A dire problem for those who try to use reason in questions regarding men and women (e.g. career issues, feminism vs. equality) is that many of the best arguments center on the fact that women (on average) trail behind men in intellectual regards (lower intelligence, poor ability of rational thinking, inability to see others POV, ...)—and that using these arguments results in feminist storm of “Misogynist!” and “Sexist!” calls.
The debate is effectively lost there and then, although no actual counter-arguments were presented, but only rhetoric and personal attacks: Almost no woman will even consider support, and far too many men will also be instantly persuaded—or fall in line for fear of being branded in a similar manner themselves.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t: Point to the facts and lose the debate—or do not point to the facts and lose the debate.
An article by Neil Lyndone provides a very good and well-written example of this, based on his own experiences. The article also illustrates a number of issues with feminism. For further illustration, have a look at some of the comments on the article it self (bottom of the page), including statements like
Must we really be subjected to Lyndon’s paranoid rant about the dissolution of his marriage?
[Lyndon] accidentally reveals himself as the unreconstructed male chauvinist pig he clearly is.
In a piece of hate-driven rhetoric such as his[...]
None of these three statements from three different women are compatible with the article in my reading. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, none of these critical posters raise any factual arguments what so ever.
We Are All Misogynists Nowe provides another interesting take on the subject.
Similar problems apply when trying to point to essential problems with emotional arguments and rhetoric centering on gender: Consider e.g. the common claim “A woman would never lie about being raped!”—which is patently false according to existing statisticse; or the use of entirely overblown and distorted figures on e.g. campus rapee. It can even be argued that rape (and other forms of crime that are considered something that men do to women in feminist propaganda, see e.g. several discussions on women and crime liese) is the crime with the highest proportion of false allegations. Nevertheless, anyone who questions this claim can be stamped off as a “misogynistic pig”.
Alternatively, consider “trafficking”: Pointing out that more men are trafficked as labourers than women (cf. e.g. http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/060711e) as prostitutes may well lead to outraged cries—based on the implicit assumption that being a prostitute is something far worse than anything that could happen to a man.
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