Some reject the notion that moderate feminists exist, a misapprehension that arises from labeling. I know many, though they don’t readily identify themselves as feminists. Their agenda isn’t the subjugation of men. “Equity feminists” is what philosopher and feminist scholar Christina Hoff Sommers calls them, a term she applies to women who promote (and justly expect) equal rights, representation, and recognition to distinguish them from “gender feminists,” her term for embittered female chauvinists. Ms. Sommers makes the distinction, because she believes feminism has since the eighties been coopted by influential extremists. And she’s right.

This post isn’t directed at them.

Its subject is the reform of restraining order legislation, and it’s a subject that should be of concern to the liberal feminist majority. Rampant abuse of restraining orders has now been allowed to persist for decades. The number of restraining orders issued is estimated at two to three million a year in the United States alone, and as many as 80% of these are said to be frivolous at best and at worst utterly fraudulent. Consider then the proportion of the voting constituency who have been abused and alienated by a process originally conceived by the state to appease feminist activists.

Take a second to do the math.

This number swells by two citizens a minute. One of these guys (or gals) may be a sociopathic creep. But at least one will be a normal, law-abiding Joe who will have had his faith in government permanently compromised and may feel very jaded toward any measure advocating social change on behalf of women, no matter how worthy.

Add to this the friends and family members of victims of restraining order abuse who’ve been lastingly affected, and the number may double, treble, or quadruple.

That restraining orders are routinely abused isn’t a secret. With tens of millions of them having been issued in the last 30 years, chances are you encounter people every day who’ve received one or who know someone who has. Two women I’ve corresponded with recently—one of them an anonymous critic of this blog—have brothers whose lives have been ruined by false allegations of violence made by women. And this fact was completely coincidental to the reason for their contacting me.

Moderate feminists take note: the crimped convictions of the influential minority that preserves this persecutory status quo are actively eroding the sympathy you rely on (and should be able to rely on). The solution is reform. The same activist zeal you apply to advancing worthy feminist aims must be brought to bear on ensuring that down the road there’s still going to be someone listening to you.

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