I have for quite some time considered myself a feminist, although I don’t think that I have seriously considered what that means. I suppose that I have subconsciously defined feminism in the same way as historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: “A feminist is a person who believes in equality between the sexes, who recognizes discrimination against women and who is willing to work to overcome it.” Who could argue with that?
But many people whom I love and respect have negative feelings about feminism, sometimes intensely so. And feminism is also quite unpopular. A 2015 Vox poll found that only 18 percent of Americans call themselves feminists. In a 2016 YouGov poll, the percentage was only slightly higher (26 percent).
I read Mona Charen’s new book, Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense, because I wanted to better understand why so many people are reluctant to support (or, in some cases, are highly critical of) feminism.
At its core, Sex Matters is a blistering critique of the dominant perspectives in our culture regarding various issues related to sex, sexuality, and the family (a critique with which I largely agree). To the extent that feminism has contributed to that perspective, Sex Matters is also a critique of feminism.
