Backlash against Crazy Feminists

Quite a few feminists have complained that the male dominated media and conservatives have so demonized feminism, that many women don't want to be associated with the movement, even though they agree with large portions of the cause. Or at a minimum, would benefit from some of feminism's policy goals.

It was far more easy for women's groups to blame the patriarchy than to look at themselves and question whether there are other reasons for a lot of women ignoring or working against feminism. A few liberal female bloggers have pointed out that the overheated rhetoric, nastiness, and belligerence. A Daily Kos diarist responds to the silly complaining by New York State NOW's President with the following

This sophomoric whine is Exhibit #1 in the ineffectiveness of
chip-on-the-shoulder identity politics. And when polls
show that while a vast majority of women believe the women’s movement has
been of benefit to themselves and this country -- and yet fewer than a quarter
are willing to identify themselves as "feminists" -- something’s gone terribly
wrong with the public face of the movement. This press release shows why. I
don’t want to be associated with the authors either.

In the comment section, another poster agrees that the radical elements of the movement has pushed women away from groups like NOW.

There were plenty of men in my chapter in 1975, too, but by 1979 the shrill
voices had taken over, the men and the married women were pretty much gone,
driven out by openly hostile hyper-feminists, the agenda was radically altered,
and most of the us straight single women walked down the street to join Women
Employed.
I want to live in the future, not in the past.
by Involuntary Exile on Tue Jan
29, 2008 at 09:47:30 AM PST
[ Parent

Complaints about NOW's radicalism were discussed by Clinton toady, Taylor Marsh.

As for NOW alone, I recall when I was nineteen, about to be twenty, and I
was at the Miss America Pageant. Coming out of my hotel one day I was confronted
by a NOW spokeswoman and dozens of cameras and media. This was at the height of
feminism when the revolt against traditional things women did was at a frenzy.
The NOW girl got in my face to scream, "How can you demean yourself like this?
You should be ashamed." To which I simply replied, "Do you want to pay for my
college tuition?" Then off I walked to my limo, which then whisked me away to a
pageant rehearsal. The truth is that without pageant scholarships I couldn't
have gone to college; they begat other aid, on which I was completely dependent.

The complaints of some of the feminists is similar to those of some liberals who claim the right wing and the media have done the same job on the term "liberal".