1. Introduction
Historically, humans witnessed countless changes in social patterns, denoted by major social
movements, one of which is Feminism. While it was initiated to overthrow brutal social norms
for women, it does not gain support from all females. The countermovement “Woman Anti
Feminism” was provoked, where anti-feminists posted photos of reasonings for anti-feminism
on Tumblr in 2013. Among those, an anonymous user made an opinion: “Any comment made
by a feminist is deemed unfit because feminism doesn’t give equality to all. Women
shouldn’t get more rights or get away with more than men, that is not equality.” (Pham,
2015). This argument aroused much controversy about its rationality.
2. Formalization
Before further investigations, the argument can be formalized:
-
Premise 1: The feminism’s motive is for women to get more rights and get away with
more than men.
Premise 2: Women getting more rights and getting away with more than men is not
equality.
Premise 3 (from 1 and 2): Feminism doesn’t give equality to all.
Conclusion: Any comment made by a feminist deems unfit.
The argument is a deductive one, which guarantees the truth of conclusion given that all
premises are true. It refers to the relationship between premises and conclusion. However, when
isolating premises from conclusion, premise 1 falls in the scope of induction, generalizing a
pattern of feminist’s motives to the whole group.
3. Plausibility
Undeniably, the argument holds soundness in some senses, especially the second premise for
its authority. The US's Declaration of Independence formulated: "...all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”. (States, 1864). The
United Nations also stated: “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any
discrimination to equal protection of the law.” (n.d). These documents are the triumph of a long
revolution for social civilization, human rights, democracy, and justice, asserting authority both
historically and orthodoxically. They laid the foundation for equality to be the root of a civilized
society. Given that, the feminist movement in the author’s definition seems to be a breach of
equality, demanding privileges of a group over others. Similarly, protesting for women's rights
in the absence of an equivalent movement for men aggravates the state of egalitarianism. Based
on these authorities, the premise 2 still holds true in accordance with legal provisions and
universal consensus.
In addition, feminist’s incurrence of inequality can be attributed to bad practices of toxic
feminists. This term refers to a small sample of feminists who identify themselves as man-
haters, undermining and blaming masculine as a leverage to defend for their rights. Negative
consequences of toxic feminism leading to inequality for men still exist as they create
exclusionary negative portrayals of men, victimize, and cancel anyone against their beliefs,
which infringes equality of both sexes. The author may have examined these samples or rely
on personal experiences with this group to make premises.
4. Weaknesses and recommendations
Though deductive, this argument is not totally sound due to wrong inductive premises as a
result of hasty generalization. Premise 1 only holds true if the nature of feminism is to prioritize
women over men. However, the ideology of feminism is to establish equal rights and legal
protection of women as they were historically held unequally to men, discriminated against
based on social norms, and deprived of rights like voting, freedom of speech, maternity leave,
or abortion (Bratley et al., 1996). Its motive is not women’s demonstration to be superior to
men but bringing the women’s position on par with men, promoting equality for both genders.
The extreme demand of women’s superiority in the author’s observation stems from toxic
feminist groups, which are not representative of all feminists and not true for the inherent
characteristics of feminism. The author may have misread the nature of feminism due to some
gaps in media spread, education, experience, or other cognitive restrictions. Moreover, the
conclusion also generalizes that all comments given by a group promoting inequality are unfit,
which overlooks their reasonability of opinions on other problems. Therefore, it is fair to
conclude this argument encounters inductive falses, specifically hasty generalization.
The recommendation’s goals are to add validity and improve soundness. Regarding validity,
the argument falls short of a full and well-connected set of premises to lead to the conclusion,
which sets itself an enthymeme. Initially, the author needs to state the importance of equality
to be a benchmark for evaluation. This requires the first premise “Everyone must promote
equality for all, not just a group.” There is also an underlying premise “If you belong to a group
that does not give equality to all, any comment given by you deems unfit.” to lead to the
conclusion. In this scenario, this argument will be deductively valid.
The soundness of premises also comes under question. To improve soundness, this argument
should enhance its premises’ strength. Regarding the first premise, its hasty generalization
originates from an obscured and unrepresentative sample of feminists due to a lack of
understanding and an overreliance on the author's common sense or past experience. This can
be fixed by changing the subject to “toxic feminists”. The conclusion also lacks soundness due
to its hasty generalization that all the comments of feminists not exclusively in sex-related
matters are unfit, which can be improved by a restriction on the scope of assessment.
New version of argument:
- Premise 1: Everyone must promote equality for all, not just a group.
- Premise 2: The purpose of toxic feminism is for women to get more rights and get away
with more than men.
-
Premise 3: Women getting more rights and getting away with more than men is not
equality.
Premise 4 (from 1, 2, 3): Toxic feminism doesn’t give equality to all.
Premise 5: If you belong to a group that does not give equality to all, any comment
given by you in related matters deems unfit.
Conclusion (from 4 and 5): Any comment on gender equality made by a toxic feminist
deems unfit.
Word count: 992
References
Bratley, B., Krueger, R. J., & Plumwood, V. (1996). Feminism and the mastery of nature.
Economic Geography, 72(4), 476. https://doi.org/10.2307/144533
Pham, M. (2015). Women Against Feminism: An Analysis of Anti-Feminist Comments on
Tumblr.
States, U. (1864). The Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States of
America.
United Nations. (n.d.). Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations.
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights