A Backlash Against Women's Rights Is Nothing

That So-called Feminine Ardor For Clothes Shopping Had Been Flagging For Some Time. Between 1980 And 1986, At The Same Time That Women Were Buying More Houses, Cars, Restaurant Dinners, And Health Care Services, They Were Buying Fewer Pieces Of Clothing-from Dresses To Underwear.

The 'feminine' Woman Is Forever Static And Childlike. She Is Like The Ballerina In An Old-fashioned Music Box, Her Unchanging Features Tiny And Girlish, Her Voice Tinkly, Her Body Stuck On A Pin, Rotating In A Spiral That Will Never Grow.

We Think Of A Feminist As Someone A Woman Becomes In Reaction To Personal Indignities And Social Injustices. But The Truth Is, Such Inequities Only Awaken Her To The Feminist She Has Always Fundamentally Been - That Is, A Person Who Understands That Her First Responsibility Is To Her Own Humanity. That's Why, For My Money, The First Known Use Of The Word 'feminist' Is Still The Best, Appearing In An 1895 Book Review: A Woman Who 'has In Her The Capacity Of Fighting Her Way Back To Independence.

The Heart Of The Backlash Argument: Women Are Better Off 'protected' Than Equal.

The Women's Movement Hit My Neighborhood Like A Freight Train. Everybody Got Divorced. You Wonder What Would Have Happened To Women If The Suburbs Hadn't Been Built.