IN ITS latest issue celebrating global pop feminism, Newsweek includes Rebecca Lolosoli, of Kenya, as one of the 150 “women who shake the world.” Lolosoli has established a “matriarchal utopia,” a womyn-only village called Umoja. To add to the perfection of this Arcadia, many of these women were raped by British soldiers. That’s what we are told by the investigatively hard-nosed Newsweek, and expected to believe without any proof. “Sons are welcome—as long as they are willing to follow the village’s rules and do not try to dominate the women.” The village supposedly offers women protection, as if any women can seriously protect themselves without the help of men.

The women of Umoja must be only too happy to indulge the fantasies of Western feminists and the bottomless credulity of American women. In a ludicrous example of fusion feminism, which is commercial to the core, the village manufactures artisan bead necklaces sold by fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg. Buy one, and you too can be part of global matriarchy and channel the strength of the Umoja women as you drop your children off at day care or are on your way to work as a low-level government functionary. Umoja! Primitive is cool. It sure beats the soulless, deadening, day-to-day reality of Western androgyny. 

Eliza Griswold reports:

Lolosoli, a mother of five, is now the first woman among her people, the Samburu of Kenya, to ask for—and receive—a divorce.

Two months ago, when the verdict was announced, her husband burst into tears in the courtroom.

“I will get hold of you again,” he threatened.

Lolosoli will be part of this weekend’s Women in the World Summit in New York City. The event is sponsored by Founding Partner HP, American Express, The Coca-Cola Company, ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Reuters, the Virtue Foundation, Vital Voices Global Partnership, Women for Women International and the United Nations.

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HERE’S THE latest from The Australian on efforts by the Australian government under Prime Minister Julia Gillard to force companies to hire and promote women: (more…)

WHEN I chose this Soviet poster honoring International Women’s Day yesterday, I was perplexed by the picture. What is happening to the woman on the left? What is all that stuff? Now, I realize, thanks to a reader, that she is buried under her kitchen. This is a symbol of household slavery. The woman is literally crushed by her samovar and mop.

Lucy Zubova writes:

I don’t know if you translated it but the Russian wording reads: “8th March Insurrection Day of the Female Workers against Kitchen Slavery.” All I can say is, Ha ha ha ha. I don’t care how many billboards or pictures of Dyadya Lenin were placed around the former USSR. My own Russian husband has told me something of the life those “equal” Soviet women enjoyed. (more…)

  If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent If the unheard, unspoken Word is unspoken, unheard; Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard, The Word without a word, the Word within The world and for the world; And the light shone in darkness and Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled About the centre of the silent Word. O my people, what have I done unto thee. Where shall the word be found, where will the word Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence Not on the sea or on the islands, not On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land, For those who walk in darkness Both in the day time and in the night time The right time and the right place are not here No place of grace for those who avoid the face No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice                                                   From "Ash-Wednesday" by T. S. Eliot

JOSIAH writes:

Patriarchy is assumed by many to mean rule by men. Feminists make this assumption, and anti-feminists tend to make this mistaken assumption too. Patriarchy is not rule by men, but rule by patriarchs (from the Latin root pater) or family men. In the past, most men were patriarchs so patriarch and man were interchangeable. This is the reason we have made the mistaken assumption that patriachy is rule by men.  (more…)

TODAY is the centenary of that beautiful, soul-stirring Marxist holiday, International Women’s Day. To mark the occasion, this video was made by a British equality campaign. The actor Daniel Craig dresses up as a woman while playing James Bond, making it a day to celebrate not just feminism but homosexuality too.

The sheer hatefulness of the script will take your breath away. It is narrated by the actress Judi Dench in a voice dripping with contempt and rage over the worldwide maltreatment of women as she recites unverifiable figures such as 60 million for the number of girls sexually assaulted on their way to school every year. Women do two-thirds the amount of work around the world and earn ten percent of the income, she says. Her poisonous little speech is pure, unadulterated evil.

The video was made by EQUALS, “a partnership of leading charities brought together by Annie Lennox to celebrate the centenary of International Women’s Day.” Interestingly, in its glowing description of International Women’s Day, the group fails to mention the day’s Soviet origins. The great thing about Soviet equality was that women were sent to Siberia too. (more…)

TINA BROWN has unveiled her first issue of a redesigned Newsweek with a breathless celebration of global feminism. Women, women, women.  The world over, women are doing amazing, earth-shattering, unprecedented things. And, with such humility: (more…)

I REALIZE this is just a painting and many Victorians did not live like this. I also realize you may consider this domestic coziness cloying, even obnoxious. But this is one more bit of evidence for the ideals to which the Victorians aspired. Try to imagine a modern painter portraying three generations together like this. He would be laughed out of every gallery in America. (more…)

PAUL writes:

With rare exceptions, I have grown to dislike modern Fantasy novels (as opposed to the Lord of the Rings) because women dominate men in these books or equate men with women. I want to read Fantasy (and virile authors such as Ludlum) because of the virility. I have not been finding similar novels. If I read a novel, I skip the female-male character parts and don’t miss anything. Maybe I will need to look harder. Jonathan Kellerman is good (despite his charismatic homosexual non-sexual partner). A writer friend of mine once told me some years back the reason was 70 percent of Fantasy is read by women. (more…)