Michelle Goldberg’s latest New York Times column notes a very interesting new poll regarding public opinion on feminism:
Recently the Southern Poverty Law Center and Tulchin Research commissioned a poll of 1,500 Americans to measure belief in various reactionary sentiments, including the “great replacement” conspiracy theory and the idea that trans people are a threat to children. Because misogyny is so ubiquitous in far-right spaces, Cassie Miller, a senior research analyst at the S.P.L.C., decided to add a question about feminism.
Predictably, most young Republicans agree with the statement, “Feminism has done more harm than good.” What was astonishing was how many young Democrats agreed as well. While only 4 percent of Democratic men over 50 thought feminism was harmful, 46 percent of Democratic men under 50 did. Nearly a quarter of Democratic women under 50 agreed, compared with only 10 percent of those 50 and older.
Goldberg, a progressive and a feminist herself, concludes that this shift is due to the fact “that feminism has been sapped of cultural vitality”: “After four years of Donald Trump, more than two years of a pandemic, and an unending right-wing onslaught, a lot of people with feminist sympathies are numb and exhausted.” I have a slightly different explanation. Feminism today is distinct from the feminism of past generations — far more radical and less tolerant, more concerned with quashing dissent than securing rights.
It’s no surprise that young people — and even young Democrats — are particularly disillusioned, given that contemporary feminism’s hard edge is especially potent on college campuses, online spaces, and other places that young people frequent. As my colleague Dan McLaughlin noted on Twitter, “Older liberal men experienced feminism as women fighting for equal work opportunities. Younger men, even liberal & progressive men, experienced it as a governing regime under whose power they could face arbitrary harm.” That’s consistent with my personal experience, too:
https://twitter.com/njhochman/status/1537830399149232130