November 7, 2011
THE HOMEMAKER today, unless she is wealthy, often faces a hostile environment. Not only does society at large continually celebrate careerism and refuse to grant the full-time mother and wife moral support, but friends and relatives may criticize her or refrain from any enthusiasm for her way of life.
At Home Living, Lydia Sherman encourages women at home to turn their minds from all this. She writes: Read More »
November 2, 2011
LAWRENCE AUSTER writes on the vanity of female politicians:
If you have a society in which men are running things and enforcing male standards of conduct in the public sphere, you can have an occasional woman in high public office and it will not harm the society. But once the appointment of women to conspicuous political positions becomes routine and expected, and once female standards of public conduct become normalized, thus pushing aside male standards, then you have things like this.
I would add two points. One, a woman in power has more incentive to flaunt her physical assets precisely because they may be all she has left of her femininity. This is why we see more and more cleavage. The essence has vanished with the pursuit of power.
Second, a society’s understanding of authority also weakens when a significant number of women enter elective public office. Eileen Behr, pictured below, is running for sheriff in suburban Philadelphia. She seems like a perfectly nice, competent woman, but her face changes the very definition of the office. She looks too nice to write a parking ticket.
August 8, 2011
GREG JINKERSON writes:
In his novel Perelandra, C.S. Lewis provides a splendid retelling of the Eden story, transferring that mythos to the planet Venus. The hero Ransom has been sent there by angelic beings to perform an unknown task related to the fate of mankind. On Perelandra, the true name of Venus, Ransom encounters an inhabitant known to him simply as The Lady, who is evidently both superhumanly intelligent and entirely morally innocent, with no knowledge of either death or evil.
Their new friendship is threatened by the evil Weston, an English scientist who has followed Ransom to this unknown world, and who is on a contrary quest there of his own. (Ransom takes to referring to Weston mentally as the Un-man.) Among the usual stunning truths in Lewis’ story is an implicit critique of feminism, an ideology that Lewis casts as being decidedly Satanic. Read More »
August 1, 2011
Jadrienne Myhre, winner of Renfro award for 2008 Girls School
GREG JINKERSON writes:
My wife and I came across the PBS documentary Southern Belle two nights ago and when I realized what I was watching, namely modern young ladies reenacting antebellum Southern culture in a kind of historical school, The Thinking Housewife blog leapt to mind. What we did get to see of the film was extraordinary. Here is a link to the film’s website. Read More »
July 28, 2011
KATE writes:
I wanted to make a comment that goes along with the caregiver’s comment in the previous entry, and that speaks to the differences between children who are in day “care” and those who are raised early in the home. It is absurd to me that we are still having this debate. I guess we just don’t (or won’t) believe the truth, no matter the evidence that abounds. I have been working in the “early educaton field” for almost 30 years now, and have been in every scenario. I’ve worked in “childcare/preschool;” private sector, Christian/Church, public schools, and now, Head Start. I teach in a classroom where I rarely see any parents. My children are bused (yes, three- and four-year-olds) to and from school every day, with the exception of two or three who are brought to school by a family member. The separation anxiety I now see is children totally disconnecting from the parent image. They are so disregarded at home, they have not bonded truly with anyone, except for maybe an older sibling. Read More »
June 16, 2011
JESSE POWELL writes:
Germany has too many housewives! So says the EU. I’ve heard this argued in different ways before. The reality is, Germany has too few housewives.
Not only are the German people failing to replace themselves with historically low fertility rates, the pathologies of social decline — divorce, illegitimacy and cohabitation — are growing worse. Marriage is more unstable in the former East Germany than it was under Communism. In the country as a whole, more than 50 percent of marriages end in divorce and the fertility rate is 1.38 children. In 2009, the number of employed Eastern German women actually exceeded the number of employed men. Read More »
March 6, 2011
MELANIE writes:
I’ve been reading your website for about a year now. I came across it at a time in my life when I was struggling with a lot of confusion in my family, as well as with my own conscience. You have been an inspiration and comforting reassurance to the “traditionalist” feelings I’ve always had in my heart. My own mother is a wonderful woman and I have most nothing but fond memories of her throughout my childhood. Unfortunately she falls at the end of the Boomer generation and fell prey to far too much feminist ideology. She was a working mother. I am not. Needless to say I don’t think she always respects some of my choices and views. Read More »
March 5, 2011
MR. R. writes:
You know, I just realized for the first time in my adult life that I have grown quite accustomed to addressing women as “Ms” in letters and emails, even when I am reasonably sure they are married. I think that has become a convention resulting from feminism, where it MUST NOT be assumed that a woman is a “dependent” and that she should not be addressed in a way that would insult her independence. How ludicrous!?! Is it not? Read More »
March 3, 2011
THE European Union’s Court of Justice in Luxembourg has issued a ruling prohibiting insurers from considering sex differences in setting premiums for car, life and medical insurance. Men and women face different life expectancies and different risk factors for auto accidents. The court ruled that recognizing these distinctions constitutes discrimination. Nature itself is discriminatory. You can read about it here and here.
March 1, 2011
DOROTHY writes:
I read this article in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago about a woman writer who happily spent part of her honeymoon alone and it stays in my mind. I cannot stop thinking about it. It is very sad to me. But the woman who wrote it is happy. I am astounded that she is so quick and happy to toss away the burden of a husband immediately after they are married. Read More »
February 22, 2011
BRUCE writes:
It suddenly dawned on me this morning that with the ongoing feminization of the police and military, a watershed has been crossed, a step that demonstrates the profound unreality of modern life.
How could women ever have gotten themselves to the point where the idea of having large numbers of women working as police and soldiers and sailors and pilots (i.e. the ‘need’ for enhanced career opportunities for women) would take precedence over their own safety and the safety of their children? That is a really remarkable level of unreality – and one which I fear will elicit a terrible price if or when equal opportunity, mixed-sex police forces and combat units (with female/feminized commanders) come up against all-male gangs and armies. Read More »
February 18, 2011
BRETT STEVENS, at the website Amerika, argues that the loss of chastity as a social ideal is part of a larger denigration of hierarchy. As such, it is connected to economic decline of the middle class. He writes:
Do we want each sexual act to have meaning, or should we remove context? Do we want a nation of equally impoverished middle classes, or a hierarchy? These questions are eternal because they are mathematical, not human, in origin.
February 18, 2011
JESSE POWELL writes:
A survey was conducted by the American Institute of Public Opinion in 1938 asking Americans if they supported married women working when their husbands were capable of supporting them. A resounding 78 percent said, “No.”
This shows that even after 50 years of married women increasingly joining the workforce and after heavy industrialization of America, public sentiment was still strongly opposed to married women working if they weren’t forced to by economic necessity. The number one reason respondents gave for their negative answers was: women would take jobs away from men and families would suffer as a result.
An article about the survey appeared in The New York Times on December 25, 1938. Here is an excerpt from the piece: Read More »
February 18, 2011
KAREN I. writes:
I am sending a picture of Cassie Herkelman, the girl who won the Iowa state wrestling match by forfeit. From what I read, another girl wrestled a boy in the same tournament and lost the first match after being pinned in 52 seconds. I also read that Joel Northrup, who refused on principle to wrestle a girl, can still participate in other matches in the tournament despite forfeiting the match with Herkelman.
Northrup can hold his head high, knowing he did the right thing. I wonder if Herkelman is equally proud of her “achievement.”
February 17, 2011
HERE IS a news story that will make your day. This really happened in America.
An Iowa high school wrestling champ bowed out of a state competition today because he refused to wrestle with a girl. Joel Northrup, who is homeschooled, forfeited the match with Cassie Herkelman. He stated:
I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan (Black, the tournament’s other female entrant) and their accomplishments. However, wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times. As a matter of conscience and my faith, I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most of the high school sports in Iowa.
January 20, 2011
I have become a Socialist not because I believe it would ameliorate the conditions of the masses (though I think it would do so) but because I believe that only under communal ownership of the means of production can you arrive at the most perfect form of individual development – at the greatest stimulus to individual effort; in other words complete Socialism is only consistent with absolute individualism. As such, some day, I will stand on a barrel and preach it.
Beatrice Potter, the British heiress who ventured into London slums and dockyards, wrote these words in her diary in 1890. She was born to socialism on her first meeting with Sidney Webb, then civil servant and Fabian socialist. Or rather, as she put it in her diary, she realized then that she had been a socialist all along. There was an element of predestination in her understanding of the phenomenon: the elect were chosen from birth.
Beatrice’s two published diaries, My Apprenticeship and Our Partnership, provide insights into the psychology of a nineteenth-century Anglican collectivist. Reading her recollections, one can’t help but conclude that her illusions about the salutary effects of socialism had a lot to do with her illusions about herself. There is a running conflict with her own womanliness. She wants to commit herself to this bold project of reforming society. On the other hand, she realizes she is not cut out for it, and has painful memories of Joseph Chamberlain, “a sacrament of pain fitting me for a life of loneliness and work.” She seems embarrassed and disappointed in herself for having fallen in love.
Sidney Webb, as it turned out, would dispel this conflict. Before he could do this, she had to overcome her dislike of him. She wrote in her diary:
His tiny tadpole body, unhealthy skin, lack of manner, cockney pronunciation, poverty are all against him. This self-complacent egotism, this disproportionate view of his own position is at once repulsive and ludicrous. Read More »
May 27, 2010
RESPONDING TO this entry on the decline of the family meal, Mabel LeBeau writes:
I haven’t figured out if by modern definitions I’m feministic or feminine or merely female in gender, but have found the most effective way to conduct a family meal is participation by the father figure. If Father is the one to initiate conversations, officially nod approval over the meal, settle disputes over who gets to pass the bread first, provide approval for individual family member’s self-validation and ‘say grace,’ it’s rather pointless to call it a family meal in our home if Daddy doesn’t show up. Read More »
May 23, 2010
Do you remember the glass slipper and the poisoned apple, the damsel with hair dangling from a tower window and the whole castle fast asleep? The Age of the Fairy Tale is past, dear reader. Today, we only have tales of self-fulfillment, of the social atom seeking fusion. Here is a perfect example. In a new book, three women describe their quest for motherhood. Complete with donated sperm, abortion, miscarriage, and marriage at the last minute, it’s an anti-morality play that ends in motherhood for all. The New York Times writes:
Three would-be mothers, some “lucky” sperm and — voilà! — three happy families, with all of the pregnancies happening the old-fashioned way. Read More »