Women At War

[debrand]

I found a link to this article on LAF.

wedgewords.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/women-at-war/

G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “Feminists are, as their name implies, opposed to anything feminine.â€

G.K Chesterton can kiss my ass. It is up to me to decide what being a woman means. Other women, men, the church....none of them get a say in my definition of being a woman.

If it is natural for women to be this person's version of 'feminine' there would be no need to discuss the issue. All women would be the exact same.

Women are taught from the earliest ages that they should do anything that they desire, no matter the perceived restrictions

I'm not certain what the writer means by restrictions. Individuals should be hired for jobs based on their ability to do the job. It is silly for business to block half the labor force from doing jobs that they are fully capable of doing. Plus, all women aren't the same. Although some women might love to remain home with their kids, some moms are better parents if they have careers. None of us can make that decision for someone else.

You see, a reaction against true misogyny which has existed in the past has combined with a certain sort of covetousness on the part of some women to get us to the point where there can be no more public recognition of women as women. Forget about opening doors or pulling out chairs for women, I have actually been reprimanded for calling an older woman “ma’am.â€

When I was a teen, an older man got very upset that I opened the door for him. Do you know what I did? I didn't open the door for him again. Simple. My ego wasn't bound up in his reassuring me that I was a wonderful person. If someone doesn't want to be called, ma'am...don't call them ma'am. Why is that a hard thing to do? It shows rudeness to get so upset over such a silly issue.

As far as opening door, I open doors all the time and have doors opened for me. It isn't a big deal and doesn't make the man more manly or more likely to be respectful. As far as pulling the chair out for women, most people don't do that unless they are on a date.

In short, women can be men, and it is becoming more and more clear that the preference is that they do so.

No, women just want to decide for themselves who they are. I'm not trying to be a man nor a woman. I'm just want to be me and I happen to have both traditional feminine and masculine traits.

Now, surely I’m just being provocative. I’m either being snarky or cute, but I can’t be serious.

I think that the writer is serious. I just also think that the writer's opinion is idiotic.

We can’t have “women’s jobs†because we can’t have women’s roles, and that means that we can’t have women, not in public at least. If you want to personally believe that women exist, then you are free to do so in the privacy of your own bedroom.

I have boobs and a vagina so I am a woman no matter what I wear or my career is. Many years ago I took a class on childhood development. There is an age when kids begin to realize that there is more to gender than hair length and clothing. The fact that this writer hasn't reached that age of development is troubling.

Feminism is chauvinism. It shares the belief that traditional “women’s roles†are undesirable and second best.

I'm sure that there are some feminists that think this but the majority do not.

You can read the rest of the article

[clarinetpower]

From the comments:

Angie on January 31, 2013 at 10:20 am said:

Modern Butch Women have mangled the true meaning of being a feminist. However, you are right in one respect, the blame of this needs to be spread to the men of our society as well. The goal of a true feminist is equality. At home, at work, in politics, in economy, in society. Raising children is a hard thing to do. They are dynamic and rarely follow a cohesive formula… and I would argue that it is harder to be a parent than it is to be a professional (mainly because you can’t “go home†from being a parent). Modern women see this, and seek the “escape†of work that only men were allowed in the past.

I have seen many “traditional†families and it is quite appalling what is “expected†of the SAHM. She is expected to cook, to clean the ENTIRE house, to pick up after the kids, to make the doctor/dentist/music/etc appointments and to make sure that the child (willing or not) makes the appointment in a timely manner. They are the ones that spend the most time with the child, and are also required to be the one to discipline the child when necessary. Because it is the “mother’s†role to do all of this, she is typically the one viewed as the “mean†parent, whereas the father, who has been gone all day working, comes home to play time and is the “fun†parent. They expect to be able to go off on their own to while away their spare time on their hobbies while the overworked, over stressed, under appreciated mother STILL has to take care of the children, the household, and her husband. That is the inequality that the real feminists are trying to equalize. Unfortunately, because of the chauvinism of many men in the past and present, the easiest way to signify equality is to emulate these chauvinists. It’s not right and has done more damage than can be quantified to the collective psyche of woman.

I have seen many “modern†families, and it’s even more appalling to see that the expectations of a SAHM are still applied to working mothers, and other women are part of the problem. We are told from a young age that WE are the ones who are supposed to nurture the child, WE are the ones with the “mothering†instinct, that WE are the ones who determine whether or not the child behaves correctly… and we have to do all of this while holding down a 8:00-5:00 job (because let’s face it, 9:00-5:00 jobs only apply to the hourly workers… the rest of us put in 9-12 hours a day on a regular basis with no overtime pay).

Sure, there are couples that share the responsibilities of home either equally or fairly, but those are very rare and require such a monumental effort that many couples fail to get this right and they revert to one of the above.

I am a feminist. I know that we have the capability of being as tough, as smart, as driven, as passionate as our male counterparts.

I am also feminine. I believe there is power in dressing like a woman, carrying oneself with the dignity of a woman, and making no excuses for our feminine parts.

I believe in equality, and that a woman should be given the same choices and opportunities that are allotted to men, and vice versa.

I believe that as soon as the conservatives quit being so negative towards SAHDs (a trend that seems to be growing as we grow closer to that elusive ideal of gender equality) and when the chauvinists stop treating a “skirt†like a “skirtâ€, I think the “feminists†will stop their war on feminism.

Steven Wedgeworth on January 31, 2013 at 1:12 pm said:

Angie,

I don’t use this expression very often, but preach it sister.

HUH?

[duplessis3]

I tell my sons that boys' and men's clothes are clothes that men and boys wear. So if they want to wear a flowered frock, and they own it - it is a boy's dress.