Public Enemy: James Kalb

Evidence: http://turnabout.ath.cx:8000/node/2

Dearest James Kalb--

Today, whilst perusing the internet, I stumbled upon your lovely pot o' knowledge website entitled "Turnabout." It was an adventure not worth pursuing from the get-go, with the original link taking me to one of the most ignorant responses to gender theory and feminism - coincidentally, also one of the most popular - that I have witnessed. I have yet to decide what upsets me more: that you actually had, and still have, the power in your possession to convince people of your absurd and hateful ideas, that you are allowed to openly post on the internet under the titles "anti-gay" and "anti-feminist" as categories, or, and this honestly may be worse, that you were writing and updating your beautiful and brilliant "anti-feminist" page four years ago, as I sat in a classroom environment watching my friends to be taken advantage of by boys-will-be-boys rape culture and a homophobic administration.

Your approach to feminism is one that is, in the least, dismissive and bitter, and at most, a prison of contempt. Your explanation of gender roles lies in "nature," a far too old cop-out of substantive argumentative power and an altogether weak explanation for an ongoing process of socialization that has fed into patriarchy- a system you, as a male, seem to have (surprisingly) little contempt for in contrast. It is seeminlgy so difficult to you to attempt to deconstruct systems of hierarchy that you rely upon tradition and nostalgia to compete with progressive ideals, another typical argument.

For someone who claims, on his page, that feminism is irrational, you are surprisingly lacking rationality in the repetition of tired, unacceptable, and overly-defeated arguments based in nothing but your own experiences as a male. You have no compass for understanding how patriarchy damages society because you are invested in normality, another tired concept. I need to challenge your fundamental beliefs in investing in failed ideas like male domination and the nuclear family, which have imprisoned countless American souls, and probably should not be publishing that kind of response online. However-

I am four years too late, but I am not letting this one pass quietly. 

1. "All societies have been patriarchal, at least in the very broad meaning of that term now accepted, with men mainly responsible for public concerns and women for domestic matters and the care of small children. Always and everywhere men, while exercising no general right of domination, have predominated in positions of formal authority."

You are correct, all societies have been patriarchal. You fall short, however, when you claim that this is biological based on logic that men have never "exercised a general right of domination." Applying this to American society, which I'm sure you consider quite disgustingly progressive, would prove you wrong, and it makes me dumbfounded to attempt to find your train of thought. Do you care to explain to me, perhaps, how women with no right to vote, and women who were legally property of their husbands in colonial times, did not find themselves challenged by a male society's legal "right of domination?" In countries where marital rape is legal, is there no "right of domination?" In a country where women have to fight for equal pay, are they not being "dominated" by men of equal professional status? You have fallen quite far from logic, reason, and history.

2. "The aim of feminism, therefore, is to create a new kind of human being in a new form of society in which age-old ties among men, women and children are to be dissolved and new ones constituted in accordance with abstract ideological demands. In place of family ties based on what seems natural and customary and supported by upbringing and social expectation, feminism would permit only ties based on contract and idiosyncratic sentiment, with government stepping in when those prove too shaky for serious reliance. There is no reason to suppose the substitution can be made to work, let alone work well, and every reason to expect the contrary. Feminism does not care about reason, however, or even about experience of the effects of weakened family life. It is in fact ideological and radical to the core. There can be no commonsense feminism, because doing what comes naturally gets a feminist nowhere."

Sir, I have spent an entire life out of the kitchen. It has gotten me everywhere. I am offended by both your insinuation that the nuclear family is safe, normal, and healthy, for as a child of a single parent- a single female parent, nonetheless- I seem to have come across much more depth of knowledge than some others. I similarly seem to be one of the most driven, ambitious, focused, and passionate of those I have come across in my lifetime, especially the products of patriarchal and disempowering family models you admire. My life was spent in the world, out of the home, and away from the vacuum- what I do naturally is not determined by my gender. It is determined by my nature. I am interested in how much of your opinions you derive from your anatomy. Fill me in.

3. "[Feminism] has set women free mainly to be low level employees and unattached sexual commodities."

The wage gap, the glass ceiling, sex slavery, and media sexualization do not qualify as feminism. They are, in fact, in line with the anti-feminist movement you so proudly want to spearhead.

I have nothing to close with, and nothing much more to say. I am not so much surprised by what you mentioned in your piece, but more disgusted and shamed that someone outside of Ann Coulter could muster the thoughts you have put into words. I'd like to close with a thought similar to that which you used at the end of your article, when you stated that "the more explicit, articulate and successful [feminism]s opponents the more damage can be prevented. " This is the line, you see, which proved to me that everything you wrote was in jest, because you were nothing but explicitly and articulately failing to battle a movement that will someday overcome your shallow, privileged lens.

Enjoy the view from the top. I'll meet you there.

Signed,

Carmen.