Wendy McElroy writes about how one unintended but very real side effect of radical feminism is the cheapening of compassion. Feminist victimology--which originates in the foundational concept of patriarchy itself--diminishes the plight of actual victims by equating them (via a classically repugnant moral relativism) with the everyday slights, real and imagined, experienced by all women and, indeed, all people. The longterm result of such devaluing is a deadening: insofar as we play this relativistic game, we are hardening ourselves to the brute reality about which we claim to be so concerned. When everyone is a victim, skepticism runs high and empathy runs dry, McElroy notes, even among feminists themselves.