Thursday, May 11, 2006

Well Writ Right Wing Reads: “Women Who Make the World Worse,” by Kate O’Beirne

The Washington editor of “National Review’s” freshman offering is chock-full of data on some of conservatism’s favorite opponents.

O’Beirne systematically dissects the tactics and views of leading feminists on the subjects of the family, the education system, the day-care system, careers, sports, the armed forces, politics, and abortion. Additionally, she discusses many of the conservative heroes who have flustered the feminists at every turn (including, most notably, Phyllis Schlafly).

The scholarship of O’Beirne’s offering is almost overwhelming. Her opinion shows through the quotes and statistics that she presents as well as the summaries that conclude the sections, but the reader searching for a blunt opinionated Coulterine commentary of feminists would do well to skip to the last chapter. The remainder of the book is a textbook display of where the feminists went wrong and why they are wrong.

Some of the book’s main contentions include:

  • feminists are trying to use the educational system to emasculate the male gender
  • feminism consistently (and admittedly) is against research on how males and females differ
  • feminists consistently concoct public opinion and deny reality when their deception is discovered

Liberals attempted to sabotage (or something) this book by posting poor reviews of it book on amazon.com. The error in their commentary is immediately obvious to anyone who has read the book (or is familiar with O’Beirne’s previous work), but to the general population, the allegations of poor scholarship are not clearly unfounded.

Additionally, “Touchstone” (a Christian magazine) reviewed the book favorably but noted that anyone who does not believe in evolution might take issue with the book’s final chapter. While O’Beirne clearly believes in micro-evolution (a specie evolving without changing to a different specie), the charge that she believes in macro-evolution (Darwinian evolution) is not supported by the text.

The book was released in hardcover on January 2, 20006. It will be released in paperback on October 31, 2006.

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