This is like that guy in Smithsonian Magazine who demonstrated that white flight *was,* in fact, white flight and not something else ("urban whites ultimately thwarted desegregation not by opposing it but by escaping it"). The question being: didn't we already know that?
(No disrespect to Mr. Kruse, who has done important work by tracking population trends and taking oral histories--but if people really think that it's a new historical insight that whites left the cities NOT because of "taxes" or "schools" but because of desegregation, then the...yes...whitewashing of our recent history has gone much further than I ever dreamed it could. And I'm a pessimist.)
So in this case...didn't we already know that feminists have better relationships? They are and always have been, after all, the ones who openly claim ownership of their bodies, the right to pleasure, and the ideal of mutual respect in their relationships with men, whether platonic or romantic. How can that do anything but enhance the fun all around?
(I say "they." It's a distancing habit. I am a feminist, defined as "subscribes to the radical notion that women are people." My tent is large; I solemnly affirm that you can be a toenail-painted rope sub and a feminist. In fact, I think if you're a toenail-painted rope sub, you'd *better* be a feminist.)
So, and no shocker here, feminists and their partners have more fun.
The best part about it is, anyone can become one, anywhere, anytime, and start reaping the benefits! "Free your mind, and the rest will follow."
I think we need an official ceremony. Something simple, like the Muslim Shahadah or the Buddhist Vandana Ti-sarana. A no-fuss way to convert, or acknowledge what already exists in you.
"I subscribe to the radical notion that women [and children] are people."
"I read Susie Bright's Journal."
"Whether it's god or the bomb, it's just the same, and it's only fear under another name."
"For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside, that it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive."
Somethin' like that.
