowed to make up his or her own mind, and that individual is given the tools with which to make that decision – in other words, an ideal educational situation would give a student the criteria by which to judge……and then that student or that adult need never fear exposure to any idea because that person will be able to sort the data out” – Frank Zappa

What is going on with modern feminism? Do they think it is still 1972? Do modern feminists still think that men are pigs, men are evil, men are responsible for all that is bad in the world? If so, this has to be challenged. I feel radical  gender feminism makes those who began the second wave of feminism and those who still who advocate real change look really bad. Radicals in every political movement need to be checked and balanced. Feminists are not immune from a good checking and balancing. If you look at cultural movements like the TEA party and the Occupy movements, they made conservatives and liberals look crazier than they really are. Is this happening to feminism?

Camille Paglia and Christina Hoff Sommers see the changes in the feminist movement and have been outspoken critics. However, when a man speaks out, we are seen as instant misogynists. Most people don’t even understand what that word actually means. The act of speaking out and challenging women does not mean we hate women. I am the kind of man who likes an open dialogue so that we all can learn from each other. Being challenged intellectually does not mean that I hate you, I just might disagree. It is great when we can come to some common ground, but there might be times when I just flat out disagree. We can still get along. Where radicals go wrong is their inability to listen and exchange ideas.  What radical feminists are doing today is just that. Not willing to hear anything that challenges their worldview. I feel what they are doing is destroying all of the work that feminists have achieved over the past 40 years.

There was an incident that exposed elements of this movement.

In 2012, radical feminists blocked students at the University of Toronto from hearing an on-campus speaker named Warren Farrell, bestselling author of The Myth of Male Power.

The first video shows protesters not allowing people in to see the speaker disseminate vital information that will help both men AND women in the long run. What they attempted to do was engage in a technique called  priming. Priming is a known psychological control technique. With subtle hints of words or concepts, priming can trigger impressive changes in behavior. Priming is concerned with perceptual identification of words and objects. It refers to activating particular representations or associations in memory just before carrying out an action or task.

Use of certain words and phrases in this case was a clear attempt at priming They also used their bodies to block the entrance. It is disturbing to see the words ‘rape apologist’ and ‘hate speech’ thrown around before anyone has even had a chance to hear someone speak. Where do the protesters get this stuff from? Did they expect to see a speech from Todd Akin and Richard Murdock?

Blogger Joshua Kennon wrote :These protestors just assured that several mental models are going to kick in that will ultimately help Warren Farrell.  The forbidden fruit mental model, which causes people to want to know about and have access to what others are trying to keep them from discovering or enjoying, is powerful.  The mere association mental model are going to result in people who were trying to attend the lecture out of curiosity ascribing a range of violent, hateful, anti-intellectual traits to feminism in general, much to the movement’s detriment.  The reciprocity mental model means that some people may take actions against these protestors, perhaps even covertly, to undermine their cause as retaliation for the abuse they dished out to innocent passers-by.  

It’s a self-defeating way to behave.

Are these modern feminists? When someone says they are feminist, is this who they want to say represents who they are?