Principle versus Ideology: hypocrisy, modern feminism, and the 90s

Yesterday the Citizen held forth on the misuse of words and why it should outrage everyone in the country. Today, the Citizen turns a scathing eye to another foulness in modern society: the trumping of philosophy, the core of ideals, by political ideology. And our highlighted case will be the behavior of modern feminist leaders in the 1990s.

So, consider: if a man in a position of authority and power, either directly or simply by having that position of power, extorts sex from one of his female underlings, is it not a bad thing? Women have fought for the right to be free of that sort of criminal misbehavior in this country and they've won that freedom, by law. Feminists have decried this sort of behavior when it occurs in the boardroom or from CEOs, requiring (rightly) that these foul creatures be jailed and removed from their positions. This is a philosophical issue, a core ideal: that no woman (or man, for that matter) should be put in a position where sex is required of them by a person of the opposite sex (or the same sex, for that matter) who holds authority or power over them.

So, consider: in the 1990s, a powerful man in a position of authority required of a girl barely out of her teens that she have sex (and, in fact, some truly twisted sexual favors beside basic sex) with him. What does principle, what does the philosophy of women's rights, require that we do with this beast, this man who used his position to extort sex from a child? That we apply the same fate that modern feminists have required of CEOs who behave that way: that they lose their jobs and be held up for public ridicule, that they pay fines and be ostracized. No feminist has given a pass or allowed a man who behaved that way to remain in their position. They shouldn't. It would be abandoning their core principles, their philosophy, to do so. It would bankrupt what they supposedly fight for and believe.

But, of course, that's not what happened. The man in question was Bill Clinton, President of the United States, and he used his position of authority and power to require sex of a girl barely out of her teens. And what did we get from modern feminist leaders? Did we get outrage, did we get calls to hold him to the standard of punishment that they've fought for over the decades? No. We got, instead, the following quotes from various modern feminist leaders: Nina Burleigh of Time magazine -- "I'd be happy," she said, "to give him oral sex just to thank him for keeping abortion legal." Betty Friedan said that, even if Clinton did everything he was accused of doing, and more, "It's no big deal." And from others, we get such wonders as: "As long as he is in office and protects a woman's right to choose, his personal behavior shouldn't matter." And, we can't forget Gloria Steinem's "One Grope Rule", which literally excused the actions of a sexual predator and said it was an acceptable thing to her.

Um. Excuse me? When confronted with a sexual predator (whose history of sexual deviance and forcing himself on unwilling parties goes back to rape charges from multiple sources in the 1970s) who extorts sexual favors from children, these paragons of feminism... began justifying his behavior, excusing it, allowing it, and, most shocking of all, actually stating that they don't have a problem with it (aka, give him blow jobs)!

There's no other way to look at it. This wasn't "personal behavior" -- it was the act of a sexual predator, by definition, and confronting and punishing that sexual predator should have been FOREMOST the actions and words of any feminist who actually believes the principles they call for. But we didn't get that. We got permissiveness, we got excuses, we got "she should do it, as long as it protects Roe". There's no other way to interpret this: ideology, the protection of one single political issue (the protection of abortion rights re Roe Vs Wade), was more important than the philosophy, the principles, of feminism... was more important than anything else. So what signal does this send? What were these feminists telling us? It's perfectly okay for a man in a position of power to require sexual favors from women, as long as he has a political philosophy that protects abortion rights. We've now traded protecting women from sexual predators for protecting abortion rights -- trading philosophy and principle for rank political ideology.

Congratulations to these feminist leaders. In one fell swoop, you undid decades of fighting for women's rights, erased the value of your so-called principles, by defending the sexual predator and in fact, in some cases, telling the victim, the prey, that they should have "been happy to do so", as long as it "protects Roe". There is literally no way to describe the disgust, the outrage, that SHOULD have happened, all of it directed at these women who abandoned women's rights in order to protect a sexual predator. Protecting women? Not important. Confronting a sexual predator who used his power to get sex? Not important. Protecting Roe Vs. Wade? That's what matters to them. And that, fellow Citizens, is disgusting, it is reprehensible, and it utterly demonstrates, in their own words, how modern feminists have completely bankrupted their own principles. You cannot believe or support any woman or man who would excuse, condone, justify, and in fact promote through their permission the actions of a sexual predator. Yet, these feminists did that exactly.

It is a sad day indeed. It is moreso because... there was no public outrage. It is a sadder day indeed, because it seems to say that the United States has no interest in the principles of our ideas, no focus on the philosophy that underpins what we believe, and is instead a country obsessed only with political ideology.

For Feminists, as proven by their own words above, they'd rather side with a man guilty of the very behavior women have spent centuries fighting against, as long as he can protect Roe Vs. Wade.

Even if it means abandoning the prey to sexual predators.

That, fellow Citizens, is the worst outrage of all. Congratulations to these modern feminist leaders for bankrupting their own principles, by defending someone completely guilty of the very behavior women have fought against for centuries. Bravo.