Several of our Canadian readers wrote in recently to bring our attention to a slightly insane piece put forth by the editorial board of the National Post that blames Women's Studies programs for, well, basically everything.
Discussing a recent shift in Canadian universities that is leading many schools to rename their Women's Studies programs Gender Studies, in order to broaden the field, the National Post editorial board feels it necessary to warn the good people of Canada that the name change alone will not stop the hideous evil of the "radical feminism behind these courses [that] has done untold damage to families, our court systems, labour laws, constitutional freedoms and even the ordinary relations between men and women." Oh, ladies. If you'd just stayed in the kitchen, Canada wouldn't have devolved into Mordor over the past 50 years. For shame!
While most of the tipsters who wrote in about the bizarroville editorial urged us to rip it apart, I found myself staring at the screen in bewilderment more than anything else: the piece is so completely insane and off the rails that one doesn't really need to make fun of it, as it stands as a joke on its own. "The equality protection before and under the law, granted to all Canadians regardless of race, sex, creed or origin, has been eroded because feminist legal scholars convinced the Supreme Court to permit preferential treatment for 'traditionally disadvantaged groups,' chief among whom, they contend, are women," the board writes. Note the sarcastic "quotes" given to "traditionally disadvantaged groups." Because women are totally equal in today's society, are we not? We're free to eat yogurt and buy shoes, right ladies? What the fuck are we bitching about? Wah wah!
The piece just gets progressively more insane as it goes on, I'm afraid: Women's Studies programs, or, more accurately, women, are blamed for everything from pushing employment equity to mandatory diversity training to pushing for "for universal daycare and mandatory government-run kindergarten." Can you believe these bitches? Universal daycare!? For what? So they can work!? Who will cook for the men!?! Will they have to learn to darn their own socks? Why don't women darn socks anymore?! HELLO!?! I AM A MALE AND MY PRIVILEGE IS BEING CHALLENGED! SOMEONE HELP!
Thankfully, the readers of the National Post are expressing their disgust with the piece, noting that editorials such as this one are, in fact, the very reason why Women's Studies programs are necessary to begin with. Perhaps commenter JCraw sums it up best: "this is what misogyny looks like, stream-of-consciousness style."
Women's Studies Is Still With Us [National Post]
[Image via ToothpasteForDinner]