Even for those who want to do the right thing, modern (or should we say postmodern) identity politics makes it tough to tell just what that is. Here’s the latest from the feminism camp:

“Benevolent sexism makes men more smiley when they interact with women, and that’s bad news,” the Washington Post says. “Men who put women on a pedestal may be the wolves in sheep clothing hindering gender equality.”

That’s right — being nice is the problem now.

“A new study examining the nonverbal cues thrown out during interactions between men and women finds that men who have high ratings of ‘benevolent sexism’ — attitudes toward women that are well-intentioned but perpetuate inequality — finds that smiling and other positive cues increase when this kind of sexism is prevalent,” writes the Post’s Rachel Feldman.

“The danger, [study author Jin] Goh said, is that interactions are more pleasant when these kind of nonverbal cues are in play,” she explains. “While hostile sexists are less likely to smile and make pleasantries — making them easy to spot — benevolent sexists are actually more likable at first blush than men who truly respect women. In other words, these men may not be as visible as angry Internet trolls who attack feminism. But they may have as much influence over the societal inequality of women.”

The study used a questionnaire.

“It had men rate their agreement with statements like ‘women are too easily offended’ (an example of hostile sexism) and ‘a good woman should be set on a pedestal by her man’ (an example of benevolent sexism),” the Post notes. “Statements that suggested equality, like ‘women shouldn’t necessarily be rescued before men during a disaster’ gave negative scores.”

There’s a lot going on here, and the underlying assumptions need to be examined.

First, there certainly can be a form of “benevolent sexism.” There are benevolent dictators (supposedly). But let’s be clear — the problem, and any real threat here, is discrimination. That’s an action. Goh, however, portrays nice men as “wolves” and “dangerous.” For being nice.

That’s such a first-world response it almost needs no refutation. Women throughout the world have real problems — such as being killed for trying to go to school. Men being nice shouldn’t rate high on the scale of things to worry about.

Goh would probably respond that attitudes lead to actions, and that’s true. But the only thing her study shows is that some men are well-disposed to women. She shows no causal link between high regard and low expectations for women’s success.

This kind of outrage can only really sustain itself on college campuses; there’s a disconnect with women outside of academia.

Katherine Timpf, a writer for National Review, says “I do agree that our society needs to view women as human beings who are just as valuable as men, and that we are in many ways not there yet — but I don’t see how lambasting both mean and nice behavior as ‘sexist’ is going to solve anything… And it’s not very feminist to tell me how I should want to be treated.”