A few of you reading this article may have seen the recent viral video where Chelsea Handler, a 47-year-old comedian, shares, satirically, what a day in the life of a single woman with no kids is like. This prompted a series of varying responses. The video comically portrays a lazy lifestyle, full of promiscuity and superficial happiness, with a strong emphasis on how good it is that she does not have kids. While it was meant to be satire, it does shed light some of the terrible ideologies that extreme feminism is leading women to buy into. 

Extreme feminism is promoting to Westernised women that they live in a systematically patriarchal environment that is completely dominated by men. This lie is then convincing women that the only apparent way to overcome this terrible mountain of struggle is to shun the opposite gender and live a life of complete independence, which will in turn lead to the ultimate happiness of being an ‘empowered’ woman.  

The problem with toxic feminism is that it is trying so hard to combat toxic masculinity that at times it goes as far as to villainise women who choose to have children as opposed to pursuing a career like their partner. However, I believe that while not all women are meant to have children, we should be celebrating women who choose to do so.  

 Candace Owens, an American Conservative author, talk show host and political commentator, even goes as far as to describe the rotten fruits that feminism is starting to produce in the US. She points out that birth rates in the US are continuing to decline and that nearly half of American women under 45 are childless, according to the New York Post. The article quotes: 

“The study’s authors credit several reasons for the trends, including women obtaining higher levels of education as well as greater and longer career paths. The authors cited changing family values, financial concerns, improved access to contraception and relationship instability as additional reasons.” 

I want to preface that I believe that women deserve to have equal opportunity in the workplace as they are just as important in the development of industries in our society. However, Candace Owens highlights here that the ‘War on Fertility’ has been in America since the 1970s. She believes that one of the lies promoted by extreme feminism is that being a mother and looking after kids at home is oppressive and gender stereotypical. 

This is where the discussion of equality comes into play. What really is equality? 

 A toxic feminist would argue that equality is when women are the same as men in every aspect of their lifestyle. But this is where the message is misconstrued, toxic feminists are now pushing that women should not be “just” mothers and must have a career outside the home. Think about how many of these feminists have mothers of their own who devoted a large part of their life to raising and caring for them. Is all that their mother’s did for them in the name of a harsh and oppressive patriarchy, or in the name of the biologically engrained tendencies of love and nurture that women have towards children?  

I’m not saying that the life of motherhood is for every woman, (just read 1 Corinthians 7 to learn about that from a Biblical perspective), but we know that motherhood is a blessing that is to be cherished, not downplayed.  

 Jordan Peterson summarises the lie that women are being sold by society very well; 

“What our society does to 19-year-old women or 18-year-old women … we just lie to them all the time,” he said. “You know, the first lie is there’s nothing more important than your career, more or less by definition. So that’s the first lie. The second is there will be nothing more important to you in your life than your career. So that’s the second lie, and then the third lie is there should be nothing more important in your life than your career. So that’s the third lie.” 

 He goes on to point out other lies such as the lie that children are a burden and that having children is to give into the ‘patriarchal demand’ from an oppressive male-dominated government, to stay at home and be good housewives. 

 Careers and success and individuality should not be the defining feature of anyone’s life, but this is the message contemporary society is pushing out of fear of being labelled discriminatory or misogynistic. Women are beautifully created human beings with the capacity to give birth and care for new life, let them do that if they choose to do it well.   

 What defines us should be the love we show, the family we keep and the people who surround us that we have been a positive influence on. 

 So, how does toxic feminism impact men? That is a story for another day… 

Links: 

New York Post Article: 

• https://nypost.com/2023/01/12/us-births-continue-to-decline-as-nearly-half-of-women-under-45-are-childless-study/ 

Candace Owens Article 

• https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-u-s-birth-rates-decline-as-the-rotten-fruits-of-feminism-increase 

Jordan Peterson Video 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laSK7Pxh0_8