Katha Pollitt, an associate editor of The Nation, said there is no such thing as a right-wing feminist and spoke out against the concept of right-wing feminism, in her speech last night titled, "Can You Be a 'Right Wing Feminist'?"
"You can be a right-wing feminist as long as you don't give either term a lot of thought," Pollitt said.
More than 100 people gathered in the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences to hear the speech which was part of a series of events exploring the meaning of feminism sponsored by the Women's Resource Center.
Pollitt blamed the media for the inflated popularity of right-wing feminism, which she termed "anti-feminism."
She said this form of feminism manifests itself in four forms.
First, these feminists claim the women's movement has already achieved success.
Expounding upon this view, she said, women already have the right to vote--"what more do women want? Thank you, Susan B. Anthony!"
Second, these feminists claim the women's movement has been hijacked by extremists, she said.
Third, right-wing feminism demeans women by characterizing them as victims, Pollitt said.
Right-wing feminists claim "women are not victims but are strong and independent," she said. "But strong and competent people can be and often are victims."
Fourth, these feminists claim gender is simply not an important factor in financial and social relations.
"These ideas represent less a coherent vision than a political allegiance," Pollitt said. They "attack the woman's movement on every ground."
Pollitt said right-wing feminists fight to preserve a system that is founded in inequality.
"It's not just a matter of changing laws, it's a matter of changing the system," she said. "Anti-feminists have no desire to change the system."
Pollitt said some women have long campaigned against women's rights.
She called the traditional view that the man serve as head of the household a "housewifely survival strategy."
"Without it [this strategy], being a housewife would be akin to being your husband's employee," she said.
But she said the popularity of anti-feminism is waning.
Pollitt said although this traditional movement is "flexing its muscles," it "represents a vanishing set of social relations."
She said this view is outdated because of "the shrunken borders of the once vast domain of domesticity."
Today, women will most likely have only one or two children and household chores demand much less time than in the past, Pollitt said.
Pollitt, the author of a monthly column for The Nation entitled "Subject to Debate," has also written in The New York Times and the New Yorker.
