Official March Beginner's Tournament 2016 Round 2: Feminism is Beneficial to the Modern World.

Why feminism?A 2013 HuffingtonPost poll found that while most people agree that men and women should be social, political, and economic equals, only under a quarter actively identify as feminists [1]. Seems a bit contradictory, doesn't it?While this does show for a fact that feminism is not necessary to prevent us from descending into androsupremacism (not that it rescued us from such a prospect in the first place - the expendable male trope did not spring forth ex nihilo), it does raise the question of why so many actively reject the label. And, statistically, women don't seem to be facing any pressing concerns.Aside from the fact that women now routinely ouperform men in school, they seem to be legally privileged as well. For kust one example, in the case of the US, only men have to sign up for the Selective Service - which includes the draft - in order to vote. Additionally, family courts appear to be routinely biased in the favor of women. Feminist groups such as N.O.W. have fought against attempts to remedy the prospect [4]It certainly doesn't seem as if though feminism is beneficial. Let alone necessary. A single father struggling to barely get by would be inclined to disagree.Regardless, this leads us to ask:What has feminism done?To kick off a very brief recap of feminism's track record, it's reasonable to start with women gaining the right to vote. It is virtually indisputable that this was specifically and necessarily a feminist act. Certainly, it is not difficult to justify in the abstract. Women are human beings (who are neither children nor foreign nations), and it is in their interests to obtain democratic representation. However, he rise of women's suffrage does not seem to have brought forth any radical improvement towards our political system. In fact, trust in government has been declining since the middle of the 20th century [2]. So while gaining the right to vote seems like a good idea in the abstract, it's might to be more of a token gesture than anything. Is there any empirical evidence to suggest humanity has objectively benefited as a result of women's suffrage?This question becomes particularly important as the consequences of other feminist "accomplishments" begin to manifest.As political commentator Vox Day wrote in a column [3] critical of first-wave feminism:"Consider the two great laments of the modern American woman. For the unmarried woman, it is the reality that she must marry later in life than ever before, if she is able to marry at all. For the married woman, it is that unlike generations of women before her, she cannot afford to stay home with her children unless she is fortunate enough to have married to a man of the financial elite. Both of these developments can be traced directly to women’s rights. Men’s increasing unwillingness to marry stems primarily from two causes — the feminized family court system that transformed marriage from a mutually beneficial contract into a financial and emotional liability, and the removal of paternal responsibility for the sexual behavior of young women. Ergo, the need for marriage has been eliminated while its liabilities have increased. As Blue America and de-Christianizing Europe increasingly show, in the absence of religion there is now very little impetus for marriage. And few indeed are the women who understand that their present need to work is inextricably tied to the societal expectation that they will do so. When women began to enter the work force en masse in the latter half of the 20th century, the overall supply of labor increased, obviously. As per the iron law of supply and demand, over the last 60 years, this increase in supply has somewhat outstripped the growth in the economy and the attendant demand for labor, which is why real wages are still lower in 2005 than in 1973. Combined with the ever-increasing tax burden, this decline in real wages is why both husband and wife must now work when previously the husband’s labor alone would have sufficed." [3]Feminism can only be said to be "beneficial" to the modern world, if one considers throwing marriage, the family unit, the wages of millions, rights of men, and continued existence of modern, civilized society under the bus in order to maybe remedy some societal disparities.Sources:1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com...2] http://www.people-press.org...3] http://www.wnd.com...4] https://archive.is...