Sometimes one comes across something that makes one aware of how much this country lost not going through the cultural convulsions that swept the West in the late 1960s when ethnic (Americans with their particular myopia call them race) and sexual attitudes underwent profound change. Instead, here all such issues had long been solved, and since there was no problem, there was nothing to be addressed. As a result, attitudes did not change, as this issue shows, ethnic prejudice is on the rise, and attitudes toward women, as seen from Yuri Izdryk’s antifeminist diatribe, remain antediluvian.
Taking on Solomiya Pavlychko, Ukraine’s leading feminist proselytizer for well nigh a decade, Izdryk bases himself on two arguments familiar to all alumni of the Archie Bunker school of sensitivity training. First, “I can’t understand just what it is that they want,” and, secondly, if only she could find a “real man,” all those strange ideas would fly right out of her pretty little head.
There is, of course, a wide spectrum of feminist thought ranging from the dialectical existentialism of Simone de Beauvoir to the dialectical lesbianism of Shulamyth Firestone. What they all have in common is a will to “equality,” a word which by its very nature can have a host of contradictory meanings not only when applied to women. There is, however, a core belief on which all feminists would undoubtedly agree: women suffer discrimination and other social disabilities which are unreasonable, unjust, and ought to be done away with. I think it a fairly reasonable theory, all in all. Anyone who has ever seen the multitude of abused women and children in the various emergency rooms around Kyiv knows that women in Ukraine have all the problems of their American sisters and then some.
The second argument is downright offensive when you think about it. It sounds like a veiled offer to render the service, something I doubt my friend Solomiya is in much need of. When you cannot repute an idea, it seems, just make fun of it.
And yes, I do have some standing in the discussion. In 1993 the Women’s Community (Zhynocha hromada) named me First Knight of Ukraine, the first and only time such an award was made. Office has its responsibilities.






