The Frisky
11.24.15 | Claire Lobenfield
Karol Markowicz, a columnist for the New York Post, published an op-ed yesterday called “Whiny Feminists are Killing Sex.” It is as much of a bummer as that headline portends. That the demand for gender equality is harbored by grumbling lady-losers with cobweb-bedraggled hoo-has is the oldest trope in the book. But the “whining” Markowicz describes in her piece is very different from that antiquated, sexist view of feminists. Markowicz attempts to deflate the necessity for safe spaces, affirmative consent and the demand for reciprocity in bed as anti-feminist. What she did in actuality was write a countlessly misguided takedown of modern young women while resting very comfortably in her own internalized misogyny and disregard for simple journalistic competencies, such as research.
Early in the piece, Markowicz paints an unflattering, example-free picture of what safe space-seekers are like. Here are her grievances (parentheticals are mine):
“These days, women are treated as perpetual victims (Really? Because last time I checked, most women were still too afraid to admit actual victimization). In need of safe spaces at their colleges(Yes, because men keep raping and killing us) so they dare not hear alternative opinions (No, trust me we are intelligent and empowered enough not only to hear “alternative” opinions, but to combat them if we feel it’s worth our time), suspicious of all men as predators (Yes, because, again, men keep raping and killing us) and infantilized by people in power seeking to protect them (And by “them,” I assume she means “straight white cisgender women” because most everyone else is not afforded this same luxury.)”
