One day, online columnist Peco Chakravatru insisted that I read the book “Who Stole Feminism? How Women have Betrayed Women” (1994) written by Professor Christina Hoff-Sommers. As I started reading the book, I got a shock of my life. I found that highly provocative, but inaccurate information is propagated in the name of “women’s issues” in Media and in Public forums.

The preface of this book starts with the Anorexia “crisis”, which one can read at this link. It says,

“In Revolution from Within, Gloria Steinem informs her readers that ‘in this country alone…about 150,000 females die of anorexia each year.’ That is more than three times the annual number of fatalities from car accidents for the total population. Steinem refers readers to another feminist best-seller, Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth. And in Ms. Wolf’s book, one again finds the statistic, along with the author’s outrage.” “Where did Ms. Wolf get her figures? Her source is Fasting Girls: the Emergence of Anorexia Nervosa as a Modern Disease, by Joan Brumberg, a historian and former director of women’s studies at Cornell University. … Professor Brumberg, in turn, attributes the figure to the American Anorexia and Bulimia Association.

“I called the American Anorexia and Bulimia Association and spoke to Dr. Diane Mickley, its president. ‘We were misquoted,’ she said. In a 1985 newsletter the association had referred to 150,000 to 200,000 _sufferers_ (not fatalities) of anorexia nervosa.”

Ms. Sommers continues:

What is the correct mortality rate? Most experts are reluctant to give exact figures. Reasonable estimates range from 100 to as many as 400 deaths per year.

I know Gloria Steinem and Naomi Wolf are prominent feminists and social activists. I could not believe that such eminent persons can ever indulge in unscientific research or outright hypocrisy. As I perused the chapters of this sensational book, I was utterly disturbed and my faith on Gender and Sociological research got shattered. I did find the response of other feminists to this book. Most of them felt that it is all right to “lie” and create alarmism for a noble cause and of course, they termed Ms. Sommers a traitor.

Ms. Sommers divides the feminists into two different categories: Gender Feminists and Equity Feminists. The Gender Feminists believe that they are at a gender war against males and women are virtually under siege. They use provocation, alarmism and lies for getting recruits and aim to work for revenge on “all men” for oppressing women from generation to generations. Somehow, they justify a kind of subconscious compensation (in terms of revenge) from all men now, for the so-called “male hegemony” under patriarchy since ages. Of course, these Gender feminists have an eye on the money from various foundations and they try to keep the government on defensive by their unrelenting rhetoric in the media.

Equity feminists on the other hand, take a balanced view of the interaction between men, women and the society. Of course, they are strongly grounded in the concept of Gender Equality.

Almost always, Gender feminists accuse people of being chauvinistic, when someone questions their inaccurate statistics. As a result, they force the people in Media to a defensive line. Ms. Sommers goes on to expose the “super bowl battering hoax” and false rape statistics by feminists and the media. She also talks about the inaccurate information propagated on preferential treatment that boys get at school.

I remember an Indian feminist telling a parliamentary delegation in Bangalore, “Sir, the rape and murder of girls in BPO industry is increasing at a rapid rate.” Well, she had only one data point, as only one such incident happened in Bangalore. She could manage to draw a graph out of that single data point and even extrapolate it!! Every year about fifty-to-hundred elderly people get murdered in Bangalore. Yet, Bangalore is considered to be a safe city. Only the murder of a BPO woman changed the definition of Bangalore overnight from a safe city to an unsafe city.

Of course, the inaccurate information and resultant conclusion are used to campaign for new laws and also bring changes in the environment in schools. Any policy on handling of boys and girls in schools based on the inaccurate statistics and rhetoric can indeed cause serious harm to future generations. Does vindictive behaviour based on provocation, lies and alarmism help any society?

Finally, I realised that Feminism today is no longer a social movement for gender equality, but a political movement driven by hate and revenge. This vicious hatred is not only directed towards men or even boys, but also towards women, who are related to (or support) men.

Then, I worked to find where the prominent Indian feminists stand so far as provocation, hypocrisy and alarmism is concerned. I will write about these aspects in near future.