This is an apt metaphor for radical feminism, which seduces intelligent, caring young women; plies them with warmed-over Marxist slogans; and turns them into gender crusaders who seemingly have lost all semblance of reason and compassion.

By its own admission, radical feminism seeks to curtail or destroy the most cherished values of democratic free market societies: the traditional family, limited government, and the culture of life itself.

Even the notion of truth itself has come under attack by postmodern feminism, which claims that truth is simply another tool for the patriarchal subjugation of women. “A set of subjective views has emerged as sacrosanct, beyond criticism,” Howard Schwartz concludes in The Revolt of the Primitive. “The result is that a vicious bias has triumphed over fact.”

Left to itself, feminism will eventually collapse under the weight of own logical inconsistencies, social intolerance, and reluctance to assure the continuation of the species. But our generation would still have to answer to our children and grandchildren who one day will ask, “Why did you sit by and do nothing?”

Thirty-five years after bra-burners captivated the nation’s campuses, radical feminism has become firmly entrenched in our society. In order to cure a cancer, you have to attack the root of the problem.

The Sisterhood operates from three strongholds: the academy, the government, and the mainstream media. And this is where we need to apply the tincture of truth.

1. The Academy. Women’s studies programs serve as the base camp for feminists to recruit a new crop of well-educated women. Noting the factual errors and myths that pervade women’s studies courses, Christine Stolba issues a cautionary note that “revolutions often end up devouring their own children.” [www.iwf.org/pdf/roomononesown.pdf]

The cure? Students need to file lawsuits demanding that these universities establish men’s studies programs to serve the dwindling male student body. After all, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act was intended to benefit men and women alike.

2. The Government. Over the past 15 years our elected officials have enacted a bevy of laws intended to appease their female constituents. Problem is, many of these laws weaken the nuclear family, violate men’s civil rights, and make women beholden to government hand-outs. Case in point: the controversial Violence Against Women Act, which comes up for its five-year renewal in Congress later this month.

The treatment of choice: Male voters need to start demanding that their politicians answer to their concerns and needs. And lawmakers need to consider whether their chivalrous instincts are unfairly biasing the laws they enact.

3. The Media. Our feminized society is seemingly addicted to stories that serve up a daily diet of victimization and gender grievance.

Recently I came across this 72-point headline in USA Today: “Abuse Found in Military Schools.” The article goes on to recite this shocking statistic: “The report cited 2004 Pentagon data showing 50% of women at all three academies were harassed, mostly verbally but dozens suffering physical abuse.” [http://yahoo.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-08-25-academies-women_x.htm?csp=1]

But exactly how did the Pentagon researchers assess abuse and harassment? Was bruising a female cadet’s feelings considered abusive? Was it exactly 50% of women, with identical percentages at all three military academies? What is the title of this report, so the reader can verify its conclusions? Why wasn’t anyone interviewed to provide balance to the doubtful claim of rampant harassment?

And come to think of it, how many male cadets experienced any form of abuse?

The answer to these important questions is left to the reader’s imagination. Bottom line, this article bears all the telltale signs of a journalistic snow job. [www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2004/1020roberts.html] But that didn’t stop the USA Today editors from running the article on the front page of its August 26 edition.

The treatment? The public needs to contact editors and tell them we’re sick and tired of being force-fed with feminist agitprop.

Once we challenge the feminist cultural hegemony and remind them how many privileges and advantages the average American woman enjoys, the gender warriors may come to realize that much of their sense of oppression is self-inflicted.

Thanks to the advances of medical science, cancer is now a curable disease. Still, surgery is always painful, and recovery may be slow. But this we know for certain: acquiescence to the rad-fems’ ever-escalating demands is the formula for the continued unraveling of the social order.

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