Free at last, Free at last, Free at Last!

[Simple Minded]

Suddenly.... I don't feel so bad about being born with male genitalia. Amazing what the approval of a good woman can do for yer sense of self-esteem...... I think they realized this a long time ago......

Feminism

It’s a Man’s World, and It Always Will Be

The modern economy is a male epic, in which women have found a productive role — but women were not its author

By Camille Paglia Dec. 16, 2013508 Comments

If men are obsolete, then women will soon be extinct — unless we rush down that ominous Brave New World path where women clone themselves by parthenogenesis, as famously do Komodo dragons, hammerhead sharks and pit vipers.

A peevish, grudging rancor against men has been one of the most unpalatable and unjust features of second- and third-wave feminism. Men’s faults, failings and foibles have been seized on and magnified into gruesome bills of indictment. Ideologue professors at our leading universities indoctrinate impressionable undergraduates with carelessly fact-free theories alleging that gender is an arbitrary, oppressive fiction with no basis in biology.

Is it any wonder that so many high-achieving young women, despite all the happy talk about their academic success, find themselves in the early stages of their careers in chronic uncertainty or anxiety about their prospects for an emotionally fulfilled private life? When an educated culture routinely denigrates masculinity and manhood, then women will be perpetually stuck with boys, who have no incentive to mature or to honor their commitments. And without strong men as models to either embrace or (for dissident lesbians) to resist, women will never attain a centered and profound sense of themselves as women.

From my long observation, which predates the sexual revolution, this remains a serious problem afflicting Anglo-American society, with its Puritan residue. In France, Italy, Spain, Latin America and Brazil, in contrast, many ambitious professional women seem to have found a formula for asserting power and authority in the workplace while still projecting sexual allure and even glamour. This is the true feminine mystique, which cannot be taught but flows from an instinctive recognition of sexual differences. In today’s punitive atmosphere of sentimental propaganda about gender, the sexual imagination has understandably fled into the alternate world of online pornography, where the rude but exhilarating forces of primitive nature rollick unconstrained by religious or feminist moralism.

(MORE: Women in Federal Workforce Face More Obstacles Than Men)

It was always the proper mission of feminism to attack and reconstruct the ossified social practices that had led to wide-ranging discrimination against women. But surely it was and is possible for a progressive reform movement to achieve that without stereotyping, belittling or demonizing men. History must be seen clearly and fairly: obstructive traditions arose not from men’s hatred or enslavement of women but from the natural division of labor that had developed over thousands of years during the agrarian period and that once immensely benefited and protected women, permitting them to remain at the hearth to care for helpless infants and children. Over the past century, it was labor-saving appliances, invented by men and spread by capitalism, that liberated women from daily drudgery.

What is troubling in too many books and articles by feminist journalists in the U.S. is, despite their putative leftism, an implicit privileging of bourgeois values and culture. The particular focused, clerical and managerial skills of the upper-middle-class elite are presented as the highest desideratum, the ultimate evolutionary point of humanity. Yes, there has been a gradual transition from an industrial to a service-sector economy in which women, who generally prefer a safe, clean, quiet work environment thrive.

(MORE: Report: Younger Women Nearing Pay Equality With Men)

But the triumphalism among some — like Hanna Rosin in her book, The End of Men, about women’s gains — seems startlingly premature. For instance, Rosin says of the sagging fortunes of today’s working-class couples that they and we had “reached the end of a hundred thousand years of human history and the beginning of a new era, and there was no going back.” This sweeping appeal to history somehow overlooks history’s far darker lessons about the cyclic rise and fall of civilizations, which as they become more complex and interconnected also become more vulnerable to collapse. The earth is littered with the ruins of empires that believed they were eternal.

After the next inevitable apocalypse, men will be desperately needed again! Oh, sure, there will be the odd gun-toting Amazonian survivalist gal, who can rustle game out of the bush and feed her flock, but most women and children will be expecting men to scrounge for food and water and to defend the home turf. Indeed, men are absolutely indispensable right now, invisible as it is to most feminists, who seem blind to the infrastructure that makes their own work lives possible. It is overwhelmingly men who do the dirty, dangerous work of building roads, pouring concrete, laying bricks, tarring roofs, hanging electric wires, excavating natural gas and sewage lines, cutting and clearing trees, and bulldozing the landscape for housing developments. It is men who heft and weld the giant steel beams that frame our office buildings, and it is men who do the hair-raising work of insetting and sealing the finely tempered plate-glass windows of skyscrapers 50 stories tall.

Every day along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, one can watch the passage of vast oil tankers and towering cargo ships arriving from all over the world. These stately colossi are loaded, steered and off-loaded by men. The modern economy, with its vast production and distribution network, is a male epic, in which women have found a productive role — but women were not its author. Surely, modern women are strong enough now to give credit where credit is due!

MORE: Where Are the Women of the Year?

Paglia’s opening statement at the Munk Debate, “Resolved: Men Are Obsolete,” held in Toronto


Read more: It’s a Man’s World, and It Always Will Be |

TIME.com http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/16/its-a- ... z2njdJDMLp

[Typhoon]

Can't say I disagree with most of what Paglia wrote.

[Anecdotally, I'm met her at a reception after a lecture in the US. Even had a signed copy of whatever book she was promoting at the time, but left it at the local library.]

The reality is that most people, misandric feminists being only one extreme example, have no idea of the incredible effort and organization required to build and maintain a modern industrial society.
They assume, not having experienced different, that it is the natural order of things.

So, blissfully ignorant and sheltered from the indifferent acts of nature, they are able to dream up all sorts of unrealistic and impractical systems of belief.

Paglia does make an observation that agrees with my own experience.
When I lived in the US, women from Europe and S America were "I'm a [insert name of highly skilled profession here] who happens to be a woman." whereas the same raised in the US
were often "I"m a WOMAN [insert name of highly skilled profession here]."

Of course, in Japan, the old-school expectation is that a woman will retire from the labour force once she marries, so many woman are choosing not to marry.
On the other hand, I know a number of women who continued to work after marriage and kids, encouraged by their [presumably enlightened] companies.
Although all find it nothing if not stressful in terms of finding balance.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Paglia does make an observation that agrees with my own experience.
When I lived in the US, women from Europe and S America were "I'm a [insert name of highly skilled profession here] who happens to be a woman." whereas the same raised in the US
were often "I"m a WOMAN [insert name of highly skilled profession here]."

I heard it suggested that this is an Anglo-problem due to language syntax. We are dealing with a language that no longer provides a grammatical gender-categorization to inanimate objects. From there, more people place weight on gendered nouns than they may in other European (and world) languages.

[Simple Minded]

.....The reality is that most people, misandric feminists being only one extreme example, have no idea of the incredible effort required to build and maintain a modern industrial society.
They assume, not having experienced different, that it is the natural order of things.

So, blissfully ignorant and sheltered from the indifferent acts of nature, they are able to dream up all sorts of unrealistic and impractical systems of belief.

Very well said..... the limitations of reality/laws of physics-economics, etc. can be extremely inconvenient for those who wish for different..... it has reversed up the best of intentions of more than a few self-appointed demigods.

If only we could invent an "imaginary reality" mid way between reality and virtual reality........

.....On the other hand, I know a number of women who continued to work after marriage and kids, encouraged by their [presumably enlightened] companies.
Although all find it nothing if not stressful in terms of finding balance.

The same is true in the US. Those who think parenting is not a full time job for a bare minimum of one parent seem to lead the most stressful of lives.

The social results of illegitimacy are well known, I think the social effects of "hobbyist parents" are just now beginning to surface in the west.

Balance is an excellent word. What is gained compared to what is lost is always very subjective.

[noddy]

best not to take the ranting of the professional victim type feminists that seriously, its the allegedly more intellectual version of the barfly male blaming teh bitchez fo ruinin hiz life.

it is a shame when young girls take it earnestly but hopefully most of them will grow out of it as they grow up and pay attention to whats actually happening around them.

[Simple Minded]

best not to take the ranting of the professional victim type feminists that seriously, its the allegedly more intellectual version of the barfly male blaming teh bitchez fo ruinin hiz life....

So do ya think the best way to score with a "professional victim type feminist" would be to reply

"OMG! That's amazing! I feel EXACTLY like that too! Suddenly.... I feel less alone... but at the same time.... somehow more vulnerable....."

I would think that would have a higher success rate than

"I hear ya Kitten! Life is SO UNFAIR! But the sooner ya learn to MAN UP and deal with it, the better off you will be!"

[Apollonius]

Camille Paglia: A feminist defense of masculine virtues - Bari Weiss, Wall Street Journal, 28 December 2013
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1 ... 2857012920

The cultural critic on why ignoring the biological differences between men and women risks undermining Western civilization.

[Simple Minded]

Camille Paglia: A feminist defense of masculine virtues - Bari Weiss, Wall Street Journal, 28 December 2013
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1 ... 2857012920

The cultural critic on why ignoring the biological differences between men and women risks undermining Western civilization.

That's why I love Camile. Real thinkers always defy stereotyping and labeling..... The group thinking herds hate em!

[Miss_Faucie_Fishtits]

The reality is that most people, misandric feminists being only one extreme example, have no idea of the incredible effort and organization required to build and maintain a modern industrial society.

This....... and it's rather astounding how many 'social' conservatives do not subscribe to this sentiment, as well. Guess it doesn't agree with the narrative of the rugged individualist with the proper Christian values living in the proscribed monogamous marital relationship being the source and bedrock of all things.......

[Mr. Perfect]

Would I wonder being a good parent be part of building/preserving this modern society or not I wonder. I wonder.

[Mr. Perfect]

That's why I love Camile. Real thinkers always defy stereotyping and labeling.....

Sort of a label and stereotype all it's own, wouldn't you say. I would say.

The group thinking herds hate em!

The non group thinking herd seems to like them.

[Heracleum Persicum]

Suddenly.... I don't feel so bad about being born with male genitalia. Amazing what the approval of a good woman can do for yer sense of self-esteem...... I think they realized this a long time ago......

Feminism

It’s a Man’s World, and It Always Will Be

The modern economy is a male epic, in which women have found a productive role — but women were not its author

By Camille Paglia Dec. 16, 2013508 Comments

If men are obsolete, then women will soon be extinct — unless we rush down that ominous Brave New World path where women clone themselves by parthenogenesis, as famously do Komodo dragons, hammerhead sharks and pit vipers.

A peevish, grudging rancor against men has been one of the most unpalatable and unjust features of second- and third-wave feminism. Men’s faults, failings and foibles have been seized on and magnified into gruesome bills of indictment. Ideologue professors at our leading universities indoctrinate impressionable undergraduates with carelessly fact-free theories alleging that gender is an arbitrary, oppressive fiction with no basis in biology.

Is it any wonder that so many high-achieving young women, despite all the happy talk about their academic success, find themselves in the early stages of their careers in chronic uncertainty or anxiety about their prospects for an emotionally fulfilled private life? When an educated culture routinely denigrates masculinity and manhood, then women will be perpetually stuck with boys, who have no incentive to mature or to honor their commitments. And without strong men as models to either embrace or (for dissident lesbians) to resist, women will never attain a centered and profound sense of themselves as women.

From my long observation, which predates the sexual revolution, this remains a serious problem afflicting Anglo-American society, with its Puritan residue. In France, Italy, Spain, Latin America and Brazil, in contrast, many ambitious professional women seem to have found a formula for asserting power and authority in the workplace while still projecting sexual allure and even glamour. This is the true feminine mystique, which cannot be taught but flows from an instinctive recognition of sexual differences. In today’s punitive atmosphere of sentimental propaganda about gender, the sexual imagination has understandably fled into the alternate world of online pornography, where the rude but exhilarating forces of primitive nature rollick unconstrained by religious or feminist moralism.

(MORE: Women in Federal Workforce Face More Obstacles Than Men)

It was always the proper mission of feminism to attack and reconstruct the ossified social practices that had led to wide-ranging discrimination against women. But surely it was and is possible for a progressive reform movement to achieve that without stereotyping, belittling or demonizing men. History must be seen clearly and fairly: obstructive traditions arose not from men’s hatred or enslavement of women but from the natural division of labor that had developed over thousands of years during the agrarian period and that once immensely benefited and protected women, permitting them to remain at the hearth to care for helpless infants and children. Over the past century, it was labor-saving appliances, invented by men and spread by capitalism, that liberated women from daily drudgery.

What is troubling in too many books and articles by feminist journalists in the U.S. is, despite their putative leftism, an implicit privileging of bourgeois values and culture. The particular focused, clerical and managerial skills of the upper-middle-class elite are presented as the highest desideratum, the ultimate evolutionary point of humanity. Yes, there has been a gradual transition from an industrial to a service-sector economy in which women, who generally prefer a safe, clean, quiet work environment thrive.

(MORE: Report: Younger Women Nearing Pay Equality With Men)

But the triumphalism among some — like Hanna Rosin in her book, The End of Men, about women’s gains — seems startlingly premature. For instance, Rosin says of the sagging fortunes of today’s working-class couples that they and we had “reached the end of a hundred thousand years of human history and the beginning of a new era, and there was no going back.” This sweeping appeal to history somehow overlooks history’s far darker lessons about the cyclic rise and fall of civilizations, which as they become more complex and interconnected also become more vulnerable to collapse. The earth is littered with the ruins of empires that believed they were eternal.

After the next inevitable apocalypse, men will be desperately needed again! Oh, sure, there will be the odd gun-toting Amazonian survivalist gal, who can rustle game out of the bush and feed her flock, but most women and children will be expecting men to scrounge for food and water and to defend the home turf. Indeed, men are absolutely indispensable right now, invisible as it is to most feminists, who seem blind to the infrastructure that makes their own work lives possible. It is overwhelmingly men who do the dirty, dangerous work of building roads, pouring concrete, laying bricks, tarring roofs, hanging electric wires, excavating natural gas and sewage lines, cutting and clearing trees, and bulldozing the landscape for housing developments. It is men who heft and weld the giant steel beams that frame our office buildings, and it is men who do the hair-raising work of insetting and sealing the finely tempered plate-glass windows of skyscrapers 50 stories tall.

Every day along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, one can watch the passage of vast oil tankers and towering cargo ships arriving from all over the world. These stately colossi are loaded, steered and off-loaded by men. The modern economy, with its vast production and distribution network, is a male epic, in which women have found a productive role — but women were not its author. Surely, modern women are strong enough now to give credit where credit is due!

MORE: Where Are the Women of the Year?

Paglia’s opening statement at the Munk Debate, “Resolved: Men Are Obsolete,” held in Toronto


Read more: It’s a Man’s World, and It Always Will Be |

TIME.com http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/16/its-a- ... z2njdJDMLp

Le Monde
Pornography :
The inner struggles of women who watch and enjoy hardcore content

They're in their 30s, watching X-rated films, finding pleasure in them one minute, and feeling guilty the next, caught between their fantasies and their values.
.
In France, according to a recent IFOP study, 37% of them do and that number keeps increasing. Pornhub statistics reveal that in France the percentage of female viewers increased by 4 points in 2022 on their platform, to 32%. A third of viewers worldwide are female.

But what are they watching? "Unconventional, somewhat scripted porn: 'Father-in-law takes his daughter-in-law' or videos under the hashtag 'rape'," explained Camille (first name changed), 35, an educational project manager for a private school. Her revelation is consistent with the data collected by the platform: Romantic missionary scenes are less popular than "trashy" content. As such, the probability of a woman on Pornhub watching "hardcore" scenes is 34% higher than a man; and 29% higher for the "gangbang" category.

The fantasy of forbidden sexuality, filled with submission and constraint, instantly arouses Camille. It's effective. "But there have been times when I've come, and wondered: Why am I watching this?" Being a woman and watching porn doesn't happen without inner conflict, as if you don't belong, caught in a vice between what fuels your arousal and your values. "You can't read Mona Chollet and watch porn!" said Christelle, a 39-year-old architect.

Things becoming more complicated for feminists, things going awry ..

.