ONE THING that has not been mentioned in the discussion on domestic violence is that violent women are celebrated on television and in movies as never before.

Robin writes:

While I am not sure either that this is what women actually desire to watch, I will say that women do watch such programs often because they are so terribly confused as to the actual definition of womanhood in society today. Often, the women where I live behave exactly like men in almost every way in their day-to-day lives: women operating heavy lawn equipment, women doing difficult physical labor, women working in traditionally masculine jobs in factories and women running the family finances and almost completely orchestrating the lives of their husbands and boyfriends, expecting their men to act as their “wives” when they arrive home from work.  (more…)

SIMONE writes:

Judging by the title of your blog, it is fairly safe to assume that you refer to yourself as a ‘housewife.’ I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your attention that nowadays many married women who stay at home to raise their children and support their husbands prefer to be known as‘homemakers’ or a ‘stay-at-home-moms.’ If pressed on the issue, these women would probably argue that ‘housewife’ is an old-fashioned term which is not inclusive of single mothers and unmarried cohabitants who are not employed outside the home.  (more…)

JEAN-PAUL de Montréal écrit:

THE AUTHOR Joyce Maynard, divorced and 55, has satisfied a serious case of maternal lust by adopting two children from Ethiopia. Joining the significant number of Western parents who pursue global utopianism in their own homes, Maynard spent $20,000 to adopt the two girls, taking them far from their own county to bring them to California. Several months into the experience, she has written about it for More magazine, explaining how this new home filled with Western comforts and the love of strangers is better than the modest orphanage these girls left behind.

“I didn’t do this to be noble,” Maynard writes. “I was a mother in need of some children.” Well, at least she is honest. (A father is irrelevant; he doesn’t even come up as a necessity in any way.) Nevertheless, one suspects, given the amount of time she spends detailing the life she has created for her adopted daughters in More (a magazine devoted to more of everything), that she does indeed see her actions as noble. (more…)

AMY CHOZICK in today’s Wall Street Journal writes about the new television show “Nikita:”

The show reflects new thinking among television network executives: Their core audience—female viewers—want to see a woman take down the enemy, preferably with a little bloodshed along the way. The approach overturns years of belief that violent shows turn off women who prefer to watch earnest nurses, headstrong housewives or quirky career women.

I am not convinced that this is what viewers want, but this and the other shows mentioned by Chozick do reflect the cultural celebration of aggression in females. And, it is clear viewers will chow down on the junk that is fed to them.                                   (more…)

THE WORLD is full of Verena Tarrants. Verena, remember, is the heroine of Henry James’s 1885 novel The Bostonians. She is the naive girl enamored of feminism. It is her life and religion, but the main reason she has fallen under its sway is the power and will of one particular feminist, the Boston aristocrat Olive Chancellor. Olive is symbolic of the many demagogues, the Gloria Steinems and Simone de Beauvoirs, the Katie Courics, Oprah Winfreys, and Sarah Palins, who have led far more submissive women into the feminist trenches.

James’s hero, Basil Ransom, succeeds in converting a feminist. He does so in a way very similar to that described by Brandon B. and Heady G. in this entry. (more…)