The Feminization Of America
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| Mon, 06-21-2004 - 12:12pm |
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Driving Down Unknown Roads
The Feminization Of America
March 29, 2004
In the United States women are, I think for the first time in history, gaining real power. Often nations have had queens, heiresses, and female aristocrats. These do not amount to much. Today women occupy positions of genuine authority in fields that matter, as for example publishing, journalism, and academia. They control education through high school. Politicians scramble for their votes. They control the divorce courts and usually get their way with things that matter to them.
If this is not unprecedented, I do not know of the precedent. What will be the consequences?
Men have controlled the world through most of history so we know what they do: build things, break things, invent things, compete with each other fiercely and often pointlessly, and fight endless wars that seem to them justifiable at the time but that, seen from afar, are just what males do. The unanswered question is what women would, or will, do. How will their increasing influence reshape the polity?
Women and men want very different things and therefore very different worlds. Men want sex, freedom, and adventure; women want security, pleasantness, and someone to care about (or for)them. Both like power. Men use it to conquer their neighbors whether in business or war, women to impose security and pleasantness.
I do not suggest that the instinctive behavior of women is necessarily bad, nor that of men necessarily good. I do suggest that that the effects will be profound, probably irreversible, and not necessarily entirely to the liking of either sex. The question may be whether one fears most being conquered or being nicened to death.
Consider what is called the Nanny State by men, who feel smothered by it, but is accepted if not supported by women, who see it as protective and caring. (Yes, I know that there are exceptions and degrees in all of this, and no, I don’t have polling data.) Note that women are much more concerned than are men about health and well-being. Women worry about second-hand smoke, outlawing guns, lowering the allowable blood-alcohol levels for drivers, making little boys wear helmets while riding bicycles, and outlawing such forms of violence as dodge ball or the use of plastic ray guns. Much of this is demonstrably irrational, but that is the nature of instincts. (Neither is the male tendency to form armed bands and attack anyone within reach a pinnacle of reason.)
The implications of female influence for freedom, at least as men understand the word, are not good. Women will accept restrictions on their behavior if in doing so they feel more secure. They have less need of freedom, which is not particularly important in living a secure, orderly, routine, and comfortable life. They tend not to see political correctness as irritating, but as keeping people from saying unpleasant things.
The growing feminizaton accounts for much of the decline in the schools. The hostility to competition of any sort is an expression of the female desire for pleasantness; competition is a mild form of combat, by which men are attracted and women repelled. The emphasis on how children feel about each other instead of on what they learn is profoundly female (as for that matter is the associated fascination with psychotherapy). The drugging of male schoolchildren into passivity is the imposition of pleasantness by chemical means. Little boys are not nice, but fidgety wild men writ small who, bored out of their skulls, tend to rowdiness. They are also hard for the average woman to control and, since male teachers are absent, gelded, or terrified of litigious parents, expulsion and resort to the police fill the void. The oft-repeated suspension of boys for drawing soldiers or playing space war is, methinks, a quietly hysterical attempt to assuage formless insecurity.
The change in marriage and the deterioration of the family are likewise the results of the growth of political power of women. Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen, but it is assuredly happening. Divorce became common because women wanted to get out of unsatisfactory marriages. In divorce women usually want the children, and have the clout to get them. But someone has to feed the young. Thus the vindictive pursuit of divorced fathers who won’t or can’t pay child support. And thus the rise of the government as de facto father to provide welfare, tax breaks, daycare, and otherwise behave as a virtual husband.
When women entered a male workplace, they found that they didn’t much like it. Men told off-color jokes, looked at protuberant body parts, engaged in rough verbal sparring as a form of social interaction, and behaved in accord with rules that women didn’t and don’t understand. Women had the influence to change things, and did. Laws grew like kudzu to ban sexual harassment, whether real or imagined. Affirmative action, in addition to being a naked power grab, avoids competition and therefore making the losers feel bad. It degrades the performance of organizations, sometimes seriously, but performance is a preoccupation of males.
Men are capable of malignant government, whether authoritarian or totalitarian, as witness North Korea or the Russia of Stalin. I don’t know whether women would behave as badly if they had the power. (I’d guess not.) But women have their own totalitarian tendencies. They will if allowed impose a seamless tyranny of suffocating safety, social control, and political propriety. Men are happy for men to be men and women to be women; women want us all to be women.
The United States becomes daily more a woman’s world: comfortable, safe, with few outlets for a man’s desire for risk. The America of wild empty country, of guns and fishing and hunting, of physical labor and hot rods and schoolyard fights, has turned gradually into a land of shopping malls and sensible cars and bureaucracy. Risk is now mostly artificial and not very risky. There is skydiving and scuba and you can still find places to go fast on motorcycles, but it gets harder. Jobs increasingly require the feminine virtues of patience, accommodation to routine, and subordination of performance to civility. Just about everything that once defined masculinity is now denounced as “macho,†a hostile word embodying the female incomprehension of men.
A case can be made that a feminized world would (or will) be preferable to a masculine. Perhaps. It is males who bomb cities and shoot people in Seven-Elevens. Yet the experiment has not been made. I suspect we will have the worst of both worlds: a nation in which men at the top engage in the usual wars and, a step below, women impose inutterable boredom.

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Right. Courts are out to get guys. Shhh.
>>They are already introduced, in the family. They don't belong in the government.<<
So values important to women should not be legislated... things like education and healthcare...
while working to ban choice and same sex marriage is ok. Hmmm.
>>Huh? Failed? Well let's see...we are debating humanity's success 10000 years after it started. Sure seems like us men have ruined humanity huh?<<
One question... how many wars have women started?
Now how about men... does our system of numbers go that high? How many have died in your stupid wars? How many women have been raped whenever chaos reigns? Heck, look at statistics for the supposedly civilised world... men worry when they walk alone down a dark street and a woman is behind them, right?
Why does 20% of this country not have health care?
Why can't we properly fund schools?
What have we done to bring peace to this world? The last four years have served to bring us further from such a goal.
Why has our Congress slightly more than 60 women out of 435, the highest number ever, yet still woefully lacking?
Why did our president sign a PBA ban with 7 guys behind him?
Why did women have to scratch and claw for the right to be educated? For the right to vote? And still are waiting for an ERA?
Why is the history our schools teach woefully lacking in history about women? Seems to me 50% of the world's population is women... why is our herstory left untold? Does this not serve to glorify men and leave young women wanting?
If you are proud of your wars, if you are proud to revel in the glory and strategy of battle, then the last 10,000 years were for you... we don't even want our turn... we just want equal input.
That is the problem with big government and liberals. "I saw this happen to so and so" so lets take away the person's freedom to make that poor choice again. This post indicates that freedom is important until someone can find a reason to restrict it.
Okay, let's just have complete freedom...no laws...no restrictions...no protections for children or anyone else.
Show it to me in the Constitution.
"How many have died in your stupid wars?"
My stupid wars? :) This post is getting better as it goes.
"men worry when they walk alone down a dark street and a woman is behind them, right"
Why fear the weaker sex.
"Why does 20% of this country not have health care? "
Why does 80% have it?
"Why can't we properly fund schools? "
They get more money now then every before. I guess liberal mismanagement and feminism don't know what to do with the money.
"What have we done to bring peace to this world?"
Kumbaya my Lord... Won't happen. It isn't the natural order of things. But we can fix that with laws and tender loving care right?
"Why has our Congress slightly more than 60 women out of 435, the highest number ever, yet still woefully lacking? "
Because the current politicians are part of the problem, men and women.
"Why did our president sign a PBA ban with 7 guys behind him? "
The question is why was PBA ever allowed in the first place. Infanticide.
"And still are waiting for an ERA? "
still waiting? :) Good one. Guess that will come right after we pay off the lave reparations for slavery.
"Why is the history our schools teach woefully lacking in history about women?"
How much can you talk about baking and dusting?
"why is our herstory left untold?"
ROFL. Wait while I wipe away the tears. This is a good one.
"we just want equal input."
Well I hope the feminist movement gets it proper place in HERstory.
Lord this was entertaining. Thanks for the laugh. I only wonder whether you were serious.
Ahhh...my wife has put dinner on the table....gotta go take my seat at the head of the table with MY wife and MY children.
Jim
So if it doesn't specifically say it in the Constitution, we don't do it?
>>Why fear the weaker sex.<<
Because it is bloody unlikely men would ever understand the fear we have in the same situation, because a some of you feel the need to impose yourselves on others in order to feel a sense of power.
>>Why does 80% have it?<<
Avoidance using a question when you have no answer.
>>They get more money now then every before. I guess liberal mismanagement and feminism don't know what to do with the money.<<
Tell me about conservative management... we have a multi trillion dollar deficit, are paying 150 billion a year in interest alone... that money would prove useful, no? And over 90% of that cumulative deficit has been run up by conservative presidents.
>>Kumbaya my Lord... Won't happen. It isn't the natural order of things. But we can fix that with laws and tender loving care right?<<
Natural order of things, my derriere. Natural order of things for men... manufacture crises, we now have to fight *them*, whoever them happens to be this year... so of course we have to devote our resources to 150 foot long phallic symbols so that men can be all proud of what they have built. It isn't the natural order of things... and that is my whole bloody point.
>>Because the current politicians are part of the problem, men and women.<<
You aren't going to pin this on us... you wanted all the power, you get all the blame.
>>The question is why was PBA ever allowed in the first place. Infanticide.<<
We return now to the Constitution... where does it say it is illegal? Where does it say you have control over what happens in our bodies? And that is why the stupid law is already on it's way out the door.
>>Good one. Guess that will come right after we pay off the lave reparations for slavery.<<
The ERA is introduced every single year. It will one day pass. We came damn close 20 years ago. We waited 135 years for the right to vote... we'll get there.
>>How much can you talk about baking and dusting?
"why is our herstory left untold?"
ROFL. Wait while I wipe away the tears. This is a good one.<<
Did I see you say somewhere you weren't a misogynist? Hmmmm... why exactly do you post in a women's forum? I know it is open to all... just curious... why come here and make remarks like this?
>>Well I hope the feminist movement gets it proper place in HERstory.
Lord this was entertaining. Thanks for the laugh. I only wonder whether you were serious.
Ahhh...my wife has put dinner on the table....gotta go take my seat at the head of the table with MY wife and MY children<<
I think it is sad, and I think it is an insult to your partner... if you have daughters, your point of view is an insult to them as well. Don't you feel any sense of obligation to teach them their heritage? And that heritage is a collective one, achievements of women and men... not just men.
About all you could offer up was to snicker and make fun of what I said, a sure sign you don't know what the heck you are talking about.
I advocate smaller less intrusive government. Not the removal of government. Big difference.
"And you avoided commenting on the issue of "Homeland Security"... "
I didn't avoid it. It just didn't seem like it needed a response. What homeland security has to do with cap guns is beyond me. Gun control itself is a joke. So cap gun control is even nuttier.
"Should those children go without protection as well?"
Of course not but the government doesn't need to control every aspect of our lives, which it does. Family, churches, communities are much better resources for caring for children the the government.
"It will never go that far"
Maybe not. But it isn't out of the realm of possibility. If you asked someone a 120 years ago if they thought the day would come when you had to have permission to own or carry a gun and they would have laughed at you.
Government grows, that is its nature. If you don't fight it you will be consumed by it. Pick your party and watch it grow, its like a chia pet. Repulicans and Democrats are 2 sides to the same coin. Our government spending has gone through the roof lately and the GOP controls the Federal government. Sad really.
"hopefully with their helmets on"
I agree I just hope it was their choice and not a mandate.
Irresitable force vs Immovable object.
Don't try and convince someone who can't be convinced.
I was having some fun and purposely being over the top.
But if you like...
"So if it doesn't specifically say it in the Constitution, we don't do it?"
Yup you got it. The Federal gov't is specifically limited to it Constitutionally declared powers the rest lies with the states and the people.
"Avoidance using a question when you have no answer."
No it was just more fun. The tactic used was to put my position on the defensive.
Listen. No one is guaranteed health insurance. You don't have a right to it. Everyone gets medical care when they need it. Some get better than others. Life isn't fair. I haven't heard of a single plan where your Utopian Health care plan works.
"Tell me about conservative management... "
When I see it I will. Washington hasn't had conservatives in power for a very long time.
"so of course we have to devote our resources to 150 foot long phallic symbols so that men can be all proud of what they have built."
How about a little Misandry?
"You aren't going to pin this on us... you wanted all the power, you get all the blame. "
"Us", "You", that is why feminism will fail. You attempt to divide and that doesn't work.
"We return now to the Constitution... where does it say it is illegal?"
Well we could start in the Preamble if you like. Read it.
"Where does it say you have control over what happens in our bodies"
Where does it grant you the authority to kill a human being? The right to choose allows you to choose whether or not you have sex. Once you have had sex, if conception occurs that person you carry around with you should have the same Constitutional rights as you. Ignore the fact that it is a child if you like, it doesn't change the fact that it is.
"And that is why the stupid law is already on it's way out the door. "
We'll see.
""why is our herstory left untold?"'
Come on, you can't be taken seriously with this kind of junk. Herstory?
"Hmmmm... why exactly do you post in a women's forum? I know it is open to all... just curious... why come here and make remarks like this? "
Open exchange of ideas. It is a great message board. Like I said the remarks were intentionally over the top once I read Herstory I figured we were leaving reality at the door.
"I think it is sad, and I think it is an insult to your partner... if you have daughters, your point of view is an insult to them as well. Don't you feel any sense of obligation to teach them their heritage? And that heritage is a collective one, achievements of women and men... not just men."
An insult? Nah. Teach them their heritage? Sure. Teach them that men are the cause of all the world's ills. Don't think so.
Hatred of men gets you one of two things:
1. Old and alone.
2. Married to a man that wouldn't know how to defend you if the need arises. He'd probably ask permission first.
All that has happened in the past century or so during which women have started speaking up for themselves, is that we've gained rights for ourselves and we've tried to bring a viewpoint to the table that differs slightly from "We don't like them, let's blow up their country." And also? Would love to know why it is such a problem when YOU lose your right to carry a gun in your back pocket, while it's perfectly okay for women to lose the right to choose what she does with her body? You said b/f to someone else that PBA should never have been legal. Says who, you? Why SHOULD it have ever been legal for guns to be as available as they are? Because men have wanted them? Come on.
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