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Friday, December 13, 2013

Gender-War's Unlikely Allies.

UPDATE: See at end.

Most men and women in the Tavern get along well, which is not at all like the world outside the hedge down in Hilary's Village.  You know the village: its the one that takes all of them to raise a child instead of leaving it to the parents. Out there the war rages and harridans hold forth.

But Toronto recently saw the harridans taken on by a heavyweight woman - and I ain't referring to her size. This is one seriously intellectual woman.

Her first major best-seller - 'Sexual Personae' -even saw her being hailed as a feminist icon, as the harridans rushed to claim her as their 'sista'.

Camille Paglia soon put a spiked heel in that scheme.

The event pitched Camille and Caitlin Moran against the awful Radical Feminists Maureen Dowd (who still looks quite tasty, by the way) and Hannah Rosin (who, lets face it, never did manage to master lipstick).

“Be it Resolved: Men are Obsolete.”

The Lord Harry help any man who would dare to put on a public event of that nature and Title but talking of women. It would have been closed down before it started by rioting feminists screaming, breaking things and taking their clothes off.

But that was the topic of the recent Toronto debate The opening salvos from Camille blew the opposition out of the water. Even in the adjoining rooms voices were heard to say:


If women were so much better than men as these harpies claim they would achieve succeed within the free society we have today, instead of moaning and asking for quotas, they would be business leaders in numbers far greater than they are currently. It’s a free world. You are not oppressed. Quit whining and go out and do something productive for the world you claim to care so much more about.
 


 But, enough of the hecklers.... Camille's friend Christina Hoff Sommers dropped in to tell us about it:

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/12/camille-paglia-defends-men/#mbl

Maureen Dowd and Hanna Rosin defended the resolution. Camille Paglia and Caitlin Moran were opposed.   
Much of the commentary was tongue-in-cheek. Dowd noted, for example, that men have played so recklessly with the globe “they nearly broke it.” So, she said, we are going in a new direction. “Heck, men wouldn’t even ask for directions.”  
But it was Camille Paglia’s electrifying opening statement that stole the show:

          "If men are obsolete, then women will soon be extinct—unless we rush down that ominous Brave New World path where females will 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. 
Paglia not only defended men, she had a rare good word for free market capitalism and its benefits to the fair sex. In her words:

         " 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." 

According to the “males-are-in decline” crowd, the future belongs to communicative, consensus-building, emotionally intelligent women. 

 
Men, with their brawniness, risk-taking and general penchant for mayhem have overstayed their welcome. Dowd wondered if they would finally become extinct, taking “video games, Game of Thrones on a continuous loop and cold pizza in the morning with them.”  
Paglia politely but firmly reminded her sister debaters  that today’s busy, multi-tasking, alpha-females may be joining men in running the world, but they are hardly replacing them. And their brilliant careers are made possible by legions of hard-working, risk-taking, innovative men. To quote Paglia again:

           "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!"
Despite several decades of girl power, women show little or no inclination to enter many traditional male fields.  
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that more than 90% of the nation’s construction workers, electricians, roofers, aviation mechanics, refuse collectors, crane operators, firefighters, pest controllers, plumbers, pipe-fitters, heating and refrigeration installers, telecommunication line repairers, and electrical engineers  
are men.
It is still men who file more than 90% of patents.
 
In the early 1980′s the cartoonist Nicole Hollander, creator of Sylvia, ran a strip in which someone asks Sylvia what the world would be like without men. Sylvia’s reply: “No crime and lots of happy fat women.”

Paglia’s prediction of extinction may be more like it.  Her statement is worth reading in full. 
You can see it all at:

 CAMILLE PAGLIA THE MUNK DEBATE NOVEMBER 15, 2013

ROY THOMSON HALL, TORONTO

http://share.pdfonline.com/2013/12/5/a46ea8588a454464a0f5d0123c09dbf3/CORRECTED%20CAMILLE%20PAGLIA%20MUNK%20DEBATE%20OPENING%20STATEMENT%2015%20NOVEMBER%202013.htm

A round of drinks from the Cornucopia sit on the bar for Christina, Camille and Caitlin.

Update: Thanks to Iron John: The debate audio.
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Ideas/ID/2419577032/


Pax Dei Ladies.





17 comments:

  1. "A round of drinks from the Cornucopia sit on the bar for Christina, Camille and Caitlin."

    They've earned it! There's nothing better than gender traitors turning on the sisterhood!

    From Iron John

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Their voices are welcome. Women do not listen to men but they do listen to other women.

      Delete
    2. gender traitors

      I find that a disturbing comment...

      It speaks of war and barriers...

      In my world women do listen to men and vice versa men listen to women.

      The interface in the discussions may be rocky (because the two are looking at things from different perspectives) but the discussions (which may be heated) do lead to a calm settled understanding of each other...

      It is worth the journey ;-)

      In human interactions the only barriers are the ones we place on ourselves because we have been 'educated/indoctrinated' to think in a particular way.

      Delete
    3. Yes, it is provocative and stems from the depth of the 'war' that is going on. That small shot across the bow may seem terse and even belligerent, but just seek out whet the Feminists say !

      By the way, I have updated the post with an audio track found by Iron John.

      Delete
    4. My dear, I know what the feminists say and I also know what rational females say.

      We should not speak of war against genders. That is how all the problems started...

      There should be NO war between genders, men and women need each other to provide life and balance.

      I can't get the audio on my PC (it has stopped playing sounds) I will check it out on my laptop tomorrow.

      Delete
    5. Like all wars, Cherie, some nutters decide to invade and destroy. It is their talk that promotes 'war', and the hapless 'other side' (men in this instance) has to cop the task of fighting back, like it or not.

      The more that sensible and loving women can join the fray on the side of decency, the better and the sooner this awful, unnecessary and destructive gender-war will be over. Meanwhile I do my best to whack farm-boys with the flat of my sword when they become overly belligerent to no positive effect.

      Delete
    6. Like all wars, Cherie, some nutters decide to invade and destroy.

      SAD, but unfortunately TRUE.

      *sighs*

      Delete
    7. Yes.

      Hence my always trying hard (and it does take effort) to promote the idea of loving one's enemy. Hate the sin: Love the sinner.

      Delete
  2. Effective immediately, I'll be charging US$1000/hr. "tuition" for showing folks where oil goes in an engine, replacing ceiling fluorescent lamps, replacing washers in a "traditional" faucet (extra for hot vs. cold "cartridge" faucets that look cool), finding and pushing the restart buttons on oil furnaces, finding and resetting tripped circuit breakers, (with special lessons on why you can't find the tripped breaker in a fuse panel) and GFI's on outlets.
    Dead animal removal, garbage disposal and sink trap "retrievals", $2000
    Tampon, sanitary napkin, and (I Sh1t you NOT) uncooked rice/bean clog removal from soil pipes-$3000

    I pass no judgment on HOW clients "earn" the (cash ONLY) money to pay.

    CaptDMO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope the plumber who is coming to fix the Tavern Dunny tomorrow has a more appealing fee menu. I might have to pay in kind.

      Delete
  3. The Bouncer has had to remove some comments which were personally abusive. Out Troll is back.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for posting the obvious. Too bad, we can only find a very few women who stand up for the obvious: without men...women are doomed. (Drum roll, rim shot.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is obvious to some, and as with anything at all, many are quite blind to some obviousae. There are an increasing number of women speaking out against the scourge of feminism and its extremes of misandry, anti-life rhetoric and demands for special 'equalities' that are denied to others. And even more silent, oblivious men.

      Please identify yourself, anonymous. Even a nom-de-blog at the end of your comment is good manners enough.

      Delete
  5. Both genders need to appreciate what each bring to the table. We should not see ourselves divided by genders but complimented. T'is true-men do the hard dangerous work an should be acknowledged, respected and thanked for that.

    Thank you!

    Ubermouth

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True. And reasonable. There remains though the problem that has been cause entirely by one side of the gender divide. The Feminists not only denigrate men and the work men do but denigrate women too for the work they do. Feminists demand - and have largely been given - that 'some' women reaps unearned benefits, paid for by men in the main and also women themselves. Not enough women have told the feminists to shove their view that home-making is slavery and that women should be in the Boardrooms (but not on the trawlers, in the sewers, up the electricity poles etc.)

      Delete
  6. What the feminists don't seem to grasp is one simple concept: if home-making is slavery, then having to go out and do dangerous, potentially fatal, arduous and often back-breaking work (as men so often do) to support their families, with no chance of ever seeing the boardroom or any real choices to do something different, is also a form of slavery.

    Feminists also refuse to accept the fact that it is almost exclusively through the agency of men and the labour that they do, that women have the comfortable lives that they do now - lives that they couldn't have dreamt of having 500 years ago. Take away the men, and I guarantee you everything will crumble, and then women will find themselves well and truly up shit creek without a paddle. Be careful what you wish for, feminists.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True indeed. And as Cherry states so well, it is a sad fact of life at this point in civilisation. Even sadder is that many women, especially in the high places where room has been made at the Table for them (like in Mensa) they simply wage war and exercise 'power' to the detriment of men or anyone who disagree with them. Even this Taverner was 'banned' from a facebook page set up for Mensa people to discuss issues, for daring to raise 'feminism' for debate. Banned by a Mensa feminist, of course. I am a misogynist, it seems. I am sure the trolls from Mensa who have been here in the past - and have been shown the door by the Bouncer - will be delighted.

      Delete

Ne meias in stragulo aut pueros circummittam.

Our Bouncer is a gentleman of muscle and guile. His patience has limits. He will check you at the door.

The Tavern gets rowdy visitors from time to time. Some are brain dead and some soul dead. They attack customers and the bar staff and piss on the carpets. Those people will not be allowed in anymore. So... Be Nice..