'Those women are more oppressed' is a terrible argument against feminism [View all]

It's pretty obvious from reading the comments to Valenti's piece that there are a lot of people who really, really don't get it.

'Those women are more oppressed' is a terrible argument against feminism
Beware the enthusiasm shown by anti-feminists for international women’s rights in a fight about equality at home
Jessica Valenti
theguardian.com, Monday 4 August 2014

When I wrote last week about the #WomenAgainstFeminism campaign, I expected some pushback: arguing that women are a victimized class is a surefire way to rile people up. But the theme of this recent criticism was that American women don’t have legitimate grievances because other women have it worse – and that’s telling.

One gentleman emailed to say he wanted to send me “to a place like Saudi Arabia where women are REALLY disadvantaged and oppressed”. Apparently women don’t have the right to complain about discrimination unless it’s explicit and international.

Interestingly, this guy is not the first to suggest that American women ought to stop working for equality here and exclusively seek to help women abroad. It’s amazing how many international women’s rights enthusiasts come out of the woodwork when you dare suggest that there’s room for women’s rights to advance in the US.

I’m wary of broadly painting Western women as universally less oppressed than others – there are actually many ways the US lags behind other countries on women’s rights, like political representation, corporate power and parental leave – but it is true that American women have more legal rights than women in some other countries. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women aren’t allowed to drive. In Afghanistan, a woman can go to jail for leaving her abusive husband. Brazilian women can’t access abortions, nor can women in Ireland. According to a 2011 UN report, 127 countries don’t explicitly outlaw marital rape....

MORE at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/04/international-women-oppression-feminism