2008 Woodie Awards
Survey says: 'Feminists live better'
Robert Berra
Staff Writer
Issue date: 10/29/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
A few weeks ago, an interesting study was released with little fanfare. The study, based on surveys of both college students and older adults, claims that feminists tend to have better sex lives and healthier relationships. The findings affirm that women with egalitarian attitudes do find mates, and men do find them attractive. For some that are rooted in traditional gender roles or think that feminism requires hating men, the study may be a conundrum. For feminists, the study is a long overdue vindication and a statement of the obvious.
Feminists have a bad reputation and have to fight a misconception that has been pervasive in popular culture for decades. Most people still think of feminism in terms of the militant variety, of women who are more than willing to castrate a man for looking at them in an unsavory manner or saying something that "was just a joke." Does militant feminism exist? Yes, but the vast majority of feminists are not of the militant variety. Most feminists do not fit a stereotype and there is nothing visible to broadcast their beliefs. Since the majority is invisible, the only ones left for the traditionalists to point to are the militant feminists.
The minimum requirement for being a feminist is simply this: a belief in equality with men in society; no more, no less. Even the Feminist Majority Foundation defines feminism as "the advocacy of political, economic and social equality between women and men." It is really that simple.
Here are some of the findings in the study. College-age women who reported having feminist male partners also reported higher quality relationships that were more stable than relationships involving non-feminist male partners. College guys who were themselves feminists and had feminist partners reported more equality in their relationships. Older women who perceived their male partners as feminists reported greater relationship health and sexual satisfaction. Older men with feminist partners said they had more stable relationships and greater sexual satisfaction.
The study was a real no-brainer and it must really sting the rigid traditionalists who think that a happy household requires only one decision maker. The researchers postulate that feminist men might be more supportive of their female partner's ambitions than are traditionalists.
There is another possibility, and it is one that only the most courageous man will admit. Equality may mean it is more difficult to get one's way, but for a man, it means household responsibility (from the mundane chores to the life-changing decisions) is shared. Traditionalists may say that a man not solely running the household is shirking his duty. The truth is that the pressure of running a household is taken off of one person and shared by the two that hold an equal stake in the failure and success of the enterprise. No one, man or woman, is then tied to a sinking ship.
Feminists have a bad reputation and have to fight a misconception that has been pervasive in popular culture for decades. Most people still think of feminism in terms of the militant variety, of women who are more than willing to castrate a man for looking at them in an unsavory manner or saying something that "was just a joke." Does militant feminism exist? Yes, but the vast majority of feminists are not of the militant variety. Most feminists do not fit a stereotype and there is nothing visible to broadcast their beliefs. Since the majority is invisible, the only ones left for the traditionalists to point to are the militant feminists.
The minimum requirement for being a feminist is simply this: a belief in equality with men in society; no more, no less. Even the Feminist Majority Foundation defines feminism as "the advocacy of political, economic and social equality between women and men." It is really that simple.
Here are some of the findings in the study. College-age women who reported having feminist male partners also reported higher quality relationships that were more stable than relationships involving non-feminist male partners. College guys who were themselves feminists and had feminist partners reported more equality in their relationships. Older women who perceived their male partners as feminists reported greater relationship health and sexual satisfaction. Older men with feminist partners said they had more stable relationships and greater sexual satisfaction.
The study was a real no-brainer and it must really sting the rigid traditionalists who think that a happy household requires only one decision maker. The researchers postulate that feminist men might be more supportive of their female partner's ambitions than are traditionalists.
There is another possibility, and it is one that only the most courageous man will admit. Equality may mean it is more difficult to get one's way, but for a man, it means household responsibility (from the mundane chores to the life-changing decisions) is shared. Traditionalists may say that a man not solely running the household is shirking his duty. The truth is that the pressure of running a household is taken off of one person and shared by the two that hold an equal stake in the failure and success of the enterprise. No one, man or woman, is then tied to a sinking ship.
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