Criticisms of feminism

Criticisms of feminism as an ideology; criticisms of specific types of feminism; and

criticisms of specific feminist concepts have been made by feminists, non-feminists,
masculists, social conservatives and social progressives.

Postcolonial feminists criticize certain ideas of Western forms of feminism, notably

radical feminism and its most basic assumption, universalisation of the female
experience. They argue that this assumption cannot so easily be applied to women for
whom gender oppression comes second to, for example, racial or class oppression.[33]

From the perspective of some strands of feminism, as well as the men's movement and
queer theory, inequalities and stereotypes based on gender are detrimental to both men
and women and both sexes suffer from the expectations of traditional gender roles.

Many who support masculism argue that because of both traditional gender roles and
sexism infused into society by feminists, males are and have been oppressed.[citation needed]
Marriage rights advocates oppose feminist aspirations to replace the traditional family, as
illustrated by statements made by a variety of feminist leaders such as Shelia Cronan's
view that marriage constitutes slavery for women, and the women's movement must
concentrate on attacking this institution and that freedom for women cannot be won
without the abolition of marriage.[34] Dr. Mary Jo Bane, associate director of Wellesley
College's Center for Research on Woman suggested that to raise children with equality,
they should be taken from families and communally raised.[citation needed] Family and men's
rights groups are also critical of feminist encouragement of lesbian agendas which
undermine the traditional role of men in the family, such as Sheila Cronan's National
NOW Times January 1988 interview declaring that every woman must be willing to be
identified as a lesbian to be fully feminist.[citation needed] Many critics of feminism are
alarmed by the prevalence of lesbians such as Patricia Ireland, former head of NOW, in
feminist leadership roles. Men's rights advocates view many contemporary feminist
issues as "extremist" due to their perception that feminist demands such as equal rights
have been achieved. They also claim that feminists - in their struggle for what they call
equality - seem to be unwilling to pay any attention to areas where men may be
discriminated against.[citation needed] Laws such as the Violence Against Women Act are
viewed as discriminatory against men. Father's rights advocates are critical of feminist
efforts to block shared parenting, or joint custody, after divorce.

Ann Widdecombe, a British Conservative politician and former leadership candidate,

claimed that feminism slowly evolved into its antithesis.[35] She argues that 1970s rhetoric
emphasized equal rights and self-sufficiency, whereas 1990s rhetoric demanded special
assistance for women and implied that women could not look after themselves. She
identifies with the former variant, and describes the latter as "absolute tosh".

Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young's books Spreading Misandry and Legalizing
Misandry explore feminist-inspired misandry and show what they call "fascist" or
"gender" feminist ideologies underlying militant man-hatred, gynocentric reverse-sexism
and systemic discrimination against men in popular culture, law and society.[36]. Feminist
Christina Hoff-Sommers argues feminist misandry leads directly to misogyny by what
she calls "establishment feminists" against (the majority of) women who love men in
Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women.