Are you guys serious?

Comparing feminism with dogma? Saying that feminists are holding a gun to your head and forcing you to work?

Feminism is about choice (for me anyway- I realise it can mean different things to different people). It's about the choice to either stay at home and have kids or work and have a career, whatever fulfills you.

DFXK: "Principly, it treated women like things which needed liberation from many things which they prized. "

Um I don't really know how you came to this conclusion as it was those who were living those experiences who liberated themselves. They obviously didn't really prize having to stay at home and be a housewife.

Arjay: "The real cost of housing has doubled and now we are all slaves to the banks."

Right, just blame the feminists. It was all the feminists fault. Next you'll be blaming them for global warming. Sheesh.

I think you guys need to do more reading about the kinds of freedoms women have because of our foremothers who fought for the right to vote, to be considered part of this nation, to be represented in parliament, to have custody of our children if our partner dies, to work and be able to be members of a union, to be more than a body for baby making and that's just the tip of the iceberg of the first wave at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.

Yeah, they're serious, Anna, unfortunately. Women have always been told that what suits men is actually what they'd prefer to be doing anyway. Its like when we're told we "care" more about housework anyway ( read do most of it), or that we're "better" at detail work ( read boring fiddly jobs nobody with any real choice would want to do.) I'll never forget my mum - a 50s housewife who hated it - having listened to some bloke wax lyrical about how 'precious' women were, how "special", how he loved to "protect' them and make a fuss of them because they weren't equal to men ...no, no, no - they were superior - leave him with his mouth hanging open when she simply said;
"If that's so, how come its always us that have to get on our knees and scrub the toilet?"

Whenever I go into the cardboard ballot box to vote I say a silent thank you to all the women (and some men) who fought battles so that I could do so. Whenever I order my own drink, sign my own legal document, earn my own money -- I do so as a direct result of those great efforts of the feminists before me.

I agree with the author that young women are doing well, on balance, and have the right to take their equality in stride, and devote their energies to ongoing improvements for everyone - which is great because there are new battles to be fought and old rights to be defended. Now both genders are free to do so, together, and it seems younger citizens will improve things even more. I'm sure that's what the previous generations' feminists had in mind.

The idea that one must continue a struggle out of deference, out of debts of gratitude to the herstory is illogical. Once you've built the house you dont have to constantly thank, cow-tow to the builder. You pay the bill, thank her and move on.

Democrazy was formed on the back of much spilled blood in the US (war of independence) and UK (parliamentarians versus monarchists) way back when, so l guess that means we have to keep spilling blood for our democracy. Hmmm... sounds like the warped excuse the war dogs use to rationalise killing people in far flung lands. Democracy is now so firmly established that there aint no going back. But dont tell the fear mongers that.

Never can tell how far the tricky will go in their trickiness to push the marginal and extreme. The ideological zeolots are the worst offenders of this and unfortunately for feminism, the movement is bogged down with, and awash in, the fundamentalism of crusty old stallwarts who suspended fair mindedness in the pursuit of ideological pretention.

As a man, l would utterly hate to go back to the bad old daze of slaving myself away into an early grave as the sole bread winner. Would loathe to go back to the bad old daze when daddy didnt really get a chance to appreciate the very early formative years of his children.

Sure, most women still have a long way to go in taking responsibility in courtship and relationship initiation (not to mention changing tyres, starting lawn mowers and balancing cheque books), but at least they are usually amenable to splitting the dinner bill and buying me a drink.

l thank the current dog-eat-dog, screw-thy-neighbour, entitlement ethos that permeates modern society, enabling me to grab a chunk of her assets if l feel like it. Beats working a crappy job for a living.

Thats progress.

Anyway, everything that comes after the 'because' part of the authors essay is irrelevant. The fundamental premise that 'feminism is passe' is spot on. Er, we already know that. Congratulations on your realisation.

Hahaha, I dig that post Anna. Keep em coming,

It's funny how common sense can sometimes vacate the premises for a little while.

Obviously the writer wasn't fully considering the impact of what the Howard/religious right alliance calls "family law reform"....all those changes to the family law act made after the militant lobbying of dysfunctional and angry men shouted about their perceived bias of "the system" because they were not getting their own way in the family court and wanted more opportunity when they were dysfunctional to hassle their ex-partners.

The "reforms" of howard/religious right on family law put women well behind the 8 ball.

Or not the kind of women who move in the writer's circle, the women who can be found elsewhere in the suburbs or those who took off to the country to escape dysfunctional or violent exxes. Of course, if the writer is some urban liberal, they will only be writing about their friends with BA's, Saabs or Volvos who go out on saturday mornings to check out how skilful their property speculation is........then feel good by making a fuss about some offshore war.......but never challenging the local issues that affect the worse off, or where appropraite reform would threaten their priveleged position on the tax ladder.