Whisnant on Moral Responsibility

Rebecca Whisnant, a radical feminist and professor at my school (University of Dayton), claims that one necessary aspect of any fully responsbile moral agent is self-value. In her essay "Woman Centered: A Feminist Ethic of Responsibility," she proposes her own theory of "self-centering" as a way of obtaining proper and actual self-value. She draws her theory partially from recent work by Harry Frankfurt, of which I'll provide an example:

This wholehearted identification means that there is no ambivalence in his attitude towards himself. There is no part of him - no part with which he identifies - that is opposed to or that resists his loving what he loves.

Moral Psychology: Feminist Ethics and Social Theory, p. 209

This particular picture of self-love, i.e., endorsing and identifying with what one loves, is viewed by Whisnant as "distinctive of how one must approach one's own loves in order to be properly self-valuing." (p. 209) Self-centering involves more than this brand of love, but no other aspect of her theory seems to me as controversial as this. Take, for instance, a man consumed and obsessed with pornography. He is ignorant of the relavent moral issues, so he feels no guilt or shame. In fact, he and his buddies all share in the same perverse enthusiasm. Assuming he is content with other aspects of his life, this man is, according to Frankfurt and Whisnant, self-loving, self-centered and a fully functioning morally responsible agent. Do you see the obvious problem here? Whisnant is full-heartedly opposed to pornography and has devoted much of her life to researching and uncovering the direct harms it causes. If she condemns this man, she contradicts her own theory, because he should be functioning as a morally responsible agent, but he is obviously not. This paradox applies not only to pornography but to other immoral habits as well, such as stealing, drug abuse, etc.

It seems to escape this dilemma we must either draw a line between love and immorality, finding a way to demonstrate their incompatibility, or declare those who profess love to any immoral acts as morally inhibited, diminished or incompetent in one way or another effectively disqualifying them as candidates of self-centeredness.

Friedman on Caring

John Doris summarizes Marilyn Friedman's opinion of a certain "care ethic" delegated between men and women as such:

While men's caring, as revealed in earning a paycheck and providing material goods for the family, has to do with protection and material forms of help that men control, women's caring, as revealed in emotional work, has to do with admitting dependency and sharing or losing control, which contributes to their own oppression (Friedman 1993, 175 and 177).

Feminist Moral Psychology, p. 5

At the very least from a Christian perspective, this is outrageous. Ask the next stay at home mom you talk to if she thinks she's oppressing herself by raising her children. Then, after she most likely affirms you of her love for her kids and family and her desire to be there for them, ask her husband if he loves his family. Then, after he tells you the same thing, only that he must subject himself to long days of work in order to provide the basic, necessary materials of life for them, go tell Marilyn Friedman that she is a paranoid, sociopathic propagandist who must be experiencing a reality distorted from the cross so far as to exclude love from the underlying motive of human relations.

Perhaps I am asserting an overly optimistic image of the modern day family, but I assure you that I am aware of the alarming amounts of brokenness that exist today. I am rather, just as Friedman seems to be doing, targeting the "healthy" or "normal" homes of the world. Regardless, the fact remains that this excerpt and the context from which it was taken are not only very far-fetched but also quite dangerous and threaten to tear families apart with, ironically enough if you read the article in its entirety, what could be seen as "deformed desires" of neglecting their families' needs to "reclaim their autonomy" in the minds of household mothers everywhere.