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…)

WAL-MART FACES a class-action suit by a million female employees who say they are the victims of sex discrimination. This may become the largest employment discrimination suit in U.S. history. The case is fueled by two stunningly wrongheaded assumptions: that government should have any say in compensation and promotion and that women are the same as men.

If the case proceeds, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for a company as large as Wal-Mart to disprove that it engages in sex discrimination. After all, men and women are different and any  large employer would necessarily show some pattern of sex discrimination. The initial suit was filed in 2001 by six former and current female hourly workers and managers who accused Wal-Mart of a pattern of denying women workers equal pay and opportunities. The women alleged they made less than men doing the same jobs, although they had equal or more experience. Others said men were favored for promotions into managerial positions. Hundreds of thousands of female employees have since jumped on board the case, hoping to ride this horse to the races along with the lawyers who have magnanimously sought them out. (more…)

   I once asked the nothingness, What shall I do? What shall I do? And, a voice spoke. Do nothing. Stay where you are.

  The legal power of a father,—for a mother, as such, is entitled to no power, but only to reverence and respect,  the power of a father, I say, over the persons of his children ceases at the age of twenty-one: for they are then enfranchised by arriving at years of discretion, or that point which the law has established, as some must necessarily be established, when the empire of the father, or other guardian, gives place to the empire of reason. Yet, till that age arrives, this empire of the father continues even after his death; for he may by his will appoint a guardian to his children. He may also delegate part of his parental authority, during his life, to the tutor or schoolmaster of his child; who is then in loco.                    Commentaries on the Laws of England, Sir William Blackstone, 1765-69                           

JACK W. writes:

I am young and in the position of trying to change a liberal, but naturally feminine woman. This can be very difficult, especially with a woman who is attached to liberalism for non-rational reasons (for example if her family or social identity involves allegiance to feminist ideals) and resists purely dispassionate discussions of feminism and the nature of a good marriage, almost as if with a chip on her shoulder. The only readily available appeal to her emotional side is to plainly declare what I would offer as a husband and what I would expect from a wife. This buys time and further discussion, but fear of loss cannot normally by itself catalyze a change in worldview – I wonder to what extent true change is possible for most.

A liberal woman is a corrupted woman – usually corrupted at a young age to view the world through a distorted lens. This process usually occurs on a mostly unconscious level, and it’s a rare woman who has attempted to rigorously place her liberalism on a theoretical framework. At best, many such women read, or read about, such books as The Feminine Mystique or The Second Sex,or perhaps some other readings handed out in women’s studies classes or in highschool, providing them with a mythology for their world, and themselves, that some women call on more than others in their lives. (more…)

WESTERN SOCIETY is steadily reverting to matriarchy and witnessing the progressive erosion of democracy. The two developments go hand-in-hand because it is impossible to maintain democracy with large numbers of female-headed households. Formal recognition of paternal authority is necessary to reverse this trend. Men should have primary custody of their biological children, as was commonplace in Western democracies two hundred years ago. This is one of the most basic means of checking the expansion of socialist government and the decline of the family.  Here are continuing comments from readers on the issue of presumptive paternal custody, which was discussed in this entry.

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  A READER writes: I really like these simple yet profound observations. My husband and I have commented on this "look" often. We are far from perfect, but have held fast to the narrow path, and that involves fresh air, books, music, food cooked at home, and lots of creative play borne out of "boredom." We have prayed for friends who value similar things, and have been blessed in this regard. Just yesterday, a friend and I were able to talk on the patio as we witnessed games of dolls, slides, wagons, and dirt unfold on the lawn. Such play does give a sparkle to the eyes, roses to the cheeks, and tone to the muscles. My nieces are not so blessed, and it is always a privilege for us to have them over for a day or two, feed them, and give them a taste of carefree childhood existence apart from screens, daycare, and marital strife. Thank you for expressing so concisely some notions that have been swirling in my mind.  Laura writes: Most children get some outdoor play, some idle time, and some homecooked food but in general the wholesome childhood has become marginal and atypical. To raise children in the way you describe is now subversive, a radical stance  against a sick society.

LIV writes:

I have been reading your blog for a half a year now. I actually started calling myself a traditionalist a year before that, after I spent some time abroad on my own and, for lack of a better expression,  saw the light. Your blog has been a great help to me. I started out  reading the male perspective online and continue to do so, but am also grateful for the balance you provide. Recently you and your readers have been discussing the subject of  man-bashing and how it stems from assumed male authority. The  following comment of John P. made me consider the situation in my home:

“As to hierarchy breeding resentment, I think this is untrue. Bad  hierarchy breeds resentment. There are many men who are vastly better  at squash than I am and I feel not the slightest resentment toward  their position because it is self-evident that they have earned their  superior position through a transparent and rule oriented process.  Resentment of superiors emerges when the leadership is observably no  better, or even worse, than the led, a condition I see as becoming  worryingly ubiquitous in liberal society.”

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JAMES P. writes:

There are wonderful pictures of British children from the 1940s to the 1960s here. Note the picture of the teacher leading morning prayers, and the boys using roller skates with no helmets or pads — both very shocking by today’s standards.

Meanwhile, today, one child in four in the UK is born to an immigrant mother.

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JOHN E. writes:

JULIA ROBERTS spoke in a recent Elle interview on being a wife and mother:

“The children became the shooting stars of him[her husband], of that thing we have. How lucky we are that we love each other so much that we burst into three pieces.” 

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TEXANNE writes:

Another book about the quest to discover whether men and women are different (and if so, why), is briefly reviewed in the New York Times this week. An interesting quote by a transexual person (a male who has in some way been transformed into a female) provides a clue apparently overlooked by all the gender scholars and brain scientists hard at work on this mystery: 

“The more I was treated as a woman, the more woman I became.”  (more…)

IN TOLSTOY’S famous novel about female betrayal, the title character, Anna Karenina, is forced to abandon her young child in order to live with her lover. The tension between maternal love for her son and sexual passion is a running theme throughout the book and ultimately contributes to her death, wherein the beautiful Anna throws herself under the wheels of a train, a woman destroyed by her impulsive nature.

The end is extreme but this was once the only choice for a woman leaving her husband: her lover or her children. In colonial America, as well as nineteenth century Russia, a father had presumptive custody of his children. Divorce was rare and was not even recognized in most of the colonies or early states. However, a woman had no legal claim to her own children, who were considered the charges of fathers.

Today, in an age when mothers are overwhelmingly favored for legal custody of children, this seems unimaginable. But given the vast system of abuses perpetrated by family courts, the epidemic of female abandonment of husbands, the arrests and restraining orders against fathers, and the general decline of marriage, the old way more and more makes urgent sense. Children, when in dispute, should automatically go with their fathers, not their mothers, as is commonly assumed. A father, as head of the household, should have the right to award custody to a mother. But no court should usurp his powers and authority over his own children.

Some of the greatest injustices in the modern world are committed against fathers. Their basic rights must be restored. State-imposed destruction of the institution of fatherhood is nothing less than tyrannical and benefits women not at all.

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