Cindi writes:

You wrote this in a previous entry:

This is a relatively trivial point, but Paula’s reference to grown women as “moms” offends me. Children refer to their mothers as “moms;” other people should speak of them as mothers or women. To me, this cutesy, sentimental language is a way of shielding women from criticism. This pervasive Mommy-ness is not always as sweet and other-directed as it appears. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for being as offended as I am by this diminution of mothers and motherhood; this juvenilization of the very concept. No woman is any longer a mother, she – they are all – “moms,” pronounced “mawm.” I can’t stand it.

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SAGE McLAUGHLIN WRITES:

I should say that I find the idea of a “men’s movement” not merely quixotic but wrong. The basic premise is that there are political and social interests that are specifically male interests, which all men share in common and which must compete with women’s interests to prevent men being defrauded of their due. One of the reasons people used to argue that the universal franchise was an absurdity was that each vote rightly belonged to the entire household, and that a husband and wife could never have different, much less opposed, political interests. The post-Hobbesian (or rather post-Cartesian) view of human beings as atomistic cosmic exiles, each with his own unique interests that stand opposed to the interests of every other individual, has been very destructive. 

What is needed is a movement which places families at the heart of things, and there is something truly accommodationist about spending one’s energies establishing, say, the legal presumption of joint custody following a divorce. I’ve been watching men’s movements of various kinds with interest for quite some time, and I’ve never become active in them because I’ve always sensed that there is something basically evil about the notion that men ought to be construed as a distinct political grouping fighting over the tainted spoils of the family court system. (more…)

  IN A piece called "So who is on the side of men?," Mark Richardson, an excellent Australian analyst of feminism, considers  the influence of Roissy, the blogger who offers advice on female conquest and is widely touted as an inspirational force for men. Richardson writes: So is Roissy then someone who is better placed to lead a men's movement? A movement of solidarity between men to overcome such adversity? That would be no.

THE ISLE OF SARK in the English Channel was the world’s only surviving feudal state up until two years ago. During World War II, it was occupied by the Germans. Many residents chose to stay for what would be a bitter five-year ordeal. Sybil Hathaway was then the Dame of Sark, the island’s female hereditary ruler, and she handled the occupation with courage and fortitude. She is a model for all those who see their country or personal isle invaded.

A homeschooling mother at the Pleasant Times blog relects on the Dame’s life story.

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N.W. writes:

While reading the discussion following Brittany’s questions concerning the differences between the sexes, I was reminded of Richard Wilbur’s poem She. One aspect of the poem I always liked was Wilbur’s implicit observation that all things men hold dear they refer to as “she.” He writes of how she “in time took on / The look of every labor and its fruits,” an interesting observation; a husband labors to provide for his wife and family and his labors reflect his beloved. Wilbur is a master of his craft and his poems possess a resonant depth full of subtleties.

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STEVE T. WRITES:

You’ve been posting on father-hunger among children. I’d like to share my story. I live in a fairly well-to-do suburb in the Northeast, in a town characterized by intact families with working fathers, stay-at-home mothers, multiple children, church attendance, and conservatism. (Moving to here from the heart of the city of Boston, where we were regarded as freaks, was a revelation.) 

Our town has a public swim club, where for a fairly modest seasonal fee, families can spend the summer swimming every day, with the men usually joining the fun after work. One summer, I happened to be unemployed, so I sent my wife out on a temp job while I took our children to the pool. (more…)

  GAIL AGGEN WRITES: May you always walk with God, may you rejoice with the companion of your youth until you are old and full of years, may your children rise up and call you blessed, may you dance at your grandchildren's weddings, may your barns be ever full to overflowing, may you die a happy and a well-prepared death in your warm bed when you are a little old raisin of a woman, and in the meantime, may your computer and your keyboard, as did the clothes and shoes of those who fled the Pharaoh of Egypt, not wear out until your journey's end, even though you put them to vigorous use daily in defense of the truth.

EZEKIEL BULVER, as mentioned by a commenter in the previous thread, is the imaginary inventor of a logical fallacy. Bulver is the creation of C.S. Lewis, who said he would write a biography of the great inventor but never did.

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RITA WRITES:

I pray for Mrs. Wood every day (my yahoo calendar reminds me!) because I know she tells the truth and I know she catches a lot of flack for it. I know she is right because up until rather recently I was a feminist and it wasn’t working for me. It’s a bitter lonely way to live. Since you have cursed Mrs. Wood, I am going to respond by blessing her.

Laura, I hope that your marriage stays intact, your husband continues to be your partner, lover and best friend and your children and husband rise up and call you blessed (Proverbs 31:28) later on in life. I pray that in your old age you will be surrounded by loving family, husband, children, grandchildren, sisters, brothers and so on, and have time to reflect on all God has done through as you so graciously shared His truth with others. Your price is far above rubies (Proverbs 31:10). You open your mouth in wisdom and in your tongue is the law of kindness.(Proverbs 31:26)

I pray that God would bless you and your family and enlarge your border, that his hand would be with you and that he would keep your from harm. (1 Chronicles 4:9-10)

May you be like a green olive tree in the house of God and may you trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.(Psalm 52:8)

A.C., I pray these blessings on you as well, if you wish to receive them.

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THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU, a professor of English literature, writes in response to the previous post, which is a curse upon the author of this site:

The writer A.C.’s contribution (as one could call it) to The Thinking Housewife interests me as a specimen of contemporary liberal rhetoric – I am particularly struck by the perverse use of the verb to hope in the first, controlling sentence, of the item, ramped up in its perversity by her coupling it with the verb to do, which she uses modally for emphasis. (“Hope” appears again without the modal verb in the second sentence and becomes “to wish” in the second paragraph.) Talk about “the audacity of hope”! A.C. is, of course, trying to be ironic; but irony is a tricky device that requires mastery of understatement, a quality conspicuously missing in the actual construction. I would guess that A.C. is incapable of irony, an intuition that I base on the naked brutality of what amount to invidious curses, offered without embarrassment in a public forum, or let us say a public discussion. What those who cannot bring forth irony invariably conjure when they think they are being ironic is: sarcasm – a Greek term meaning “to beat a victim” or “to flog a corpse.” (The element sarc, in sarcasm, refers to the body, as such.) In modern English usage, sarcasm refers to a low, scapegoating type of verbal behavior in which the speaker feels free to indulge in abuse on the assumption that, for whatever reason, the abused party will not respond in kind.  (more…)

A.C. WRITES:

I do hope that your marriage falls apart, your husband becomes violent, and your children hate you later on in life. I hope that in your old age you are left alone to reflect on all the close-minded and hateful things you have publicly displayed. You are a truly repulsive human being, and a pathetic excuse at that.

I wish nothing but suffering and hardship on you so that you may one day see how the people live that you talk down upon on a daily basis.

Crawl back into your gutter, you pathetic, hapless soul. 

[Note to reader: This is not a parody. As Rosemary said in the movie Rosemary’s Baby at that moment when she awakened in the Satanic lair, “This is really happening.”] 

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Brittany writes:

I have two questions. Do you think God sees men and women as equals? And why do people emphasize female chastity over male chastity? For example in India the ideal woman is a virgin but a man doesn’t have to be a virgin.

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KRISTOR WRITES:

The many recent threads at your increasingly invaluable site on the subject of the intense longing children feel for their fathers has prompted me to reflect upon the great importance of uncles.

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PAULA S. WRITES:

I am absolutely astonished by how blatantly rude and judgmental all of your posts are. I am a wife and mother and I must say your posts are horrifying, you talk of all the lunatics and dismay in this world, but you are one of them!! Your posts are sick, knocking single moms, military moms and other women who do not share the EXACT beliefs as you!! I am a Christian, and I just can not see how anyone who has any claim to be god-like can spread the animosity and hatred of others that you spread! It sickens me to know that my daughter has to grow up in a world with people like you in it, your hatred runs deep in your blood. Maybe its because you are so unsatisfied with your own life, maybe its jealous. Who knows!! I will pray for you and hope that God can show you some guidance in your life and show you how to accept people for who they are. (more…)

IN THE post on the stupidity of smart people, Fitzgerald writes:

Being an intellectual is a curse and a blessing at the same time. I’m not like most people and as such I have little in common with “normal” people who are able to more successfully navigate the world we all inhabit. I often ponder what it would be like to be of a more average intellect, mind you I wouldn’t classify myself as super-smart but I’m quite above the average. But I’m not really willing to give it up either. So I soldier on and work at being more normal and less of a savant. It’s a struggle and it requires lots of mental and psychological gymnastics to meet people were they are and on their terms, something that’s not required of more normal people for the most part.

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IN A PREVIOUS post, readers described the craving of modern children for fathers, a literal hunger that is evident in the eyes.

Dorothy writes:

I live in a big city and I have used public transportation for almost everywhere I go on a daily basis for thirty years and still do. I have seen the starved-for-a-father look on the faces of children on the buses. I notice they can get so attached to a male bus driver. I did not understand this for quite some time. I wondered why these children did not “imprint” on regular male riders. (more…)