Feminists are liberals, and liberals are feminists, or so it goes in modern society. The War on Women is supposedly being waged by the Right Wing and the Republican Party, so certainly, it seems safe to presume that feminism and liberalism share common values.
Consider, however, a core principle of modern liberalism. Dig down into the roots of most liberal policies and ideas, and you’ll find a presumption that, as members of society, individuals have an obligation to subordinate their personal desires to and share the fruit of their efforts with that society. Pay taxes on what you earn, buy and own so that government can take car of the poor. Accept regulation and restriction of what you do for the benefit of society. Thus goes the “social contract,” a non-existent document that no one signs but that is presumed to bind everyone. That contract prioritizes the collective over the individual and subverts and contradicts the premise that an individual owns himself and the fruits of his labor.
This assessment of modern liberalism won’t sit well with many modern liberals, because it lays bare an uncomfortable truth. Nevertheless, it’s hard to deny this truth when a fundamental part of modern liberalism is governmental redistribution of wealth – of goods and services that individuals create through their own efforts – from those who are deemed to have “enough” to those who are deemed not to.
Consider now the core principle of modern feminism. Somewhere in the past half century, feminism morphed from a movement that sought an equal place for women in society, a liberation from the subordinate role, and a right to self-determination to a no-holds-barred, no-ground-given defense of the right to have an abortion. That, to the exclusion of almost everything else, and not only the right to have an abortion, but to have that abortion and related expenses (e.g. birth control) paid for by others. The movement is suffused with the mantra “my body, my choice.”
Setting aside the moral debate about abortion, let us ask how this absolute right to control one’s reproductive decisions jibes with the lack of self-ownership that is the core of modern liberalism? How can a feminist, who nowadays aligns fully with the Left, declare that a woman has total ownership over her body when it comes to reproductive choices but assert no such ownership exists when it comes to just about everything else?
This dissonance is, unfortunately, endemic to much that passes for modern political philosophy (and, no, not just on the Left. The Right is far from guiltless). Internal consistency, a quality many of us would, at least in theory, demand of most ideas and principles, is very low on the priorities list when it comes to practical politics. It takes a distant back seat – or is discarded entirely – when it runs into conflict with “this is what I want and how I want things to be.” And that’s a shame, because discarded along with that is rationality and logic. This outcome is the inevitable result of the abandonment of any notion of core principles by a political movement. Whereas genuine socialism overtly declares that society, not individuals, has authority over individuals’ actions, most liberals in this country are not willing to accept that as the premise of the outcomes they desire. Perhaps they recognize the impossibility of creating a successful society based on that premise, perhaps not. Perhaps they simply want what they want, rationality notwithstanding.
The question I posit to liberal feminists is, how do you justify your position of self-determination on reproductive rights while denying that right of self-determination to your fellow members of society in just about all other aspects of their lives?
Loading ...
Active Comment Threads
Most Commented Posts
Universal Background Checks – A Back Door to Universal Registration
COVID Mask Follies
When Everything Is Illegal…
An Anti-Vax Inflection Point?
“Not In My Name”
The Great Social Media Crackup
War Comes Through The Overton Window
The First Rule of Italian Driving
Most Active Commenters