The Politically Incorrect Guide

As of last night I've been reading The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex, and Feminism, by Carrie Lukas. It's an excellent read so far, particularly for me. Until last year I had every intention of going into academia as a professor of feminist and religious studies, but my feminism is akin to that of Elizabeth Cady Stanton rather than Gloria Steinem. I came to realize through my six years of study that there was no room for "old-school" feminists, particularly Christian or Republican ones. The form of feminism that is dominant in academic circles and our society in general is an anti-establishment, anti-monogamy, leftist political group. Many of my opinions were considered taboo in my feminist classes, such as, "If you're not ready for a baby, you're not ready for sex." My personal practices were and are pretty conservative, and this coupled with my belief in capitalism pretty well threw me out of feminist academia. When I read Christina Hoff-Summer's Who Stole Feminism, a lightbulb went off in my brain, but she didn't deal with the practical side of what young women are being taught by feminist-influenced education, literature (Cosmo, for example), and college campus cultures. Free love means unpaid sex for men, and we're the suppliers (or else we're prude). Carrie Lukas goes into the messages thrown at young women, without sounding overly judgmental or evangelical, and urges readers to decide for themselves how they want to approach life and sex. I am really enjoying this book so far, even though I'm past the point in my life where I would be considering "hook-ups," but I am to the point where I'm considering how important I want my career to be, and how we will handle children once we have them. I hope Lukas will go into this conundrum in later chapters.