is feminism dead?

I was reading a post on hookingupsmart.com in which the author proposed that radical feminism, as we know it, is dead, citing a decrease in google searches for the word feminism as proof of the movement's demise. While the post was interesting in and of itself, I found the discussion in the comments section particularly fascinating.

As I perused the comments, I was struck by their use of the word feminism. Other than some lone voices that claimed that feminism was not in fact dead, the majority of the commenters--who appear to primarily be well-informed individuals with a strong interest in social justice--appeared to define the word as whatever they hate about women today. I've seen the word used this way before--in chauvinist, patriarchal propaganda.

I find it interesting that a movement I had thought of as a fringe movement has had such an effect on our culture.

Also, it depresses me that people still obsess about the fate of women in America. Don't they have better things to do, like developing methods for detecting malaria, or even obsessing about the fate of women in third world countries? The only way the modern American woman can raise the profile of modern American women is to show herself the equal of any man. Don't bother arguing--it's time to do.

Pax
.....