House of Eratosthenes

If you look up the history of feminism in Wikipedia you see it’s a bit of a mess, and I’m thinking this is probably because it is, ya know, the encyclopedia anybody can edit. And “anybody” includes feminists. There is a first wave which is late-nineteenth to early-twentieth century, concerned with suffrage and related issues; there is a second wave starting in the 1960’s and continuing to today, which is more concerned with ending discrimination; and then there is a third wave which defies any description that would be coherent, or meaningful, to anyone who is not a feminist.

I think to understand the difference between second-wave feminism, which exists all the way up to today, and the third-wave variant, you’d have to bring forward something I said in the post previous:

American politics have been invaded by an “incubus” of thought which redefines positive and capable things like “dignity,” “strength” and “power” according to the stature achieved when someone is given material things at the expense of strangers. We’ve got a lot of people walking around among us who appear to think this is what “dignity” is all about: Give me free stuff. I call it an “incubus” because it has apparently raped the legacy feminist movement and sired a bastard child, which is the newer feminst movement, combining the give-me-free-stuff with the older feminist visions. Back in the early 1970’s the message was “we are strong and don’t mess with us,” nowadays it is “we are strong, don’t mess with us, and we can’t make our way in life without you giving us things for free.”

To the best I can make out, this is your second-wave/third-wave split. Second-wave is “I’m a whole person and not some man’s accessory,” and third-wave is “…but give me your wallet.” You might say, second-wave is your ex-wife when she served you with a divorce petition, and third-wave is when the judge ordered you to pay alimony.

The important thing to observe here is the contradiction. Modern feminists are very sensitive to anything that might be perceived to “reverse the progress” of their movement’s foremothers or “turn the clock back.” Rather odd that they’re missing out on the big damage being done.

The truth is, this “incubus” exists in other political efforts outside of feminism. And there’s a stench to it, a trail that can be followed. Every place it visits, every place there is this “shakedown” going on in which members of the aggrieved class are said to be entitled to these material gifts at the expense of the general public — two things happen. The “dignity” and “power” are increased in the politicians representing the class, and these things are measurably decreased in the ordinary members of it. That also goes for community- and self-respect.

It puts the constituency in the position of a duck begging for bread at a park bench. Sure, the duck isn’t thinking about dignity, it’s just thinking about bread. But that’s the point, isn’t it? There aren’t too many less dignified creatures anywhere. And so, from what I’ve been able to tell: You combine second-wave feminism with mooching, you get third-wave feminism. Sandra Fluke feminism. I shouldn’t have to pay for this myself, it’s tooooooo haaaaaard……..

The way it was explained to me, back in the day, was that women were capable of meeting, and deserved the opportunity to meet, expectations that were denied them simply because they were women. Going by this theory, it was an accident of history that Christopher Columbus was not a Christine, or that Neil Armstrong was not a Nellie. Presented with the chance, women would be able to perform these historical feats. I believe that’s true. And so long as it did not impose an artificial force to deny opportunities to males, this was a good vision to have. So what happened? Moocher feminism happened. And feminism is not big enough to serve as a home for both moocher feminism and new-frontier-conqueror feminism.

It seems moocher feminism has won the battle. It’s easier. Give me free stuff…

There is another “wave” that has quietly crept in. I’m reminded of a new strain of “mind control feminism” when I see stories like this…

A new restaurant in Sydney is to remove urinals after complaints that they were shaped like women’s mouths.

The Ananas Bar and Brasserie, a stylish French restaurant in the Rocks district, said the urinals were “a commonly used European design piece from female Dutch artist Meike van Schijnde” but would be removed.

A spokesman said the two urinals – shaped as bright red, wide-open womens’ lips – were supposed to be “playful”.

“We sincerely apologise if they have caused offence,” she said. “They are being removed today.”

The urinals – described by feminist critics as offensive and misogynist – comes amid an ongoing debate in Canberra over sexism in Australian politics.

An Australian feminist publisher and commentator, Anne Summers, said the toilets were “asking men to put their d—- in these mouths as urinals”.

“Misogyny is very widespread, and this is just an example of misogyny,” she said. “The concept is pretty challenging and confronting.”

Now, on the one hand, this is Australia. Where I’m not. But, on the other hand, it is inside a mens’ rest room where, one must presume, the feminists are not. Give them credit for this much, they have preemptively defeated the standard response of “If you don’t like it, don’t go in there.” They’re already not in there. But here we come to the point: The broads in Australia don’t care. This is like the next step beyond the atheist looking around, seeing a memorial shaped like a cross, and filing a suit or complaining. In this story, they’re not even looking around! That would necessarily involve any story of feminists complaining about urinals, and you see from reading this one that this is not the only case.

So let’s put it all together:
1. I am woman, hear me roar, I can get alone fine without you.
2. But I like your wallet with all the money in it. Leave it on the doorstep and walk away.
3. After you clear out of here and get out of my sight, you shouldn’t have any ideas in that dumb male head of yours that I don’t like.

Even Michael Newdow with his bogus pain-in-the-ass lawsuits isn’t asking for this. He gets all pissed off about “Under God” being in the pledge-of-allegiance, when he finds out his daughter is reciting it…so the story goes, anyway.

Now bear in mind…we’re supposed to have respect for this. But it isn’t respectable, because it isn’t consistent. It is a purely separatist movement, but only until such time we start talking about money, then it reverses course and becomes a typical moocher movement. Then it tacks off in a new direction and starts going totalitarian, like Big Brother out of 1984: Thought Police will make sure you don’t commit any Thought Crimes.

Men don’t have this kind of power, because if they did it would be unseemly. We would have to form some organized political movement and start bellyaching about doofus dad movies. Which we do, and some of us prohibit our kids from ever watching them. But this is different; it would go much, much further. We would fill the air with a loud cacophony, make sure nobody can ever escape it, and channel the energy into a take-no-prisoners political movement until someone says…what were those exact words, again? “We sincerely apologise if they have caused offence…They are being removed today.” Imagine that being said about every single pain reliever commercial you ever saw, every single household cleaner commercial you ever saw, every single laundry detergent commercial you ever saw, where the smart sassy wife is using the proper brand and the dumb numbskull hubby is using Brand X. Every single one.

Folks, that isn’t happening. Men aren’t that good at whining. We don’t feel that comfortable with it. More to the point, about forty-five seconds into it we’re driven to think about some other stuff that has to be done…oil needs changing, someone left a light switch on somewhere and it looks like we’re out of beer again. Maybe we don’t multi-task as well, maybe it’s embarrassing for us to go around acting like a victim, people don’t feel compelled to listen to us too much if we do. Maybe it’s some combination of all these things.

But maybe it would be good for the gals if they labored under the same sense of stigma. It all comes down to, victimhood is inherently undignified. It does not advance the cause of personal empowerment. It does not command respect. And the sad fact of the matter is, in the last generation or so this is all I’ve been hearing of feminism: The things indirectly referenced in Thing I Know #322, which actually diminish the importance of women in our society — read those as, abortion and gay marriage — and, the Sandra-Fluke-mooching. What else have feminists had to say lately? Mooching, anti-wife-hood, anti-mother-hood, those pretty much cover all the bases, right? How sad.

The final, unworkable message is: Women are no different from men. Even though they are bound to fail without securing the involuntary servitude of men, and while we’re at it theyalso require dictatorial control over what the men are to be thinking.

That’s just not going to fly. I personally know a lot of women who don’t believe in this and do not support it. But, like all revolutionary movements, this one has ultimately come under monopolization by the radicals. It has become an energy-sinkhole, because it captures all this energy from its surroundings to attract credibility, essentially converting the energy into credibility. And then it takes positions that diminish its own credibility which was supposed to be the payoff for harnessing all that energy.

I think you’ve given me my headstone inscription:

“Andy Havens
1975-20–
Oil needs changing,
someone left a light switch on somewhere
and it looks like we’re out of beer again.
Good luck with that, ladies.

H/T Morgan”

Yeah, I’ll have a hat tip on my headstone. Every dead blogger should.
- Andy | 10/17/2012 @ 14:53
Ha! Archeologists thousands of years from now might wonder “Who’s this sick ticket named Morgan, anyway?”
- mkfreeberg | 10/17/2012 @ 14:56

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent

Items of Interest

Monthly Archives

What They Say

Links

Classic Feminism’s Bastard ChildWednesday, October 17th, 2012

Classic Feminism’s Bastard Child
Wednesday, October 17th, 2012