The Feminist Mistake is an exercise for the brain, in that the amount of detail the author, Mary Kassian, presents to solidify her case is truly a bit to wade through. But those who dare to take the challenge aren’t disappointed in the least. (Just don’t plan to read it while you’re overseeing the kids as they finger-paint.) As Kassian details the progression of modern feminist thought from the 1960’s to the present, the reader is rewarded with an understanding of feminist thought on current culture and its implications for today and the future.

The book begins by tracing modern feminism with the advent of The Feminine Mystique and The Second Sex wherein groundbreaking feminists argued that society had wrongly defined women, and therefore, women’s roles were the cause of their own unhappiness, not women themselves. (Eve’s blame game is alive and well.) In order to find fulfillment, they believed that women needed to emulate their masculine counterparts and start contributing more valuable things to society than motherhood. Feminists sought to redefine themselves, and history proves that whoever defines the terms wins the argument.

After feminists succeeded in naming themselves, they won the right to begin naming society. No longer was it enough to be equal to man, now it was time to prove that they were better than the male species. Enter lesbianism and the devaluing of motherhood. Although at the time, radical feminism was viewed as on the fringe edge of the movement, it wasn’t long before the constant barrage of feminist ideals and thought found their way into modern presuppositions. Kassian’s point is well noted, but a truly enjoyable exercise would’ve been to explore these examples and their implications further.

When feminists won the right to name the world, the right to name God was just a natural progression. Kassian presents a compelling, yet disturbing trend: as society chooses a path to militant gender egalitarianism, the modern church has not been far behind. Following radical feminism are moderate feminists and religious feminists. Reading the Bible with the newspaper in hand is the basis of feminist theology. The feminization of God was not the only shocking trend; all passages that didn’t line up with their idea of who they wanted God to be were passed off as cultural in nature, irrelevant, or basically ignored. The feminists espoused an obviously radical, unbiblical concept, and Kassian documents how religious acceptance follows subtly about 15 years later to reflect those changes in modern thought. (Case in point, think the gender neutral Bible.)

In the same way, Kassian also notes that the influence of feminist thought is subtle, dangerous, and alive and well. This is the entire crux of the book, and I admit my disappointment that Kassian did not explore this with the same detail that she gave history. The modern feminist movement is not extinct; it has just so well infiltrated the culture that we don’t recognize for what it is: an assault on Biblical, God-defined gender roles. In a culture where we’re bombarded from every angle with messages from “Just do it” to “Obey your thirst”, we’d do well to remember that God alone is truth, and our satisfaction is only found in obedience to His Word.

For further reading, visit Diet of Bookworms.