St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 6, 1994 - For all you guys who are wondering how to hew to the straight and narrow of appropriate behavior at work, columnist Christine Bertelson has some sage advice on how to avoid sexual harassment at work: "Don't do anything to a woman that you wouldn't do to Mom."
Doesn't Ms. Bertelson believe a child should show his mother affection. In my family, we hug and kiss our mother, and that kind of behavior wouldn't go over well with the New Rage witches intent on excising every bit of (male) sexuality from the workplace.
Hear them WHINE?
Seattle Times, February 26, 1995 - Outrageous Practices: The Alarming Truth about how Medicine Mistreats Women, should be re-titled, "The Alarming Truth about how authors Leslie Laurence and Beth Weinhouse Distort the Truth."
In a Times excerpt, "Hear me ROAR," they manage to present the facts without telling the truth (typical fare for the Times).
First, they note women "reported greater communication problems with their physicians and were more likely to change doctors because of their dissatisfaction."
"There is also a perception among women," they report "that physicians don't take women's time seriously."
Are doctors, as the authors imply, sexist? Not necessarily. They admit that "patients of both sexes have an average of only 18 seconds before being interrupted by their doctors" and that female patients are far more likely to grill their doctors for glib explanations of complex problems: "During a typical 15- minute office visit, women ask an average of six questions. Men don't ask any."
This isn't medical sexism, but pop-feminist hypersensitivity. So next time some New Rager whines, just tell her, "It's all in your head."
Fountain of Rage?
Washington Journal, C-Span, March 9, 1995 - Thirty years ago, Betty Friedan challenged conventional wisdom with her explosive book, The Feminine Mystique. Now, in an ironic about face, she has come out with a new book, The Fountain of Age, that essentially rejects her earlier posture to proclaim wisdom comes not with insight, but age.
This old and improved Friedan went on C-Span's Washington Journal to discuss the day's news with Detroit News columnist and pro-fairness feminist Cathy Young.
"You haven't been in this country long enough to know..." Friedan crabbed, referring to the fact Young moved to the U.S. roughly 15 years ago. Cheap shot!!! The only "wisdom" this demonstrates is the canny of an aging street fighter who knows all the low blows.
On welfare reform, Friedan called the "attack" on welfare mothers a "backlash against women." Recently, my mother reminded me how vehemently Friedan attacked housewives for sub-optimizing their potential through marriage rather than pursuing a career. If this so-called attack on welfare mothers really is a backlash, it's against the pop-feminist attack on marriage that many feel is responsible for the growing number of young single mothers today.
A part of wisdom is the ability to see things in a historical perspective. Seeing things in the context of cause and effect, where current conditions have come from, as well as where present actions may lead. Friedan clearly has a grasp of the latter, but demonstrates a disappointing lack of the former.
Finally fed up?
Seattle Celebrity Forum, March 13, 1995 - During a debate between Phyllis Schlafly and Sarah Weddington (the lawyer who won the Roe v Wade case), Weddington remarked on the case of a female commercial airline pilot who has filed a complaint of hostile environment sexual harassment after a picture of a naked woman in a sexual pose when fell out of a magazine onto the floor in front of her in the passenger compartment. During the Q&A period that followed the debate, I asked Weddington the following:
"You mentioned the female pilot's complaint of sex harassment. As, by Catharine MacKinnon's definition, hostile environment sexual harassment is unwanted sexual conduct that has the purpose or effect of interfering with a person's ability to do their work, AND, as most men feel wearing a short skirt or a tight sweater constitutes sexual conduct, does this not, therefore, mean that by FEMINIST definition more women are harassing men than the other way around?"
The audience roared with approval. More and more people have had it with the pop-feminists' con. I have a simple message for the anti-male bigots: Get reasonable, or get outta town; our victory is inevitable.
When crime pays?
Mercury News, March 22, 1995 - It pays to be a criminal in San Mateo County. If you're a woman, that is.
John Woolfolk reports that "women convicted of minor crimes in San Mateo County" no longer face jail time. They "can sign up for courses in parenting, nutrition, personal finance and other skills classes."
Says Janice MacLaren, director of court services for the county probation department, ''It gets people out of jail, and it's much cheaper to provide treatment than to incarcerate someone."
And if you define a "family" as a woman with children, it keeps families together, too. ''We focused on women because they often have child care responsibilities,'' Sheriff Don Horsley explained.'
John McInerney, head of the county's legal defense program, said they're not concerned about fairness. ''For many years, men had work furlough and women had nothing. The problems that women have are different. They are the primary care-givers for children."
Gee, I wonder why that is? Can you say, Family Court System?
Invasion of the Pod Feminists?
Ms. Magazine, March/April 1995 - Susan Faludi stumps to the podium of pop- feminism to take on pro-fairness females, and all she can come up with is a rape metaphor?
In a whiney exposition reminiscent of her book, Backlash, Faludi calls pro- fairness feminists, like Christina Hoff Sommers and Cathy Young, "Pod Feminists" who are assisting in an "invasion of the body of the women's movement: the Invasion of the Feminist Snatchers, intent on repopulating the ranks with Pod Feminists."
And what are the Pod Feminists' crimes? At the Women's Freedom Network, they believe "male and female roles should be allowed to evolve naturally." Choice, evidently, is foreign to Faludi's philosophy.
Riki Robbins Jones, founder of the Network for Empowering Women, has the gall to suggest it's time to make "amends with those poor feminist-bashed men." And Cathy Young, a Pod among Pods, had the audacity to "convict feminist leaders on the false charge of having crowned Lorena Bobbitt as Feminist of the Year." (But didn't Karen DeCrow, a former president of NOW, level the same charge?)
Then there's the Grand Matriarch of the Pod Feminists, Christina Hoff Sommers. She dares the unspeakable - to do bonafide research and cite unassailable statistics. Of all the nerve! Carps Faludi, "I have some experience with her technique, which amounts to a full-blown denunciation based on nit-picks." Well, Susan, after the lies you told about Warren Farrell in the first version of your book, Backlash, we 'spect that'd make you an expert of sorts on the subject.
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