This is a two-parter from one of my listeners. She originally wrote me the following email:
Dear Dr. Laura:
"...I am to give a presentation on ...Feminist Theory for my Social Theory class. Let me tell you, I am so excited to present this, because I am far from a feminist. I can't wait to share my thoughts with my class..[and] provide details of what women today are missing because of this movement.
"...Thanks to you, I will be no one's shack-up honey. I will not have children until I am married. I will not marry the wrong man...I will be my kid's mom and my husband's girlfriend...."
Thanks to you, here is a 25 year old woman who loves and respects herself.
Well, she did the research in preparation for the presentation, and here's what she wrote as a followup:
"[In doing my research,] I... never read the word 'oppressed' so many times in my life. My goodness, how can women complain so much? ...I have never gotten mad when working on a project for school. I have always found things that I have learned along the way interesting and useful. Well, this time, I got mad. My professor knew I was anti-feminism, so she must have thought [doing the research] would open my eyes to her world....She was incorrect. I started getting angry at these feminists. Finally, the day before my presentation...I had had it! I could hardly stand these women.
I believe I read that women wanted to be accepted and respected, ...[but] all it seemed like they wanted to do was emasculate men, demoralize tradition, and degrade anyone or anything that stood in their way of what they thought was power....I think a lot of feminists have taken this movement a bit too far. I truly believe feminists must be the most miserable people. They miss out on so much. My mother is a feminist, and she has never been happy. Thanks to you, Dr. Laura, I did not follow in her footsteps.
You were right when you told me the angrier the professor gets, the more "right on" I am. She didn't care what [analysis] I provided. I appreciate that women have rights, but I resent that my rights of becoming a stay-at-home mom day are not honored as well....My professor thought she was tricking me into finding things [in my research] that maybe I would think I can't live without. All she did, though, was teach me how to be a better woman and how not to treat a man.