Many people today argue that feminism is a movement of the past, one which had its hey-day in the 1960s (second-wave feminism) when there was an actual need for a movement towards achieving gender equality. Some of these people may further argue that a present-day feminist is living in the past and the achievements that have been made in the past 50 years have meant that the goals set out to achieve gender equality have truly been made (at least, in the western world).
However, an article by Russell-Kraft published in 2018 titled, The Rise of Male Supremacist Groups, brings attention to shocking and significant examples in contemporary America where women have been victims of hate-crimes committed by men because of their sexist ideology of hate, or, ‘woman-hating’. Russel-Kraft cites the massacres that have been committed, the most recent one being in 2014 when Elliot Rodger killed six women in California because he wanted to “punish young women for rejecting him and sleeping with other men instead”. There has also been an addition to the list of hate groups which have for the first time categorized male supremacy as an explicit ideology of hate. A member of one of these groups commented, “you want to reach a point where you have high expectations of a woman but she has little expectations of you,” wrote Daryush “Roosh” Valizadeh, founder of Return of Kings, in a recent blog post. “She must give you submission while you do as you may.”
Although the feminist movement may have made certain gains in recent years such as the passing of sexual harassment laws and an equal number of women being admitted into higher education institutions, for example, clearly there are still some strong misogynistic and worryingly sexist beliefs permeating U.S society. One of the main concerns that these supremacist woman-hating groups have is to ensure that women remain subordinated to the ‘superior’ male. To me, it seems that this is a backlash to the feminist movement and one that is rooted in fear.
Article: https://newrepublic.com/article/147744/rise-male-supremacist-groups