Posted on 10/16/2001 9:55:29 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
TownHall.com: Conservative Columnists: Paul Craig Roberts
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Paul Craig Roberts (back to story)
October 17, 2001
Criminalizing masculinity
If you are a heterosexual male of any race, tear yourself away from the war on terrorism and let Howard S. Schwartz inform you of your real enemy. His book, "The Revolt of the Primitive: An Inquiry into the Roots of Political Correctness," has just been released by Praeger Publishers in Westport, Ct. The book is a bombshell.
Schwartz, a professor of organizational behavior, shows that feminism has metamorphosed from demands for gender equality into gender warfare against masculinity. The feminists' holy war against "toxic man" is as ferocious in its way as the Muslim holy war against the West.
The virulent form of feminism attacks male sexuality and has succeeded in criminalizing masculinity itself. Feminism criminalized masculinity by inventing attitudinal crimes and conflating them with behavioral crimes.
Schwartz shows that the routine destruction of male military careers and the disproportionate response to the Tailhook "scandal" have everything to do with feminist perception of masculine attitudes and nothing to do with concrete acts of sexual abuse, harassment or discrimination.
Do you remember the female marine who complained of sexual harassment because she experienced the three-mile morning run as "demeaning to women"? If a male had made such a complaint, it would have been regarded as frivolous, and he would have been asked if he had chosen the right service. The female's complaint, however, was taken seriously. The top brass stopped the exercise while the charge was investigated.
This recent news event underlines Schwartz's point that feminists have defined masculine performance and attitudes, such as a protective role toward women and children, as sexist and antiwoman, and have lumped expressions of masculinity together with actual acts of harassment and abuse.
Consider the case of Col. James Hallums, who was removed in 1997 as chairman of the Department of Behavioral Sciences at West Point. Hallums, a "soldier of the old school," was brought to West Point because of concerns over the school's deteriorating military and disciplinary standards.
Hallums' unabashed manliness, however, was out of step with a feminized military. Female faculty members charged him with sexual harassment and "creating an intimidating environment." One of his offenses was that, returning from exercise, he walked through the department in a sleeveless shirt and exercise shorts. His confidence in, and display of, his masculinity was considered by female faculty members to be an offensive act.
Consider, also, the case of Admiral Stanley Arthur, vice chief of Naval Operations, veteran of 500 combat missions in Vietnam, winner of 11 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and commanding officer of U.S. Air Forces in the Gulf War who was in line for appointment by President Clinton as commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific.
When a female lieutenant washed out of helicopter school, she blamed it on sexual harassment and enlisted Sen. David Durenberger in her cause. The Navy refused to capitulate but agreed to have Admiral Arthur review the record.
Unlike Durenberger, Arthur was unaware of, or unwilling to pander to, the new sexual politics. When documented performance inadequacies prevented Adm. Arthur from overturning the Navy's decision to wash out the lieutenant, he became caught up in the "scandal."
Feminists saw his decision as proof that Arthur was guilty of keeping women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen and out of combat. Durenberger put a hold on his appointment, and the Navy sacrificed its hero on the altar of political correctness.
All Adm. Arthur did was his duty, but feminists had defined military duty as a masculine agenda. Thus, Arthur was guilty of "sexism."
What makes it possible for extreme irrationality to run roughshod over fact, not only in academic zoos but also in society's most disciplined institution, the military? Schwartz answers that the subjective and the emotive have been elevated over the objective and reason. What counts is not what men do but what women feel.
Women have been taught to feel victimized by men to such an extent that all expressions of masculinity are offensive to feminists. Men who have caught on to this dynamic minimize their vulnerability to charges and destruction of career by becoming effete and showing that they are "in touch with their feelings" and "share your pain."
Now that masculinity is criminalized, men who are not allied with and protected by feminists cannot succeed. Any doubts about this can be expelled by examining how one woman, Lt. Paula Coughlin, was able to destroy so many male naval careers with Tailhook.
It is ironic that American males, demonized and second-class citizens in their own society, are at work liberating Afghan women from bin Laden and the Taliban. Perhaps the American male should reconquer his home front before he shows his prowess abroad.
©2001 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
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He was replaced by millions of red blooded American men with unfailing conservative values.
Read this: Welcome Back, Duke - From the ashes of Sept. 11 arise the manly virtues.
"Are our sons ready to roll?"
By Barbara Curtis
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
In the midst of terror, heroes – big men in sturdy jackets and we-mean-business helmets. Men working shoulder-to-shoulder – the double rows of double stripes a ribbon of the reality of hope.
Joined by men who built those towers, now ready with the same calloused hands to pick up the pieces. Men who could handle the sweat, the dirt and disorder, the danger ahead.
Like the guys on Flight 93 – ready to roll.
A 911 to parents: Will our sons be ready? Only if we can admit all the ways we've sold them short.
We need to repent for neglecting to affirm our sons as men. We need to repent for the damage inflicted on our boys because '70s feminist theory filtered down to the classrooms, playgrounds, and backyards of today. We need to repent for treating boys as aberrations from the "normal" human template (i.e., girl). We need to repent of trying to dominate and control our sons to turn them into sensitive, lip-biting, manipulative men.
We need to start respecting men for who they are, and rejoicing whenever a son shows signs that he might someday actually become one too.
Some mothers have already figured this out. Some may be just awakening to the discrimination against their little boys. Some may be the ones still blindly discriminating.
I was blind once. As a '70s radical feminist, I believed boys and girls started out the same. But in the 80's I ran into irrefutable evidence I'd been wrong all along: I gave birth to four sons.
Now I've learned up close and personal what boys are made of. I've finally seen that for every "downside" to masculinity, there is a big, big plus. Take for instance, tunnel vision. Fact: the very trait that makes men irritatingly careless also makes them reassuringly fearless – which comes in pretty handy when I don't feel up to dealing with scary things like big dogs, chainsaws and bad neighborhoods. Or rescuing victims or looking for survivors.
I also saw that my natural impulse as a mother was to hobble my sons – Be careful, you'll fall off! ... But football's so dangerous – never allowing them to take the risks they wanted/needed to take.
Thank God I started biting my tongue before it did too much damage. Thank God I got over my prissy strictures about toy guns and then my irrational fears about real ones (more on this next column) and let my husband take charge of training our sons to be defenders and protectors.
Thank God I was relieved of spending their boyhood trying to shape them into the good little lads I might have thought they should be.
And no other women had a chance to either. Wise to be wary of government schools where female-majority faculties run the show along weaker sex standards, enshrining their prejudices as rules and forbidding all the things that boys love to do – the rough-and-tumble games and competitive one-upmanship that bring out the best in boys.
Wouldn't it be nice if they could just behave themselves as well as the girls?
This overriding goal has led to an epidemic of Ritalin-drugged American boys (5 million drugged school kids, 90 percent boys), with teachers and mothers reporting "miraculous" results: boys who no longer act like boys.
Because I home-schooled my boys, they never got the masculinity knocked out of them. Of course, I worked to direct it in a positive way, to refine their character, to prepare them to be tender warriors, men who would love their future families deeply and not be afraid to change a diaper.
Their dad and I taught them traditional stories of American heroes – you know, the ones now replaced or reviled in many schools – George Washington, Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark. We talked about things like courage and loyalty and sacrifice.
We spoke of the future not in terms of what they wanted to do but who they wanted to be. Wanting bigger men than the stunted protagonists of "American Beauty" or "American Pie," we opted instead for movies like "Henry V" (1990), "Glory," "Memphis Belle," "High Noon" – vivid portrayals of courage, loyalty and sacrifice.
But the heroism evoked by the 9/11 attacks catapulted our conversations from the realms of history and theory and made them wrenchingly real.
It's been a long time coming. My sons have grown up watching men in high places dedicated only to saving their own hides. It's been an ache in my heart that my generation couldn't offer them more.
Now, at last, all our sons have seen there's more to reach for than being nice and getting along with others. Because there will always be those who scorn such bland commands, because there will always be those who mean harm, because there is evil, there will always be a need for those willing to stand in the gap, to give their lives that others may live.
Mothers and fathers, the time for candles and makeshift altars is over. Now let's begin. Let's get our sons ready to roll! - Barbara Curtis
Please, let me meet a gorgeous and funny woman with sense like this! -JR
Too late!
Please, let me meet a gorgeous and funny woman with sense like this!
Me too.
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