The director of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Northeastern University in Massachusetts, has revealed her idea of what is the core purpose behind feminism: to hate men. Professor Suzanna Danuta Walters argues that it is “logical to hate men,” and that she and her fellow feminist travelers have “every right to hate you.”
Over the last several years, more and more women have chosen not to identify as feminists, in part because they see the core feminist movement as having moved away from equality and into a hate-filled arena of victimhood. Mainstream feminists have decried this assessment, insisting that it is only “equality” that they call for. Yet Walters’ outing of her opinion in a Washington Post op-ed seems to tally more with what we are seeing in the modern West: the acceptability of hatred towards a group of people based solely on their sex.
Righteous Anger?
In a bitter diatribe that purposely conflates sexual violence committed against women in non-Western countries with the much smaller rate committed in the U.S., Walters posits that she and other women have the absolute right to hate their supposed oppressors:
“So, in this moment, here in the land of legislatively legitimated toxic masculinity, is it really so illogical to hate men? For all the power of #MeToo and #TimesUp and the women’s marches, only a relatively few men have been called to task, and I’ve yet to see a mass wave of prosecutions or even serious recognition of wrongdoing.”
Suzanna Danuta Walters
She attempts to muddy the waters by pointing out that, “It varies by country,” yet calls for action only from Western nations, most specifically the U.S.
Walters - as well as most members of our society - is guilty of ignoring one stark reality: men are equally as likely to be sexually assaulted as women, and most male victims report female perpetrators. This stunning fact has been reported by both the CDC and Scientific American. But apparently, for a sociology professor and a director of women’s, gender and sexuality course in a top U.S. university, this is not good enough.
Demands
Walters not only uses her op-ed as an opportunity to spew her particular brand of prejudice, she also sets out a platform of demands that men need to adopt in order to rectify the situation she subjectively experiences. Her “advice” includes:
“Lean out so we can actually just stand up without being beaten down. Pledge to vote for feminist women only. Don’t run for office. Don’t be in charge of anything. Step away from the power. We got this. And please know that your crocodile tears won’t be wiped away by us anymore. We have every right to hate you. You have done us wrong. #BecausePatriarchy.”
Has there ever been a more ill-thought-out and divisive list of suggestions? Denigrating a whole group of people based on a characteristic they have zero control over and wanting to remove them from positions they have worked for and earned is a little too close to 1930s Germany rhetoric for comfort.
The Quiet Subjugation
If Walters was a lone voice in the wilderness, we would rightly ignore her vile spewing as we would other sexists or racists, yet she is not. She holds a position of power and “educates” the next generation. She is given a platform by WaPo with which to taint minds. And perhaps worst of all, she is cheered on by those who define our society through media and culture. The subjugation of a group of people is never acceptable; indoctrinating the next generation in its practicalities even less so.
