Son of Feminism's Raw Deal

So there was this groovy old flick. "Ivanhoe." (The movie was actually better than the book!)

Elizabeth Taylor (when she was attractive) was this quiet, delicate lady, and yet she was as strong (morally, emotionally) as any character in the film. Unlike in modern flicks she did not raise so much as a dagger at any time, and yet the story did not work without her.

Similarly, in "Ben-Hur" (best film made so far, in my book) there was this lady who, again, never raised her voice or a fist, but she was STRONG. One scene has the hero deciding to do something reckless and politically incorrect for the time (he is going to go and embrace his mother and sister who have both been stricken by leprosy, and according to Jewish law were "unclean" and untouchable). This lady sees the man thinking about breaking the rules (and defying the will of his shamed mother), and she cries out, "Yes, Judah! Yes!" and the man goes and, essentially, rescues his diseased mother and sister. I get tears every damn time I even THINK about that scene.

I thought Mary Tyler Moore was "hot" in those black stirrup pants on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (she was the first woman on television to wear slacks of any kind, by the way). It's not about men wearing ties and women wearing dresses ...it's about real INTERNAL strength of character versus external strength of action.

Many women today have taken the "easier" way of learning to talk tough and carry the biz card of a good sexual harrasment lawyer rather than the more difficult, more intelligent route of out-thinking men.

And not all women are like this at all, but it is a strong trend. I've been around a few blocks. I find that more women wish they had the bodies of men, but not the emotional wiring. If women were a physical match (as well as "legal" in authority areas, as already mentioned) they would be happy as pigs in shit. But they don't want the emotional limitations that come with it ... yet they develop the same attitudes in order to simulate the "power."

And I'm not complaining about it. It's how the world is evolving. The majority becomes "right" over time, and older people become increasingly irrelevant because what IS right for us (because it was held as correct by the majority in our day) is NOT right for the modern mainstream culture. For ME this tendency of women to act as bad simulations of men is "wrong," but as it becomes more commonplace, it is actually "right" for society, and I am "wrong" to insist on my own way. This is why older people become more reclusive and less in touch ... we slowly stop being acceptable to the majority, unless we try to mutate into something we really aren't.

Again ... not complaining. I just have to recognize this fact and learn to deal with it. I continue to hold my beliefs and opinions, but I try to talk myself into accepting that my view is not right for others, and I allow others to believe as they do without trying to change them. I try to re-program my expectations so that I am not offended (or can at least ACT tolerant) and still fit in reasonably well.

Just watched "Wrong Turn" on DVD and enjoyed it. Eliza Dushku plays a strong female lead and it was nice to see a chica in a film NOT fall to pieces when the shit hits the fan! I approve of women making the Forbes lists and all of that. I disapprove of the idea of women as "cattle."

But there was a time when a woman who stayed at home and organized a hospitable, healthy, attractive and comfortable home, especially with intelligent and well-behaved kids ... such a woman was ADMIRED, and was cherished by her husband. Many men would be invited for drinks after work, but would smile and say, "I got supper waiting at home" and what they meant was there was a woman at home working as hard and as diligently, dutifully, even creatively, to make and maintain a nest for BOTH (or ALL) of them, and he would rather be there, with her, than out with the boys. Other women took note of such women, and even asked for their advice. Such women compared notes and were "professional" about being the CEO's of happy homes. And that job was not easy then, and is not easy now, except that there are better devices and services now than available then.

For me it is not an issue of style, but of substance.

The feminism genii will only return to the bottle when women have achieved a nostalgia for the "good ole days" and decide to use their "powers" to go back to the home and run it (and their men) like their foremothers did before them. Until then, it's a "brave new world" and sane men and women will recognize this and just DEAL.

My "argument" is only that Feminism 1.0 was all that was needed, because the foundations of womanly dominion were not without power and strength. Feminism XP is overkill.