The Feminization Of Society (The Case For Judeo-Christian Values, Part XXII)

Townhall.com ^ | 09/13/05 | Dennis Prager

[goldstategop]

As a result of the repudiation of Judeo-Christian values, we are witnessing the ascendance of the feminine in Western society.

There are two reasons for this. One is the overriding belief in equality, which to those who reject Judeo-Christian values means sameness. Judeo-Christian values emphatically affirm the equality of the sexes. In fact, given that the creation story in Genesis proceeds from primitive to elevated, the last creation, woman, can easily be seen as the most elevated of the creations. Every man knows how much a good woman helps him transcend his animal nature.

Judeo-Christian values do not conflate equality with sameness. But the Left rejects any suggestion of innate sexual differences. That is why the president of Harvard University nearly lost his job for merely suggesting that one reason there are fewer women in engineering and science faculties is that the female and male brains differ in their capacities in these areas. A secular liberal who advocates affirmative action based on sex, Harvard's president nevertheless also has -- or had, until his humiliation at the hands of his faculty -- a belief in seeking truth.

And the truth is that men and women are profoundly different.

One of these differences is that women generally have a more difficult time transcending their emotions than men. There are, of course, millions of individual women -- such as Margaret Thatcher -- who are far more rational than many men; but that only makes these women's achievements all the more admirable. It hardly invalidates the proposition.

Far more common than Margaret Thatcher's rationality was the emotionality of the women jurors in the Menendez brothers' trials. All six women jurors in the Erik Menendez trial voted to acquit him of the murder of his father (all six males voted guilty of murder). A virtually identical breakdown by sex took place in the Lyle Menendez trial for the murder of their mother. The women all had compassion for the brothers despite their confessions to the shotgun murders of their parents.

To say that the human race needs masculine and feminine characteristics is to state the obvious. But each sex comes with prices. Men can too easily lack compassion, reduce sex to animal behavior and become violent. And women's emotionality, when unchecked, can wreak havoc on those closest to these women and on society as a whole -- when emotions and compassion dominate in making public policy.

The latter is what is happening in America. The Left has been successful in supplanting masculine virtues with feminine ones. That is why "compassion" is probably the most frequently cited value. That is why the further left you go, the greater the antipathy to those who make war. Indeed, universities, the embodiment of feminist emotionality and anti-Judeo-Christian values, ban military recruiters and oppose war-themed names for their sports teams.

A sentiment such as "War is not the answer" embodies leftist feminine emotionality. The statement is, after all, utter nonsense, as many of the greatest evils -- from Nazi totalitarianism and genocide to slavery -- were quite effectively "answered" by war. (Virtually every car I ever have seen display the bumper sticker "War is not the answer" was driven by a woman.)

The response of one of the leading women professors who attended Harvard President Lawrence Summers' talk aptly illustrates this point. As The Boston Globe reported, Nancy Hopkins, a biologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "walked out on Summers' talk, saying later that if she hadn't left, 'I would've either blacked out or thrown up.'" It is difficult to imagine a male MIT professor, even another leftist, walking out of a lecture and saying that he had to lest he vomit or faint.

In the micro realm, the feminine virtues are invaluable -- for example, women hear infants' cries far more readily than men do. But as a basis for governance of society, the feminization of public policy is suicidal.

That is one reason our schools are in trouble. They are increasingly run by women -- women with female thinking moreover. Such thinking leads to papers no longer being graded with a red pencil lest students' feelings be hurt; to self-esteem supplanting self-discipline as a value; to banning games such as dodge ball in which participants' feelings may get hurt; to discouraging male competition; to banning peanut butter because two out of a thousand students are highly allergic to peanuts.

In a masculine society governed by Judeo-Christian values (which include a masculine-depicted and compassionate God), feminine virtues are adored and honored. In a feminized society, male virtues are discarded.

Then both sexes suffer.

Just one more consequence of the war against Judeo-Christian values.

[goldstategop]

In general, men are rational while women tend to give weight to feelings. The Left exalts the latter while dismissing the importance of the former. In so doing as Dennis Prager observes, clear headed judgments and an appreciation for reality have been replaced by compassion and sentimentality. This is a consequence of the feminization of society. It is a society incapable of dealing with life's hardships and protecting itself against evil in the world. The Left's war on Judeo-Christian values has emerged most starkly in the post Katrina world we've witnessed in the past two weeks.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Paleo Conservative]

The women all had compassion for the brothers despite their confessions to the shotgun murders of their parents.

But that makes sense. After all they were orphans.

[SteveMcKing]

Plenty of efeminant men are deeply religious. Truthfully I see more connection than cure between these properties.

[Lorianne]

Even as he says men and women are equal ... he gives positive "value" to what he sees as male traits, and negative "value to what he sees a female traits.

It's the valuation of people's contribution that is at issue in the equality debate.

[Jeff Chandler]

he gives positive "value" to what he sees as male traits, and negative "value to what he sees a female traits.

No he does not. He states that both are needed, but that feminists denigrate masculine traits.

[cherry]

this article meanders from one anecdote to another......

sexes are of equal value....yes, fine...

sexes have differing attributes to society....yes, absolutely...

But it can easily be argued as well that society has been "masculinized" more than feminizied.....

women are behaving as cold about sex,love, marriage, children as men are...

I can't believe the rise of the number of mothers hurting or abandoning their children....that used to be unheard of and more of typical of men,not women.....

what has happened to dampen the motherly instincts of women?... .

young women are acting MORE LIKE MEN everyday....that to me is not feminizing...its making or encouraging women to behave as crude as men....

a goodly portion or all of our pop culture...our music our movies, our tv,our magazines, our newspapers....even our radio shows are entirely aimed at MALES, not females...

in the old days, men would "earn" sex in ther tradional way.....charm, power, money, athletic prowess, humor , etc....

now, since we have stricken the rules of female behaviour so they can act like the males, males do not need to aspire to wealth, power, prestige, importance, athletic superiority, etc...

there is such a stunning lack of ambition, leadership, and character in some men because of it.....why bother, some say......

so if anyone thinks that our society is too "feminized" I'd say....look around....the worse deal in the world has been dealt to young women....

I'd dare say that the great impetus for abortion and modern birth control, were mainly male driven.....IMO anyway.....

what I think is that men have gotten what they wanted for centuries....free, uninhibited sex and now, they are not exactly happy the way things have turned out......and I can't say that I blame them...

the world is starving for men to be men, yet what we have is more women being men, and that is terrible news for civilizaion...

Women need to be encouraged to behave more feminine, not more masculine....

wouldn't it be a good idea to promote the idea that virginity, modesty, motherliness, etc, etc are GOOD things.....

and wouldn't a wise society want to encourage those things....

instead , we have "girls gone wild" .....

[Prophet in the wilderness]

When you sum it all up, we have a " Male oriented based ideology party " on one side ( Republicans/Conservatives ) and " Female oriented based ideology party " on the other side battling it out to see which ideology will be the one that will dominate and control society in the future.
This is not to say that women are not Conservative or Republican, but, the main driving forces between the 2 parties and ideology are based on male and female orientation.
Case in point for example ?
What drives the liberals ?
Answer ? Knee jerk emotions and " FEELINGS " with out any effort of rational thought or logic.
When you look at the Conservative orientation or ideology, you see a educated look at things, calculated , logical, and after much thought and experience, you come up with a well thought out rational conclusion.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Sorry about some typos, I should have proof read my post.
In one of the lines, I meant, that, " this is not to say that women can't be " Conservative " or a " Republican "

[Lorianne]

And he denigrates feminine traits ... so he's doing what he decries others for doing.

[Jeff Chandler]

I think you are responding out of your emotions.

[Razz Barry]

You make many good points.

I've told my husband, a number of times, that the only people who benefited from the "womens movement" were men and lesbians. Woman, like me, who wanted the traditional family roll were expected to help their husbands support the family, while receiving very little if any help in the home.

I think, and I'm no expert, (and have never stayed in a Holiday Inn Express) that the primary reason so many woman are taking antidepressants is we have gone against human nature. We have gotten away from being women and it's not healthy mentally. The same people who tell us that homosexuals are born the way they are refuse to allow that women are born to nurture, love and care for others.

When men tell me, "Women are to soft hearted." I say, "Men should thank G-d we are because you'd all be living in caves eating raw meat. The only reason we let you hang around is out of sympathy"

[hocndoc]

Millions of women "hardly negate" this foolish concept?

Men are no more rational than women. Many men have practiced dealing with their emotions and biases in such a way that Prager feels (if you will excuse the term) more comfortable with them. He's not quite afraid they will castrate him or he at least has a gut feeling that he's safer with the boys.

Twit may have a point buried in there, but he's so unbalanced himself that he throws out the data that doesn't fit his desired conclusion.

And loses potentially half his audience.

[TruthFactor]

This article is right-on. Kudos to Dennis Prager. Radical feminism and socialism go hand in hand.

Feminist see men as the enemy. Feminist organizations, which are a tenant of the left are basically run by a bunch of lesbians, who by definition reject and mostly despise men. For them, in a perfect world, men are not needed.

God help us all if this trend continues for much longer.

[agite rem mente]

This is probably the reason why Rome will never ordain women as priests - they do not want to feminize the church.

[Aracelis]

One of these differences is that women generally have a more difficult time transcending their emotions than men.

Dennis, I love ya', but this time you are way off-base. In order to be equal to men, I must therefore negate my emotions? Ok, then tomorrow I'm filing for a divorce simply because it will be easier for me to get my degree without all the emotional baggage.

Thanks for making up my mind.

Turkey...jerk...idiot...(insert your own term)

[taxed2death]

re: post # 6 You nailed it, great post. On the flip-side, men are dragged through the mud everywhere one looks for acting "too manly"....


LOL
Ya can't win!

[taxed2death]

"We have gotten away from being women and it's not healthy mentally"

Excellent point. The biggest failure of the "womens movement" was the depiction that being feminine was somehow a "weakness".


This is so sad...a whole lot of western women bought into this tripe. I am NOT bashing American women, but a LOT of them have seemed to have buried their femininity under a layer of harshness. I travel all over the world and notice that in certain cultures women are much freer to be women than here in the US.

[grellis]

And he denigrates feminine traits.

Where?

[grellis]

"We have gotten away from being women and it's not healthy mentally"

Excellent point. The biggest failure of the "womens movement" was the depiction that being feminine was somehow a "weakness"...

...instead of it being something pretty damn wonderful. Like my tagline says, I am a

[tkathy]

Smug and patronizing article.