Looking down Lake Street in downtown Owego, New York

[This entry was initially posted on Nov. 9, 2021. Things in Owego might be somewhat different now, but I doubt it.]

OWEGO VILLAGE, NEW YORK is a gem of a small town.

On the lovely green banks of the Susquehanna River in Tioga County, almost a four-hour drive northwest of Manhattan, it features charming nineteenth-century houses — some ornate and stately, others modest but with character, not all in pristine condition but all on tree-lined streets with sidewalks.

My husband and I recently spent a fall day in Owego, enjoying the autumn foliage and visiting with a wonderful friend who lives there.

There’s a little downtown with shops, cafes and modest office buildings in architecturally distinctive buildings, the sort of retail district that is so rare in this age of strip malls. The library, the former school building (now transformed into apartments) and the courthouse date from pre-Communist America and exude the dignity in public service that once characterized public buildings.

Here is a photo of the opening of the J.J. Newberry five and dime store in 1958 on Lake Street in Owego.

The Newberry building is still there, but now it’s an antique mall for consignors. They sell all kinds of inexpensive, vintage bric brac, an illustration of how the past is definitely worth treasuring here.

We liked Owego for all the reasons above and because it is overwhelmingly middle class and non-diverse. It’s not a town dominated by the hip and urbane. But there are signs, other than the rainbow signs you see on a few houses, that the lucky people in this place envy the rotten standards of the big cities. Gone are the housewives in skirts jostling to get in the new five-and-dime. Owego wants to be just as feminist as everyplace else.

A local artist has succeeded in transforming this village with its inviting atmosphere into a scene of obnoxious female bragging. Banners have been placed all over town on “woman-owned businesses,” proclaiming they are women-owned. (See examples of the signs here.) On the side of the Newberry building, there’s a huge banner with the words, “We Are Women” in large print. On a law office, a sign says, “Where Women Advocate.” You wouldn’t think women are more than half of the population, so terrific and exceptional they are portrayed here, which makes me wonder, how is it possible for something so common to be so special? Have women noticed there are quite a lot of us — and if all of us are special than this special-ness is not that special? Anyway, the implication is that a “woman-owned” business is inherently superior to a “male-owned” one.

This proposition has not been proven in the course of human history.

A women running her own business can be a great thing, no question about it. I’m not against female entrepreneurs at all. But the brutal truth is, these shops need a heavily male economy to keep them afloat. They need buildings, roads and sewers built by men. And a male police force. How many of these businesses involve funding from sources that rely on masculine initiative?

This region was once characterized by booming hard industry run by unusually benevolent employers who prided themselves on taking care of their employees. George F. Johnson, of the Endicott-Johnson shoe company, funded parades, clubs, medical care and libraries for thousands of workers. In nearby Endicott, the Johnson family financed “two libraries, theaters, a golf course, swimming pools, carousels, parks and food markets, many of which were available to the community without charge.” He was the first shoe manufacturer to introduce the eight-hour day and the 40-hour week. No business woman in this region has come remotely close to the legacy of Johnson.

George F. Johnson

And that’s okay — unless you are a feminist.

The Endicott-Johnson shoe company is long gone. The Chinese make our stuff now. We are left with marijuana shops run by women and small towns that envy the rotten standards of cities. Female boosterism is not a sign of economic or cultural vitality. This kind of bragging is rooted in envy and pride not in a healthy, feminine confidence. And women who are too busy running businesses do not produce and raise the customers needed to support businesses.

I think the artist who came up with this idea is well-intentioned, but it’s depressing and embarrassing. Women would be more likable if they liked themselves less.

— Comments —

Kathy G. writes:

Thank you for posting this. I am so tired of hearing women bloviate on how superior they are. It appears they do this because the evidence is so sparse that they actually are, except in the domestic setting.

Laura writes:

Humility is not one of the products of the feminist establishment.

Each sex should boast only of the accomplishments of the opposite sex. Period.

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