January 1, 2013 What's wrong with feminism ? . . The following article, written by a feminist, misses the point entirely. Women want men's freedoms but without assuming any of men's liabilities. Women are not men, men are not women, and unless everyone understands the dictum, "biology is destiny," we will --whether in India or the United States or anywhere else-- continue to have bad laws. . Each gender has innate assets and innate vulnerabilities. The rule, therefore, is that it is essential to treat each gender differently not only in terms of culture but in Law. Women are vulnerable to rape. They also have a major asset, however, in that they can sell sex, in one form or another, can bargain for money or status or anything else, by offering sexual favors they dispense, in ways that, with very few exceptions, are closed to men. . Moreover, there is a supply and demand problem. Available sexually attractive women are always more scarce in society than men who are seeking sexual favors. In effect, for every available woman there are maybe 3 or 4 men looking for an available woman.. . Men understand the math involved. Where they can compensate is with access to wealth and resources, which biology predisposes them toward. That is, men are expected to be protectors of women and to provide for a woman's needs during pregnancy and when she becomes a mother. This expectation is not simply some sort of cultural preference but is based on millions of years of evolutionary biology and the logic of biology. When this is disregarded we get social chaos and dysfunctional ideologies like gender feminism. . The values of the Enlightenment, upon which so much of contemporary feminism is based, are horribly flawed in insisting on strict equality between the sexes. There can only be equality on balance, but not on all particulars. When strict (Enlightenment) equality is demanded one of two things happen : ( 1 ) men "wimp out," as is happening in America among whites, and become half men, willing to commit self-interest suicide for the sake of a supply of nooky, or ( 2 ) in a traditional society men will rebel at invasion of their "proper sphere" and will counterattack in various ways, including rape. . In the either case we get a lionization of blackness, since 'Negro' men have not bought into Enlightenment concepts of sexual equality and appear to women as "real men," hence desirable in ways that white wimp-men are not, which means large numbers of suit-and-tie men, and hence single women voting for Barack Obama by huge margins. . Alas for white men, their traditional ideologies have been badly shattered. In fact, for all practical purposes, they no longer have a sexual ideology and their default position is reverse feminism, give women what they ( feminists OR simply feminist-inspired women ) want, even if it kills men, for the sake of sexual favors. . There are occasional white male rebellions. The last was in 1994. But because political white men cannot transgress Enlightenment rules of discourse , they are not allowed to overtly express any kind of sexual agenda. But it is anything but unrelated that during the mid 90s in the aftermath of the 1994 election both Newt Gingrich and William Clinton were having affairs. . Political white man also have a self-imposed / self-chosen handicap. Most are obsessed either with amassing money, as are conservatives, or amassing social power, as are most so-called liberals. In either case there is close to zero interest in where the action lies, the field of psychology and social psychology, plus maybe cultural anthropology, that of gender relations. So white men ask the wrong questions about psychology or these related fields. . They ask, how does this help me make money or how does it help me gain political power ? The right question to ask is : How does this help me understand what the hell is happening to the world in which I live, a world in which white men are being progressively emasculated day by day and in which rewards are devolving upon African-American males out of all proportion to their merits ? . The way out --in America-- is not by means of ethnic nationalism of the European variety. That is impossible for one thing. For another, the way forward is by way of alliance with other men, especially Asians who share a large number of common values from the outset, and who can look forward to similar problems down the road in terms of gender issues. And about the same thing can be said of Jews, who , of course, are already counted as "white," but nonetheless are included in another category also. . Who scores highest on all academic achievement tests and who achieves the most in terms of business ventures and success in the ( non-athletic ) professions ? Asians , Jews, and white men of European extraction. It isn't close, the gaps in performance are huge, with narrow margins only at the top. That is, there is little aggregate difference between Asians, Jews, and Euro-Americans even if, by and large, Asians cluster at the top by a few percentage points. But blacks have lower scores and achievement rates by very wide margins no matter what exceptions you may use as counter-examples. We are speaking of approximately a 25 % or 30 % difference, not just 3 or 4 points as is the case between Jews, Asians, and Euro-whites. Hispanics are somewhere in-between black rates and the rates for Jews, Asians, and whites, . Re-asserting men's rights should also be connected to fighting for women's rights when those rights are obviously deserved. Should a white woman with exemplary test scores, etc., be denied admission to a prestige university, or a state university, if the woman is white, to accommodate lower scoring women who belong to minority groups ? The point is anything but moot and has been the subject of a number of Supreme Court cases and will be in the future. . None of what is said here should be construed as racial bias ; that is not the intent, the intent is the exact opposite of bias. The objective is to recruit others into the white - Asian - Jewish alliance. An alliance based on merit, and on imperatives of sociobiology which recognize appropriate gender rights on the basis of the biological sciences, and responsibilities as well as gender advantages and liabilities. . For that matter some percentage of whites, Asians, ands Jews currently are outside the alliance due to substandard education, being raised in dysfunctional families, or following some form of political ideology that is based on false premises the way that Fascism, Communism, Cultural Marxism, extreme environmentalism, gender feminism, uncompromising homosexual activism, ultra-Capitalism, and Libertarianism, are each based on false premises. They all over simplify reality and have very limited understanding of human limitations, human motivation, or the necessary moral foundations of a healthy society. . But some African-Americans, to use this example, already are part of the alliance. Thomas Sowell is a first rate economist and accomplished professional historian, John McWhorter is a world class linguist, Willie Brown is a top tier politician if there ever was one, Alex Haley is a world class historian, and so forth. No-one can be precise about the numbers but a rough estimate is that more than half of the black population in the United States belongs in any categorization of serious professional accomplishment, either directly or by way of raising children who made it into professional occupations. . Much the same can be said for Latinos. Desi Arnaz was not only an accomplished entertainer but a successful businessman, Salma Hayek is an accomplished actress with a background in opera, Carlos Santana was the inventor or "world music," Maria Hinojosa is a distinguished journalist, Placido Domingo is a famous opera singer, and so forth. Some Hispanics you might not even suspect have Latin roots, like Martin Sheen and Victoria Justice, as well as icons of the recent past like Rita Hayworth and Anthony Quinn. . All of this said, we also need to face facts for what they are and not pretend that an ideology of equality is necessarily a good guide to truth. Why are so many black men either in prison or ex-cons ? About 1/3rd of all African-American men are in this category. Is this staggering statistic entirely due to effects of racial prejudice ? Get real. That factor certainly plays a part but the more telling fact is that 70% of black births in the USA are to single mothers. With no male role models in the home, street gangs provide a substitute and the result is that young black men commit a disproportionate number of major crimes. About which Hispanic out-of-wedlock birth rates area also high, in excess of 50 %, with a similar result. . In other words, and allowing for some very important exceptions, these populations have serious cultural problems that cannot be wished away. In the case of black men, it is ludicrous to valorize this population as if its contribution to society isn't what it actually is year in and year out despite efforts of men like McWhorter and Sowell, high rates of violent crime, drug abuse, and rapes --with black men perpetrating such crimes against white women at a rate that is greater than 10 : 1 vs. white rapes of black women. The only "competition" that black men have in this category of crimes comes from Muslim immigrants --who often regard white women as "whores" by definition and deserving no respect. . All of which the ideology of feminism assures us does not exist and need not be factored into one's calculations. Instead, we need to totally abandon feminist ideology and repudiate it. . The implications are great because this also means a drastic re-evaluation of Enlightenment philosophy and the premises feminism borrows from it, whole cloth, uncritically. . What is not recommended is jettisoning of all feminist principles. Christina Hoff Sommers has it basically right, we need a feminism based on a realistic view of the sexes in which each gender acknowledges appropriate roles and understands under what circumstances legitimate exceptions are allowable. A recommended new phrase for what we need is a "gender partnership" philosophy. . . . Billy . . . . _______________________________________________ Naomi Wolf Ending India's Rape Culture Globe ands Mail January 1, 2013 The crime seems incomprehensible. A 23-year-old physiotherapy student is dead, 12 days after having been raped for more than an hour by six men in a bus travelling on main roads in the Indian capital. Her internal injuries from the iron rod that her attackers used were so severe that doctors had to remove her intestines in their effort to save her life. Indians, it seems, have had enough. Dozens of large and increasingly angry demonstrations have been held to demand that the government ensure women’s security and stop treating rapists with impunity. While the authorities have sought to quell the protests – cordoning off central New Delhi and subjecting the rest of the city to traffic restrictions – violence has escalated. After a policeman died, live ammunition was fired into the crowds – killing a journalist, Bwizamani Singh, and provoking a rebuke from Reporters without Borders. It’s not simply the high rate of rape in India that’s driving the protests’ virulence. In a passionate speech, Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association, spoke to the deeper issue behind the protests: the “blame the victim” culture in India around sex crimes. She notes that government and police officials recently insisted that most rapists can’t be prosecuted in India because, as one official put it, they are known to the women attacked. Other officials have publicly suggested that victims themselves are “asking for it” by their use of freedom of movement. This return to pre-feminist discourse is not confined to India. Italy is having a similar debate about whether women’s clothes and behaviour invite rape. Even in Sweden, activists complain, rapes in which the women know their assailants go unprosecuted because the victims are not seen as “good girls. ” Ms. Krishnan assailed the fact that the conviction rate for rape prosecutions in India has fallen from 46 per cent in 1971 to just 26 per cent today (which, it should be noted, is higher than the conviction rates in the United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States). Indeed, the fact that most rapes are committed by men who are known to the victim should “only make it easier to apprehend the rapist.” Instead, women who go to the police are urged not to file a complaint. “Strange people will begin to assemble at the station out of nowhere to ‘explain’ to you” why that advice is correct. The problem, Ms. Krishnan points out, starts at the top. In the midst of the protests, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar sparked further outrage by suggesting that women carry chili powder to deter would-be rapists. And at a press conference, he said women shouldn’t roam around without male escorts. Otherwise, whatever happens to them is their own fault. Now, with the protests continuing in the aftermath of the victim’s death, officials are emphasizing the need for measures to guarantee the “safety and security” of women. But, as Ms. Krishnan notes, “the word ‘safety’ with regard to women has been used far too much.” Indian women have heard it all their lives. “It means,” she says, “you behave yourself. You get back into the house. You don’t dress in a particular way. Do not live by your freedom. … A whole range of patriarchal laws and institutions tell us what to do in the guise of keeping us ‘safe.’ ” The six men accused of the bus attack have been arrested and charged with murder, and the government has ordered an inquiry into how rape cases are handled. But the government’s critics remain skeptical of official intentions, noting that only 600 rapes a year are reported in the capital, despite the thousands that are estimated to occur annually. The deeper truth underlying the protests can be found on blogs, where young Indian men and women bemoan the fact that travel guidebooks routinely warn women about pervasive sexual harassment in India and advise them to move around in groups. Movies, religion, music and women themselves are all blamed for male sexual violence against women, but rapists are not held responsible. A “male-cosseting culture,” as one blogger put it, in turn supports a rape culture. The connection between rape, male privilege and female sexual vilification was one of the key insights of feminists in the 1970s – an insight they thought had been successfully applied to cultural debate about rape, and to law. In India – as in Italy, Sweden and elsewhere – women and men who support freedom of movement and safety from sex crimes are being forced to refight that battle. One hopes that the protests in India will inspire the West to emulate the protesters’ lack of complacency. In the developing world, women are in special jeopardy. Their embrace of autonomy and mobility risks putting them in conflict with a law-enforcement establishment and media that still view women through a pre-feminist lens: “ Good girls” who stay at home should not be raped, while “bad girls” who stake a claim to public space are fair game.
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