I take war pretty darn seriously when it comes, so I try to pay attention to the rumblings and rumors of yet another conflict. That way, I can be sure to make my feelings known.
That probably comes from the fact that when I was in 9th grade everybody in my entire school got on a bus and drove down to Washington DC to that huge rally on the Mall. Me and John C were the only two kids left behind. Spending a day with John C was NOT my idea of a good time, but my parents wouldn’t let me go. I’ve never gotten over it.
I DID make up for it though. In 2003 I saw Peter Paul & Mary live on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, singing Blowin’ in the Wind and Give Peace A Chance, just like they had back in 1971. We were all there to protest the impending invasion of Iraq the next day. George W Bush flew overhead in Marine 1 on his way back from Camp David. He hovered over us, just long enough for the assembled protesters to flip him the finger. I’m sure he returned the gesture.
For this new war? I got no warning, no notice, nothing from MoveOn.Org or Code Pink or anybody else. How could that happen? I’m on every single political email that goes out to special people like me. And you know what a news junkie I am – I read everything. Still I missed it. Damn. Because this war might be in my living room before long. And yours. Or maybe it will snake its way upstairs, into our bedrooms.
It’s The War on Men.
Yup. At least according to Phyllis Schlafly’s niece, anyway. Oh you remember Phyllis, don’t you? She was one of the main spokespeople behind the anti Equal Rights for Women movement.
Why didn’t she just stay home and bake?
So, in keeping with having a family full of non-feminist women who stay home and bake cookies, Phil’s niece, Suzanne Venker works outside of the home. She “stumbled” upon a bunch of men who are unhappy with women and who say that they aren’t going to get married. Not no way, not no how.
Why?
Because “Women aren’t Women anymore.”
Well, I’ll be. Excuse me while I check on my lady parts.
Now Suzie wrote about it (well sort of, it’s an article on Fox). She claims that men haven’t changed. Apparently they still have all the same instincts that they had back in the day. But women? They’ve changed. And not for the better according to Suzie.
They’ve gotten uppity. They want to work. They want to get paid for working. They want to use their hearts and their minds. (And I bet they still want Equal Rights.) THE NERVE!
Suzie also says that this whole attitude on the part of women, well
“[It] has not threatened men. It has pissed them off. It has also undermined their ability to become self-sufficient in the hopes of someday supporting a family. Men want to love women, not compete with them. They want to provide for and protect their families – it’s in their DNA. But modern women won’t let them.
It’s all so unfortunate – for women, not men. Feminism serves men very well: they can have sex at hello and even live with their girlfriends with no responsibilities whatsoever.
It’s the women who lose. [Sniff] Not only are they saddled with the consequences of sex, by dismissing male nature they’re forever seeking a balanced life. The fact is, women need men’s linear career goals – they need men to pick up the slack at the office – in order to live the balanced life they seek.
So if men today are slackers, and if they’re retreating from marriage en masse, women should look in the mirror and ask themselves what role they’ve played to bring about this transformation. [Emphasis mine all mine.]
Perhaps it is the fact that in the decades that most of us have lived in [and I think we can assume that Suzie has been stuck in a perpetual space-time continuum] well, we’ve been able to make our own choices about when to have children, and a whole mess of other economic issues that earlier generations of women couldn’t because they were barefoot and pregnant.
But fortunately, Suzie tells me not to worry about this war. You see, I can actually do something about this one. And actually, you can too. I’m relieved. Aren’t you?
Women have the power to turn everything around. All they have to do is surrender to their nature – their femininity – and let men surrender to theirs.
FiftyFourandAHalf 