TO MY YOUNG daughter:
You can't even read yet, I know. But I wanted to preserve in the heat of the moment the sense of how very sorry I am for what they are trying to do to you. The "sisterhood," I mean.The self-destruction of organized feminism is not a surprise, of course. It was only a matter of time. Like many women, for years I've seen through their agenda. It's long been one of left-wing politics, not women's well-being.
The movement's general indifference to the allegations of sexual use and abuse by their friend Bill Clinton of Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, Kathleen Willey and who knows who else is really a thing to behold, but it's not the point.
Yes, most feminists have been supportive of the president in comparison to their "outrage" over some one-time allegations of crude remarks made by a certain Supreme Court nominee. But their hypocrisy is their problem.
What upsets me, dear daughter, is the problems they may have created for you. You are so young now, so innocent. But I worry about the world you may enter, one in which modern-day feminists have given an invitation to every boss, college professor or classmate you may one day have to be crudely, explicitly, sexually aggressive toward you.
Feminist guru Gloria Steinem said that even if what Willey maintains is true, that the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, groped her in the Oval Office when she came to him in desperate need of a job, still "the president is not guilty of sexual harassment." The way Steinem seems to see it, he may have made an incredibly explicit attempt to use a vulnerable woman for his own sexual gratification. But Willey rejected the attempt, so no harm, no foul.
Forget the fine points of the law. What Steinem and her ilk are really contending is that it's A-OK for men to view and treat women, including the woman I hope you will one day become, as little more than raw sexual objects.
So if these women cheer on the agressor-in-chief as he goes for gold in this competition, why shouldn't all sorts of other men and boys feel they can compete, too?
My little girl, what terrible lessons might that teach you about your worth as a woman and human being, your personal value and sexual dignity?
Some, like erstwhile feminizer of the "sexist" military Pat Schroeder, refuse to attack the commander-in-chief, targeting shrill epithets at conservatives instead; others, like Anita Hill, concur that the worst allegations against the president don't constitute sexual harassment; in what sounds like an abused wife justifying her husband's actions, many pathetically maintain the president's alleged behavior doesn't matter because he's "done so much for women."
Sadly, the "sisterhood" has left women and girls in America literally up for grabs.
I wonder if, by the time you read this letter, they will have tried to take away your vote?
With all my love,
Your concerned mother