Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Blame feminists.

What has Western society *overall* been able to do?

Saudi Arabia (and any other state that enshrines in law the subordination and oppression of women) should be a pariah state the way South Africa was under apartheid. But, as in many other instances, geopolitics trumps human rights, unless the human rights abuse can be turned to tactical geopolitical advantage and used to embarass an opponent. Saudi Arabia sits on top of an ocean of oil, so it gets a pass because oil. But given many cultures’ blindness to sexism (as opposed to racism, which “everybody” knows is “bad,” such that most try to keep their racist thoughts private or secret if they can), the chances of foreign policy being redirected to advance the rights of women are pretty close to zero.

I think that by now feminism absolutely should have this kind of power to end injustice toward women…

Indeed. But even within the West, I don’t think there’s a single country that has succeeded in leveling the playing field for women on anything other than a temporary, piecemeal basis. The near-overnight triumph of trans “rights” against the interests and safety of women and girls has shown just how fragile, halfhearted, and tenuous the supposed commitment to women has been. The idea that anyone should have been able to redefine “woman” in law so as to include men is insane. It should not have been possible. It should have been unthinkable. But instead of being laughed off the stage, this redefintion has been embraced in a state-enforced, nightmare mash-up of Orwell and Kafka.

Who else but women could have had their rights sold out from under them with such ease and thoughtlessness?** What better demonstration of the continuing, comparative powerlessness and unimportance of women in the West? We can’t afford to be smug. Given our recent history, and how breezily women’s concerns over the destruction of their rights were swept aside, what guarantees do women have that, given the right circumstances, we might not ourselves slide into the kind of barbarism*** Boghossian is decrying? None. Both the ability and inclination to control and dominate women are already there to a frightening degree (see above re: trans “rights”). It’s not that the urge to subordinate and control have come back; they never went away.

Feminist principles should be on the same foundational status as equality before the law and one person, one vote with regards to establishing and maintaining the basic rule of law and democratic norms*, not some kind of a sop rolled out as an afterthought if women get uppity. If that means that some of our “foundations” need to be dug up and redrafted, then so be it.

*We’ve seen plenty of examples of the difficulties many nations have in preventing tyrrany and corruption, and upholding justice unswayed by power and money. Gwynne Dyer suggests that this is part of a longer struggle that has played out over millenia:

**Not to mention the defeat of Roe v. Wade in the United States.

*** Not intending to Godwin myself, but if Germany could launch the Holocaust, no country is proof against the potential for state supported barbarism and evil. As the world slides into climate catastrophe, what are the chances that the “climate” for human rights will improve? Women are always on the chopping block. The potential for widespread, extreme “populist” responses to deteriorating global conditions puts them in more danger, not less. Unless their rights are firmly re-established and strengthened now, the risk women face in the future only worsens. (Not that laws will necessarily protect them, but better to have something in place rather than very little or nothing. It would be nice if the powers that be could be persuaded to telegraph something other than “disposability” when it comes to women’s rights and safety.)