If the same applies to men (and, considering the source, we can assume it doesn't), then perhaps we should ask when women are going to start treating us all like Rock Stars.
Derisive fantasies aside, we have another example of where, in best Orwellian fashion, MacKinnon's law translates into "women are more equal than men."
"There will be no woman on any chain gang in the state of Alabama today, tomorrow or any time under my watch," Gov. Fob James said in a statement announcing the resignation of Ron Jones.What prompted the ill-fated commissioner to put women in chain gangs, too? Women's equality:
The prison system has been sued by at least two male prisoners challenging the chain gangs' men-only status, and officials had cited these lawsuits as part of the reason for expanding the program to women. Jones had said Thursday that females could be working in leg irons by summer.Silly rabbit. Doesn't he know, equality is for women, not men.
"We like to say the Ms. Foundation is sponsoring the event on Earth, and AOL is sponsoring it in space," says Jill Savitt, communications director for the Ms. Foundation in New York. "We want to show girls that there is a place for them in the computer world, even though most of the toys and video games are aimed at boys."AOL's service for Internet users only, the Global Network Navigator (GNN), also participated.
When asked about the sexist overtones of an event that caters only to girls, Jill Savitt said they were motivated by the spurious research promulgated by the American Association of University Women that indiciates school age girls suffer a precipitous droup in self-esteem as a result of educational sexism. "Boys," she said, "have serious needs in their teenage years, too, but they are different. We don't have the resources to deal with that--our mandate is to serve girls and women."
Given that all statistics indicate our public school system serves girls far better than it does boys, we cannot help but wonder at her real motives.
A network of organizations is now working on a national day tailored for boys, Savitt says. Information about the project is available at (800) 973-8229.Uh-huh. And what might Ms. have in mind to bolster boys?
Weekly Standard, April 22, 1996:
Here are some of the ways the Ms. Foundation proposes Sons' Day be celebrated:Their response to how poorly the public school system serves boys is to batter the boys with even more negative stereotyping? "Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when Ms. gets done with you?"
- Take your son--or 'son for a day'--to an event that focuses on ... ending men's violence against women. Call the Family Violence Prevention fund at 800- END-ABUSE for information.
- Plan a game or sport in which the contest specifically does not keep score or declare a winner. Invite the community to watch and celebrate boys playing on teams for the sheer fun of playing.
- Since Sons' Day is on SUNDAY, make sur your son is involved in preparing the family for the work and school week ahead. This means: helping lay out clothes for siblings [and] making lunches."
I'll tell you what we should do: boycott any business that supports their sexist agenda.
They’re lying.
At its peak in 1979, Penthouse magazine’s circulation was only 4.7 million. It’s only 1.1 million today. Compared to Ms. magazine’s half million, that’s still respectable, but it’s comparable to New Woman magazine, and less than half the circulation at Glamour, and while Penthouse may be the number 2 best-selling men's erotic magazine (behind Playboy), its circulation is puny compared to most of the major women’s magazines.
A note about medical sexism and personal responsibility, too. A few years back, Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione started Longevity, "which started out as a newsletter about living longer." The newsletter was a hit with "men in their 50s and 60s," but Guccione’s third wife, Kathy Keeton, "and others wanted to target female baby boomers under 40." Nothing wrong with that, except that most women under 40 are more concerned with lipstick than longevity:
They changed Longevity into a glossy women’s magazine. "Women in their 30s don’t...believe they are going to die," says former editor Dick Teresi.After the change, the magazine bombed.
Certainly, there are a lot of men in their 30s who feel the same way (although Joe Weider's Muscle & Fitness magazine, with its emphasis on nutrition and exercise, enjoys a circulation in excess of 5 million), but we are unlikely to hear any feminists blaming medical sexism for how a self-destructive lifestyle adversly affects the health and longevity of young men. But if women (who live longer, healthier lives than men) get so much as a hangnail, it must be a patriarchal plot!
But an analysis of the survey said that while girls do well in school, they often do so only in an effort to please others.Hang your head in shame, fellows. Girls underperform because the patriarchal system undermines their self-esteem, leading to an oppressive overachievement in order to please. Yes, girls need to be liberated to drop out of high school in the same numbers boys do, and women need to feel free to not go to college, and to seek out deadend jobs in the same numbers men do. But they need to be highly paid, regardless of their choices, and they need to feel good about doing it, whatever it is they decide to do."I think it's important to point that out, because there is a lot of confusion there," said Marie Wilson, president of the Ms. Foundation for Women. "They keep getting better grades while we also say they have low self-esteem."
Regardless, of course, men will always be to blame, because no matter how poorly the school system serves boys, the only unpardonable sin is if it shortchanges girls.
Women need to protect themselves, after all.
But when a man does it to protect the interests of his children, just hold on there one minute! Men have no legitimate interests. Particularly not if the man is Gordon Clark, ex-husband of the famous failed prosecutor, Marcia Clark.
"Gordon's having a private investigator dog Marcia's every step," says an insider. "It's a terrible way for her to live. She's spied on every waking hour of the day."Poor Marcia. She's such a devoted mother. How can this callous cad do such a thing to her?
...Gordon's biggest complaint, say sources, is that Marcia is traveling on weekdays AND weekends, and is virtually never home with the kids.So, why should this be of any concern to Mr. Clark? He's a man, after all. His job is to pay child support, and otherwise leave the care of his ex-children to his liberated ex-wife. Silly Rabbit! Everybody knows women own the children.
No doubt she was thinking of evil patriarchal woman-oppressing men like Terry Spragg.
During the past 8 years, Spragg has spent almost all of his money developing huge, seaworthy 500-foot long fabric bags for transporting 4.5 million gallons each of fresh water from places like Alaska to California, and from Turkey to Israel and the Gaza Strip.
If he is successful in obtaining a steady water supply, he may well become the world's next billionaire. And if he is successful, pop feminists will almost certainly condemn his company as just another example of how women are oppressed by men because a man -- Spragg -- heads his company.
All of which ignores that, according to Working Woman magazine, in 1992 companies headed by female entrepreneurs employed more people than the Fortune 500.
The reality is that the stereotype of men holding women back in the business world has not been (generally) true for years. Yes, some men in some companies do hold women back, but, with Affirmative Action and more and more human resource departments promoting the pop feminist agenda, there is greater justification to say just the opposite is true -- that not only are men generally not holding women back, but that women are holding men back.
One day soon, most people will recognize this; when they do, the backlash will be for real.
It is easier to live through her husband and children than to make a road of her own in the world....And Freedom is a frightening thing. It is frightening to grow up finally and be free of passive dependence....She ran back home again to live by sex alone, trading in her individuality for security.Now that Melinda French Gates' first child, Microsoft "Bob," has bombed, she's done what so many other women who, were they men, would be called "losers," have done. According to a report in The Seattle Times, she has retreated behind the lace curtain:
Melinda French Gates won't return to her job as a midlevel Microsoft manager, choosing instead to be a stay-at-home mom for Jennifer Katharine, born Friday night.Uh-huh. Now what, we might ask, will the world's richest pop-feminist do with all her spare time?
Waehler found that, unlike single women over 40, who are often deeply satisfied with their lives, the men were passive, complacent and unengaging.
What Waehler failed to do, however, was to compare the men to young single women. Doing so might reveal a strong parallel between the kind of men pop feminists like Susan Faludi describe as "losers," and most women.
What might Ms. Faludi have to say to that?