Why is nobody allowed to criticize feminism?

A while back I posted a question on a forum to which I belong. “Has feminism gone too far?” Underneath the headline I wrote a brief statement describing ways in which feminism as a social movement had overstepped its original goal of establishing equal rights between men and women.

No sooner had I posted this message than I was hit with numerous hostile replies. One woman inserted a picture of a long pole and said, “I wouldn’t touch this post with a ten-foot pole.” She implied that anybody who started a thread questioning feminism was simply trying to stir up trouble. Other replies had similar hostile attitudes and made similar assumptions about me, all directly or indirectly implying that I was prejudiced against women, up to no good, a narrow-minded bigot, a secret misogynist. or just plain antiquated. And all I had done was ask a question.

This has happened on many occasions in almost the same way. Hence, it has become clear that there is an unspoken rule to the effect that nobody is allowed to criticize feminism. Feminism has become a modern holy cow. The question is why? Why are we not allowed to criticize feminism?

Feminism was one of the most powerful social moments of the 20th Century, a movement that resulted in vast changes in our values. We are allowed to examine other movements that brought sweeping changes, such as Communism or Islam or Socialism. Why should feminism be any different than other movements?

When I posed this question to a “feminist” professor, she replied. “Feminism isn’t like other movements. It’s a direct response to discrimination against women that went on for hundreds of years. Any criticism of feminism is seen as the beginning of the end of feminism and the return to discrimination.” Her response helped me to understand that feminism has become more than a social movement. It is a crusade.

Movements can be looked at objectively. Crusades cannot. When I said to her, “I don’t necessarily agree that women were discriminated against for hundreds of years; it depends on how you define discrimination,” her reply was, “Then you’re blind.” If I disagreed with her, there was something wrong with me--that was her underlying message.

A wall has seemingly been set up that cannot be crossed. Anybody who crosses it is viewed as a villain. Feminists believe anybody who crosses that wall is a prejudiced person who doesn’t “get it.” I believe, on the contrary, that there are always two sides to every question and to every movement, and both sides need to be heard. I also believe that it is harmful to society and to each individual in a society when the values we live by cannot be questioned.

When we cannot question the values we live by, we feel oppressed. When we feel oppressed, our emotional and physical health suffers. When our health suffers we are only partially alive. I say, let’s pull down the walls. Let’s have open discussions. Let’s have a truly egalitarian society.