WILLIAM JAMES writes: My parents had five children in six years; I'm the eldest. We often elicited comments from strangers. I remember one time we were out shopping as a family, and a woman we had never met came up and said to my mother, "Goodness! Are they all yours?" She said we were, and the woman said, "Well, I'm glad they're not mine!" My mother's response: "So are they."

AN EU directive informally introduced this week would require major European corporations to reserve 40 percent — more than triple the current average in EU countries — of the positions on their supervisory boards for women, thereby mandating discrimination in many cases against men. The idea of quotas in boardrooms is a pet project of European feminists, who have no qualms about instituting the type of employment discrimination they claim has always existed against women and who never lose a wink of sleep over possibly damaging the world economy and accelerating social decline. Companies that did not comply to the mandate would face fines and other sanctions. The directive would not apply to executive board positions — as of yet.

The proposal, to be introduced officially to the European Commission next month, would do nothing to satisfy the interests of the vast majority of women, who are not interested in highly demanding careers of uninterrupted work. A major reason why women are not more heavily represented in top executive positions is that they do not want to be in top executive positions and their personal responsibilities interfere with their competitiveness. See British analyst Catherine Hakim’s study on the issue. She explains why even in Sweden, with its onerous equality legislation, women make dramatically different work choices than men. (more…)

  SHEILA C. writes: This video is a perfect summary of a modern church service, what Vox Dei (at Vox Popoli blog) calls "churchianity." I thought you would really appreciate it.

DAVID writes:

In response to your entry on Romney’s egalitarian vision of prosperity, I’ve noted for sometime the absence of men i.e. “Men of the West,” in Islam’s ongoing war on Europe and Christendom.

Why, why, why are men absent? Mostly it is women – Melanie Phillips, Marine LePen, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, Pamela Geller, Ann Barnhardt, the late Oriana Fallaci, and a few others. As for men, it is just Geert Wilders.

Why have men abandoned the field, the greatest civilization that men created, and gone walkabout, as if they don’t care for their creation? (more…)

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A READER named Laura sends this story about a woman who thinks she’s a man, has had hormonal therapy to make her look like a man and calls herself by a man’s name. Nevertheless, this woman wants to be a breastfeeding counselor for La Leche League in Canada. (more…)

MITT ROMNEY came across as a likeable and earnest man during his acceptance speech at the Republican convention last night, so likeable and earnest that at times I felt uncomfortably close to seeing him burst into tears, especially when he uttered that magic word “mom,” which came within a few moments of his opening.

Expending little time or passion on the immense changes enacted by Obama, on explaining for instance why Obamacare is such a catastrophe, Romney’s speech was overwhelmingly dominated by one message: the promise of jobs and prosperity.

But Romney’s commitment to equality and masculine achievement for women — he quoted to thunderous applause his mother as saying, ‘Why should women have any less say than men, about the great decisions facing our nation?,’” — is at odds with his pledge of prosperity and jobs for all who seek them. (more…)

  PLEASE consider donating toward this site's continued existence. I realize not everyone can give, and I also thank those who have given before, but if you are able to help this site remain active, your contributions will be most appreciated. You can make a donation here.

LAST MONTH, feminist activists attached woolen hair to the armpits of female statues in London, as shown in this photo from UK Feminista. These daring activists were taking an important stand, don’t you know? Their point was that women have been forced for many years to remove their body hair.  According to Chloe Marshall, of UK Feminista:

A few tentative steps away from the adorned statues, and the campaigners are soon reaping the rewards of their efforts. Members of the public stroll by and almost always stop to take a second look, and some take leaflets whilst others discuss hair removal. Either way, the message is being communicated loud and clear, and attracts a sizeable crowd at the London Pride sculpture on the South Bank.

Hair removal is one more sad and sorry tale of woe. (more…)

FRED OWENS writes:

The headline in the Los Angeles Times last week read: “Neil Armstrong, first person to walk on the moon, dies at 82.”

First “person?” The man lands on the moon and you have to correct his grammar when he dies? Person is a terrible word, corporations are persons, but I am not a “person.” (more…)

ONE THING I like about the feminist Hanna Rosin is that she admits, as many people do not, that sexual liberation and economic equality for women are two sides of the same coin. You can’t have the second without the first.

Conservatives who think that women can give up promiscuity, and at the same time equal men in achievement, are more deluded than the feminist Rosin. (more…)

THE great 18th century British portraitist Thomas Gainsborough had a way of capturing both the innocence and gravity of childhood. His portraits of children call to mind Constable’s words about Gainsborough, “”On looking at them, we find tears in our eyes and know not what brings them.”  In the above portrait of his daughters, one reaching for a butterfly though a butterfly cannot be grasped without crushing it, the girls’ faces convey goodness, inner simplicity and fragile hope, precisely the qualities that make us cherish children and remind us of an openness to life and heightened consciousness that we ourselves lack.

As Sister Wendy Beckett points out in her Story of Painting, Gainsborough’s daughters both were psychologically fragile and eventually led difficult lives, making this picture all the more poignant. Another portrait of them (below) suggests their complexity and difficulties.

(more…)