Phyllis Shlafly and the "Positive Woman"

When I discovered that we were reading a piece by Phyllis Shlafly in class, I knew I'd hate it. Generally, I try to keep an open mind, but I saw her on a documentary last year called Running in High Heels. She spoke out against women being able to hold office and vote, so I knew that I wouldn't agree with a single word she wrote about in "The Power of the Positive Woman." 

I consider myself a feminist, so I really didn't appreciate being called a "militant" in this piece. I don't consider myself a militant by any means. In every political group there are some radicals, and Shlafly seems to constantly focus on them. I don't disagree with her that there are women (and men for that matter) who take the feminist movement to the extreme, but I am not one of them, and I would say that they're in the minority. Maybe it's just because the radical ones seem to be more vocal and outspoken about their beliefs. 

The most ridiculous quote in this passage is,"The 'liberated' Roman matron, who is most similar to the present-day feminist, helped bring about the fall of Rome through her unnatural emulation of masculine qualities, which resulted in large-scale breakdown of the family and ultimately of the empire." I don't even see the correlation here. I haven't taken European history since my sophomore year of high school, but I am pretty sure Schlafly's history is a little off on this one.