December 14, 2002:
She understands the situation via these three axioms:
- Men and women are different species incapable of communication or concourse.
- Solidarity exists within genders, war between them.
- All's fair in love and war.
This is the ideological vision she mislabels "feminism." Ironically, it's the old patriarchal ideology dominant before the emergence of the modern feminist movement. When I was a kid we called it "the battle of the sexes." Nowadays theorists call it "Cultural Feminism." Call it whatever, it's impossible to build successful relationships on this basis.
This is part of the great promise of modern feminism. Removing these ideologized definitions of gender and gender roles is like clearing deadwood that had choked a forest. What remains is alive and healthy: us, real people, here and now, unromanticized, demythologized. Men are not from Mars, women are not from Venus. Men and women are both from Earth. This is our promise and our responsibility.