Women in Science, The War Against Boys, Who Stole Feminism? (2013)
- Duration: 180:53
- Updated: 25 Dec 2014
Christina Hoff Sommers (/ˈsʌmərz/; born 1950) is an American author and former philosophy professor who is known for her critique of late 20th century feminism, and her writings about feminism in contemporary American culture. Her most widely discussed books are Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women and The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men. Although some of her critics refer to her as anti-feminist, Sommers thinks of herself as an equity feminist who faults contemporary feminism for "its irrational hostility to men, its recklessness with facts and statistics, and its inability to take seriously the possibility that the sexes are equal – but different."
Sommers earned her BA at New York University in 1971 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She earned a PhD in philosophy from Brandeis University in 1979.[5]
A former philosophy professor in Ethics at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, Sommers is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. She is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the nonpartisan[6] Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.[7] She has spoken and participated in debates at over one hundred college campuses[8] and served on the national advisory board of the Independent Women's Forum.[9]
Sommers is a registered Democrat.[10][11] The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy categorizes Sommers' equity feminist views as classical liberal or libertarian and socially conservative.[12] Sommers has criticized how "conservative scholars have effectively been marginalized, silenced, and rendered invisible on most campuses."[13] In an article for the text book, Moral Soundings, Sommers makes the case for moral conservation and traditional values.[14]
Sommers writes in Who Stole Feminism that an often-mentioned March of Dimes study which says that "domestic violence is the leading cause of birth defects," does not, in fact, exist. This claim has been criticized by the scholar Nancy K.D. Lemon in the Chronicle of Higher Education, noting that the study "Battering During Pregnancy: Intervention Strategies," by Anne Stewart Helton and Frances Gobble Snodgrass funded by a grant by March of Dimes, appears in the September 1987 issue of the journal Birth. Sommers responds by denying that the study was funded by March of Dimes and by implicitly denying that the article shows that leading cause of birth defects is battering.[30] Sommers writes that violence against women does not peak during the Super Bowl, which she describes as another popular urban legend. Sommers also writes that these statements about domestic violence were used in shaping the Violence Against Women Act, which allocates $1.6 billion a year in federal funds for ending domestic violence. Sommers writes that feminists assert, and the media report, that approximately 150,000 women die each year from anorexia, an apparent distortion of the American Anorexia and Bulimia Association's figure that 150,000 females have some degree of anorexia.[17][18][31][32] A Reason magazine review stated that "the answer to the question in the book's title is, nobody stole feminism. The liberals gave it away. Their abdication of principles and cowardly fear of reprisals so ably chronicled by Sommers sealed the deal."[17]
In an article circulated by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a national progressive media watch group, Laura Flanders wrote "[Sommers'] book [Who Stole Feminism] is filled with the same kind of errors, unsubstantiated charges and citations of 'advocacy research' that she claims to find in the work of the feminists she takes to task..."[31] Sommers has responded to these accusations.[33]
Melanie Kirkpatrick wrote in The Wall Street Journal that "one of the strengths of Who Stole Feminism is its lack of a political agenda. ... Ms. Sommers simply lines up her facts and shoots one bullseye after another."[34]
Books by Sommers
1986, Right and Wrong: Basic Readings in Ethics. ISBN 0-15-577110-8.
1995, Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women ISBN 978-0-684-80156-8.
2000, The War Against Boys. ISBN 0-684-84956-9.
2003 (with Frederic Sommers), Vice & Virtue in Everyday life. ISBN 978-0-534-60534-6.
2006 (with Sally Satel, M.D.), One Nation Under Therapy. ISBN 978-0-312-30444-7.
2009 The Science on Women in Science. ISBN 978-0-8447-4281-6.
2013 Freedom Feminism: Its Surprising History and Why It Matters Today (Values and Capitalism). ISBN 978-0-844-77262-2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Hoff_Sommers
By American Enterprise Institute (American Enterprise Institute) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://wn.com/Women_in_Science,_The_War_Against_Boys,_Who_Stole_Feminism?_(2013)
Christina Hoff Sommers (/ˈsʌmərz/; born 1950) is an American author and former philosophy professor who is known for her critique of late 20th century feminism, and her writings about feminism in contemporary American culture. Her most widely discussed books are Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women and The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men. Although some of her critics refer to her as anti-feminist, Sommers thinks of herself as an equity feminist who faults contemporary feminism for "its irrational hostility to men, its recklessness with facts and statistics, and its inability to take seriously the possibility that the sexes are equal – but different."
Sommers earned her BA at New York University in 1971 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She earned a PhD in philosophy from Brandeis University in 1979.[5]
A former philosophy professor in Ethics at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, Sommers is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. She is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the nonpartisan[6] Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.[7] She has spoken and participated in debates at over one hundred college campuses[8] and served on the national advisory board of the Independent Women's Forum.[9]
Sommers is a registered Democrat.[10][11] The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy categorizes Sommers' equity feminist views as classical liberal or libertarian and socially conservative.[12] Sommers has criticized how "conservative scholars have effectively been marginalized, silenced, and rendered invisible on most campuses."[13] In an article for the text book, Moral Soundings, Sommers makes the case for moral conservation and traditional values.[14]
Sommers writes in Who Stole Feminism that an often-mentioned March of Dimes study which says that "domestic violence is the leading cause of birth defects," does not, in fact, exist. This claim has been criticized by the scholar Nancy K.D. Lemon in the Chronicle of Higher Education, noting that the study "Battering During Pregnancy: Intervention Strategies," by Anne Stewart Helton and Frances Gobble Snodgrass funded by a grant by March of Dimes, appears in the September 1987 issue of the journal Birth. Sommers responds by denying that the study was funded by March of Dimes and by implicitly denying that the article shows that leading cause of birth defects is battering.[30] Sommers writes that violence against women does not peak during the Super Bowl, which she describes as another popular urban legend. Sommers also writes that these statements about domestic violence were used in shaping the Violence Against Women Act, which allocates $1.6 billion a year in federal funds for ending domestic violence. Sommers writes that feminists assert, and the media report, that approximately 150,000 women die each year from anorexia, an apparent distortion of the American Anorexia and Bulimia Association's figure that 150,000 females have some degree of anorexia.[17][18][31][32] A Reason magazine review stated that "the answer to the question in the book's title is, nobody stole feminism. The liberals gave it away. Their abdication of principles and cowardly fear of reprisals so ably chronicled by Sommers sealed the deal."[17]
In an article circulated by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a national progressive media watch group, Laura Flanders wrote "[Sommers'] book [Who Stole Feminism] is filled with the same kind of errors, unsubstantiated charges and citations of 'advocacy research' that she claims to find in the work of the feminists she takes to task..."[31] Sommers has responded to these accusations.[33]
Melanie Kirkpatrick wrote in The Wall Street Journal that "one of the strengths of Who Stole Feminism is its lack of a political agenda. ... Ms. Sommers simply lines up her facts and shoots one bullseye after another."[34]
Books by Sommers
1986, Right and Wrong: Basic Readings in Ethics. ISBN 0-15-577110-8.
1995, Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women ISBN 978-0-684-80156-8.
2000, The War Against Boys. ISBN 0-684-84956-9.
2003 (with Frederic Sommers), Vice & Virtue in Everyday life. ISBN 978-0-534-60534-6.
2006 (with Sally Satel, M.D.), One Nation Under Therapy. ISBN 978-0-312-30444-7.
2009 The Science on Women in Science. ISBN 978-0-8447-4281-6.
2013 Freedom Feminism: Its Surprising History and Why It Matters Today (Values and Capitalism). ISBN 978-0-844-77262-2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Hoff_Sommers
By American Enterprise Institute (American Enterprise Institute) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
- published: 25 Dec 2014
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