Carl's Maundering Blog

Dr. Helen linked to a push-poll styled "Are you a feminist?" online "blogthings" quiz. All of the questions were to be answered with one of five radio buttons, labeled "strongly agree," "agree," "not sure," "disagree," and "strongly disagree." Here are some examples of the quiz's stupid questions:

1. Women should be economically and socially independent. They shouldn't rely on men to take care of them.

My wife is a full-time homemaker, and earns almost no income - she and our children rely on my income for our family's needs. She is economically and socially independent, because in her situation she doesn't need to be a breadwinner. Yet she does, and should, rely on me to be the breadwinner for our family. So, I agree with the first sentence about economic and social independence, but disagree with the second sentence about relying on me to take care of her. I clicked on "not sure," but that's not accurate, either, because we are both very sure that our situation is the best one for our situation and her freedom to pursue hers and our family's happiness.

3. Men and women should be held to the same sexual standards. If men can sleep around without judgment, women should be able to as well.

I agree with the first statement, we should be held to the same sexual standards. That standard is chastity. But look at the second statement. I disagree with the conditional; a man should be judged unchaste if he sleeps around. By the rules of binary logic, therefore, I should accept the second statement as true, but this is an example of fallacious logic, because it ignores the consequences of accepting either part of the conditional as true. A man or a woman who sleeps around is correctly judged unchaste. That's why I clicked on "strongly disagree."

7. Women should have the right to choose any path in life - from being a stay at home mom to a Fortune 500 CEO.

I clicked on "strongly agree." But the question paints a false spectrum, suggesting that there's a competitive range from "least sucessful" to "most successful" life paths. Naming the endpoints of that spectrum reveals the quiz author's bias. However, I claim that the payoff for the "stay at home mom" life path usually yields greater rewards than the "CEO" life path.

10. You would support a woman for president (if you agreed with her politics).

I strongly agree. Bring on the American Margaret Thatcher. But all such American women I'm acquainted with aren't yet running for office.

Anyway, let's see how the silly quiz ranks me:

You Are 64% Feminist

You are certainly a feminist - whether you know it or not. You believe in gender equality, at least most of the time. You also believe there are a few exceptions.

Oh, for goodness sake, another non sequitur. Soccer is not played in pink high-heeled stilletto shoes. I would think a self-styled "feminist" quizwriter would celebrate the freedom of women to wear comfortable and appropriate footwear...