Sex, Equality, And Kidding Ourselves (Should Men put their foot down and say enough is enough??)

FredonEverything.com ^ | 4/17/02 | Fred Reed

[Harrison Bergeron]

"...and that the women can not really be blamed for this."

That's probably the key phrase that caused me to "flame on" in the first place. If by "the women" you mean the Marxist gender-feminist anarchists who have gone from burning their bras to emotionally and psychologically torturing little boys in the course of thirty-some years, then you are one of the chivalrous dupes that Fred Reed is talking about in the darkly humorous piece of satire above.

I take great consolation that anything originating from a J. Orlin Grabbe website attracts little or no serious attention except when Grabbe wins another perennial award for "Kook Site of the Day."

[Lorianne]

This article makes some good points but overall it is dishonest in it's central premis, that men have traditionally had women's best interest at heart. This is not universally true. All one has to do is to examine traditional cultures and societies, not only in history, but ones which exist today, where women have ZERO political, social or economic autonomy.

Exhibit A: Islamic countries. Is the price of relinquishing all decision making to males: honor killings, forced marriages, girls and women bartered and sold into sexual indenturing, bartered and sold to pay debts sold, or sold into prostitution to pay debts? If so, who would fault women for deciding that there must be something better than the costs of this type of "protection" for the less fortunate of their members?

Read this article on the state of girl/women's "protection" in Pakistan, a very patriarchal traditional society where men's duty is to "protect" girls/women.

http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/ASA330062002?OpenDocument

It seems to me the type of chivalrous "protection" offered to many women in return for relinquishing autonomy is akin to the type of "protection" offered by the Mafia to small business owners. If you pay are compliant and don't balk at the price we ask you to pay, perhaps nothing unfortunate will happen to you on your way home.

This is not to say the pendulum hasn't swung too far in another direction. But all this rosy picture painting of the "chivalry" of the past is dishonest. The older ways had/have many liabilities for women and these liabilities do not equal out with the beneifits. The old "protection" system has has been rejected by women in modern societies. Western women (and increasingly all women around the globe), have flat out indicated that they have little or no stake in maintaining the status quo systems of the past which on many levels DO NOT and DID NOT look out for their basic minimum bodily safety let alone their best interests in health, edcuation, and general happiness. This is the lure of "feminism" or indeed of any popular rebellion against the status quo. Sometimes people would rather face an uncertain future than face the known inequities and injustices of the past.

What many anti-feminists fail to do is look at the past with a critical eye. They also fail to acknowledge the tremendous progress and superiority of countries who have embraced women's greater autonomy over countries which haven't. It is plain to see that overall, everyone in society is better off when women are engaged in the political process. Even with the problems inherent in change (and there are always problems) we are all better off (not just women) by moving forward not backward in history.

[RLK]

Tell me the way you think things should be. Tell me what you think should be said to make you happy. Give us your insights into this. What do you think has happened and should happen? Show us what you got.

[The Giant Apricots]

the author is a racist pig who hates women....

What proof do you have of the second half of that?

[The Giant Apricots]

But it only took your question to wipe the smile off my face. By turning our boys over to the sole care of selfish women via divorce, single motherhood, and the feminized public school systems, we have committed cultural suicide.

This is true.

[The Giant Apricots]

(Should Men put their foot down and say enough is enough??) ------------------- The majority of them have. They have foregone serious long term relationships with women.

That's just quitting.

[The Giant Apricots]

...the old story about abortion-on-demand, liberal social welfare policies, and "divorce on demand" being responsible for the destruction of the family and marginalization of the father...

Indeed. That's it.

[The Giant Apricots]

But might I suggest you keep your pants zipped until you have in fact married such a female...

Care to be fair, and tell women to do the same? Hello? Gender equity calling?

[The Giant Apricots]

What came first?

[The Giant Apricots]

That wasn't the point and you damned well know it.

Precisely.

[Don Myers]

"Care to be fair, and tell women to do the same? "

I am afraid the cat is out of the bag. For many girls these days, their pants go down if they go outside in a light breeze.

[The Giant Apricots]

The author's bias is a bit too apparent.

As is yours.

[The Giant Apricots]

I have a maxim. My body may like her body, but if my mind doesn't like her mind and my soul doesn't liker her soul interacting with her body becomes prohibited by the emptyness.

Well said. I have always gone by that.

[The Giant Apricots]

The playboy philosphy and sexual revolution is largely responsible for where we are today.

Yeesh. Male-bash much?

[The Giant Apricots]

I don't know about you guys, but I wear the pants in my house! Whatever pair she tells me to.

Thank you for summing up the pathos of modern society.

[The Giant Apricots]

I think I could make equally vile generalizations about this generation of men.

Could? What "could"? You do....daily.

[The Giant Apricots]

Let me also add, the concern has been about what women want or need. Not once in how many years have I has anybody ask me what I need to keep going. Basically, they don't care, but they expect me to care. There is a certain egocentric unilateralism here that any man should find repelling.

Again, very well summarized.

[The Giant Apricots]

You are the bigot who faults women for following where MEN HAVE LED!

Which men are the lesbian man-hating feminists "following"? Names, please.

[The Giant Apricots]

Between the cut-off shirts and hip-huuger jeans, the breeze has little work to do.

[FITZ]

Where the feminists went wrong was they didn't really promote autonomy, they promoted dependence on the government in place of dependence on men. The didn't promote equality, they promoted lowering of standards and affirmative action. Where the feminists went very wrong was when they decided a woman's children were her biggest enemy and made abortion their focus.