Who Stole Feminism?

By: Christina Hoff Sommers

Narrated by: Kristen Underwood

Philosophy professor Christina Sommers has exposed a disturbing development: how a group of zealots, claiming to speak for all women, are promoting a dangerous new agenda that threatens our most cherished ideals and sets women against men in all spheres of life. In case after case, Sommers shows how these extremists have propped up their arguments with highly questionable but well-funded research, presenting inflammatory and often inaccurate information and stifling any semblance of free and open scrutiny. Trumpeted as orthodoxy, the resulting "findings" on everything from rape to domestic abuse to economic bias to the supposed crisis in girls' self-esteem perpetuate a view of women as victims of the "patriarchy".

Who Stole Feminism? is a call to arms that will enrage or inspire, but cannot be ignored.

©1994 Christina Hoff Sommers (P)1996 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Shocking

I was shocked by the compelling evidence presented of the dishonesty of modern feminism and the failure of journalists, foundations, and government to subject their claims to criticism. The parallels between gender feminism and critical race theory are quite apparent. Both are cynical attacks on our free, individual-centered way of life. This book still seems timely today, several decades after it was written. I look forward to listening to more books by this author.

Excellent book

I am a man, yet I found this book refreshing, to hear a woman with common sense read this was a fantastic experience, I liked her entries of personal experiences. I hope that more so-called feminist would read this with an open mind and not with a mysandric (not sure if that is the proper term) prejudice, so that they can look and see the world in a more as not an us against them situation but more realistic life experience. Thank you Ms Sommers, and I hope your book succeeds in opening the eyes of these disillusinoned young ladies and women.

very insightful

despite being written and published between 1989 and 1995, Summers details issues that have long been in place and promoted by radical feminism. although her predictions for today have long since been proven wrong, much of what she says still rings true. if at all possible it would be advised to get the physical copy in order to do your own research starting with the sources she was able to site.

Long for an updated edition

When I hear women my age proudly claim they are defiantly NOT feminists, I am taken aback. Ms. Sommers does an excellent job of showing just why so many young women are running away from the feminist label. They don't want to be associated with man-haters: women who view every man as a potential rapist and every woman a potential survivor. She highlights many of the events from the late eighties and early nineties that ended up giving feminism a very bad name. Rather than trying to promote equal rights for all humanity (the so-called equity feminists), some feminists (gender feminists) are trying to supplant the patriarchy with a matriarchy. To do so, they overblow poorly done studies and try to silence maleness wherever it rears its ugly head (pun, unfortunately, intended). She does such a good job of pointing out the hysteria and rancor of this sect of feminists, I had to remind myself constantly that I agree with her thesis-those kinds of feminists are bad for feminism. They take away from the social justice that generations of women have fought for; they stray from the goals of the Seneca Falls Convention and forget that many sisters around the world really are being suppressed; they devalue the terms sexual harassment and rape by having them apply to everything. I'm grateful she kept repeating the goals of equality through her book or I would have completely forgotten I wasn't reading the transcripts of a Rush Limbaugh show (a mistake none of us ever wants to make!).

This book was written in 1995, so I was still in junior high and high school when most of these events were unfolding. I wonder how much of her arguments are simply overblown to give evidence to her thesis, how much was relegated only to certain university campuses, and how much has mercifully blown over in the past decade. I would love to see an updated version of this book. In the meantime, I'll read books like The Mommy Myth and Selling Anxiety.

Required reading

This book should absolutely be required reading for all high school students.

Perhaps more importantly, it should be required reading for all teachers and professors.