Posted by Tina
An intriguing piece by Camille Paglia today in Time had me whooping and cheering! Ms Paglia, a feminist who doesn’t shy away from controversy, contends that, “It’s a Man’s World, And It Always Will Be.”
I couldn’t agree more and I’m glad someone with a high profile is saying it. It needs to be repeated for a couple of decades at least.
A couple of quotes to tantalize and tease that conscious mind of yours now that you’re awake and paying attention:
When an educated culture routinely denigrates masculinity and manhood, then women will be perpetually stuck with boys, who have no incentive to mature or to honor their commitments.
Or, consider the many pathetic teen stars today desperately seeking the key to becoming women:
In today’s punitive atmosphere of sentimental propaganda about gender, the sexual imagination has understandably fled into the alternate world of online pornography, where the rude but exhilarating forces of primitive nature rollick unconstrained by religious or feminist moralism.
In contrast consider the oft overlooked abundance of male contribution over decades; the vision and creative genius, toil and sweat that adds to our comforts, our safety, our health and wealth.
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.
And it is men by and large who have brought us the technology to go deep into space, into the inner workings of the human body…created cures and devices of all kinds to make our journey better, more fulfilling and joyous.
Feminists took a wrong turn along the way and our society is reaping the ravaged results of that misplaced anger and confusion. It’s time to reform the message. Young people deserve a better model…and men certainly deserve respect and gratitude after thirty or forty years of being shoved to the corner.
P.S. Football! It’s a rough sport…get over it!
Note: This entry was altered this afternoon to clarify the last quote with my apologies to Ms. Paglia for failing to close the quote in editing.
From Stephen Mansfield’s Book of Manly Men: An Utterly Invigorating Guide to Being Your Most Masculine Self.
Quotes and commentary excerpted from Mansfield’s “The Fifty Essential Quotes for Manly Men” section.
1. ”Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul.” Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation
2. ”The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moment of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King Jr. in Strength to Love
3. ”We live in a feminist and effeminate culture. Because of this, at best, as a people we are uneasy with masculinity, and with increasing regularity, whenever it manages to appear somehow, we call for someone to do something about it.” Douglas Wilson in Future Men
4. ”Happiness does not consist in amusement. In fact, it would be strange if our end were amusement, and if we were to labor and suffer hardships all our life long merely to amuse ourselves….The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spend in amusement.” Aristotle in The Nicomachean Ethics
5. ”The difference between the old and the new education will be an important one. Where the old initiated, the new merely ‘conditions.’ The old dealt with its pupils as grown birds deal with young birds when they teach them to fly; the new deals with them more as the poultry-keeper deals with young birds—making them thus or thus for purposes of which the birds know nothing. In a word, the old was a kind of propagation—men transmitting manhood to men; the new is merely propaganda.” C.S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man
http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2013/12/17/12-essential-quotes-for-manly-men/
Camille is NOT a feminist. Camille is an opportunist: a Palin with brains.
It is a shame some men have to justify their very existence. That is usually a sign of weakness. A human that only recognizes strength as a physical value demeans every vet injured in the privatized military profit wars for oil.
Absurd. Every human has a different strength. The man who watches porn and keeps a prostitute working is a lost soul.
Dictatorship is a weak man thang. One person who wants to tell millions how to live is no more than a lost weak soul.
These men kill millions trying to dominate for validation of their own existence. Sounds like A
kim jung complex.
I will never support the Tea Party in trying to suppress women or their votes. Yet again see the Tea Party goals are Anti Democratic and want to dominate humans for their own agenda.
Every Human should be glad they are here and support all other Humans living their lives.
Instead of worrying about others some should look in the mirror.
How many sock accounts does it take?
I am completely satisfied with my manhood and do not need to demean others to feel like more of a man. Our women have the right to live their lives free of Tea Party tyranny and suppression.
Whats a sock account?
Libby none of us gets to decide what others are. I acknowledge your opinion about Camille but let’s be clear, she identifies as a feminist.
The left is frightened of anyone it cannot fit into its little boxes. Paglia and Palin dare to be individuals rather than feminist clones. The left feminists will find they have imprisoned themselves if they fail to recognize the restrictions they place on all women to conform and agree. When was it decided we must all go to the bathroom together after all?
Dewey “I will never support the Tea Party in trying to suppress women or their votes.”
Whew…what a relief! I was afraid you might have fallen into the idiot pit. See you don’t have to worry because, the Tea party has no such designs or plans!!! You are delusional if you think they do.
“I am completely satisfied with my manhood and do not need to demean others to feel like more of a man.”
Who asked you to demean others?
I am critical of a movement that has demeaned men.
You are free to disagree, to deny or disregard, and you can refute the assertion. But if you do then you need to show me why you think the movement has not demeaned men. That is, unless you just left a comment to spew more leftist hate and talking points.
I foresee the day when an article will be written about the progressive movements equally ridiculous demeaning of Tea Party members and supporters. Talk about hate! Talk about attempts to silence, oppress, and block the votes of fellow citizens!
Progressives win the contest hands down. the same small minded women were at the forefront of the modern feminist movement that demeaned and attempted to marginalize the influence and importance of men.
“Talk about attempts to silence, oppress, and block the votes of fellow citizens!”
All right, blog mistress, you are going to have to justify this statement.
Sounds like wildly unjustified paranoia to me. I think you’re just unhappy because your worldview no longer dominates.
Are your votes “blocked” by the sizeable number of people who counter your choice? Is that it? If it is, it’s a real undemocratic position for you to be taking.
As to the fellas … they’ve had it all their own way for quite some time. The fact that, once we get a leg up, we ladies out-number them in college graduating classes is going to cause no small quantity of social upheaval … and we’ll deal with it.
Re #2 Blame-The-Victim Libby : “Camille is NOT a feminist. Camille is an opportunist: a Palin with brains.”
Wow, a double-snot shot from our true femme fatal, Blame-The-Victim Libby. I agree, to be a true progressive feminist you have to be as stupid as, well, you know. No need to spell it out.
Re #3 The Dewp : “It is a shame some men have to justify their very existence. That is usually a sign of weakness … I am completely satisfied with my manhood and do not need to demean others to feel like more of a man.
The Dewp, of course, completely misses Paglia’s points. Interestingly enough with a spittle flecked and demeaning sneer that establishes and declares his own exquisite manliness. Of course, The Dewp’s writ in these pages is always demeaning — to himself and others — but being a progressive he is expected to be completely oblivious to his own demeanor. Dewp, you are da man!
As for Paglia, she sometimes gets things right and is a brilliant writer whether you agree with her or not.
As for our two progressive friends, they read like a third rate comic book.
Libby: “All right, blog mistress, you are going to have to justify this statement.”
Really? Where have you been?
Okay I’ll play but just a few examples cause it’s the Christmas Season and I have better things to do.
From the start the left began a smear campaign to paint the Tea party as racist and deranged murderers. Remember the fake march across the quad in DC when then Speaker Pelosi and a group from the Black Caucus attempted to incite a racist remark and then claimed erroneously that someone had spit on one of the members? That was an intimidation tactic.
Remember when the Tea Party was immediately implicated following the Gabriel Giffords shooting and murder?
Intimidation and labeling, a typical leftist method designed to shun and marginalize the group and discourage interests.
You claim your party wouldn’t do this to minority groups but we know that’s a crock.
The corker of course was when the IRS and other agencies targeted groups specifically for harassment in the months before the election.
Newsmax posted about an AEI report that found evidence that IRS intimidation and delay affected Republican get out the vote efforts:
By now there are a number of Democrats and Independents who wish they had listened to the Tea Party, see His numbers suggest those votes could have made the difference in allowing Mitt Romney to defeat President Barack Obama.
“Some conservatives suspect . . . the levers of government were used to attack an existential threat to the president’s 2012 reelection,” he says.
“The president and his party dismiss this as a paranoid fantasy. The evidence, however, is enough to make one believe that targeting tea party groups would have been an effective campaign strategy going into the 2012 election cycle.”
In 2010, the tea party provided the GOP with 3 million to 6 million additional votes in House races, Veuger says. “That is an astonishing boost, given that all Republican House candidates combined received fewer than 45 million votes,” he writes.
“It demonstrates conclusively how important the party’s newly energized base was to its landslide victory in those elections, and how worried Democratic strategists must have been about the conservative movement’s momentum.”
So what impact could the tea party have had last year?
“The data show that had the tea party groups continued to grow at the pace seen in 2009 and 2010, and had their effect on the 2012 vote been similar to that seen in 2010, they would have brought the Republican Party as many as 5 million to 8.5 million votes compared to Obama’s victory margin of 5 million.”
In other words, the tea party could have brought a Romney victory.
Sadly, there are a number of Independents and Democrats who wish they had not voted for Obama…some say they wish they had voted for Romney.
” I think you’re just unhappy because your worldview no longer dominates.”
Or I’m on the leading edge of the next wave and you, dear heart, on the tail end of a very destructive era.
“Are your votes “blocked” by the sizeable number of people who counter your choice? Is that it? If it is, it’s a real undemocratic position for you to be taking.”
As the above walk down memory lane demonstrates, the answer is simply, no. See how you talk to that caricature in your head?
” The fact that, once we get a leg up, we ladies out-number them in college graduating classes is going to cause no small quantity of social upheaval … and we’ll deal with it.”
Illustrating once again you are clueless about what I am saying.
Careful what you wish for…oh, and you might want to read the entire article. It might just remind you that hammering the protector/defender is a fools game.
Tina, none of this prevents the TP from existing and making all manner of mischief. You have nothing to complain about.
But if you want people to stop reporting on your doings, or espressing their opinions, well, it’s just not going to happen. Lots of people believe, for instance, that the birther conspiracy theories re Obama are entirely based in racism. We are supported in this belief by the fact that the birthers have yet to come up with anything in the way of tangible support for any of it.
And you did lose the last election. No quantity of confabulation will change that. You waste time and energy trying to re-arrange the deck chairs on a ship that’s done sunk.
It would have gone differently if … what? … Romney had manned up and put the barfing dog in the car? … paid up and put the barfing dog in a kennel? Too late now … time to move on.
Libby: “none of this prevents the TP from existing and making all manner of mischief”
What incredible cheek you progressives have. we catch you with your hands covered in guilt and you stand there and deny, deny, deny…and try to change the subject. FACE IT…you are a bunch a bigots and you would do anything you could to silence those who disagree with you. No wonder you side against Israel with the Palestinians…you share a similar ideology.
“We are supported in this belief by the fact that the birthers have yet to come up with anything in the way of tangible support.”
That’s not exactly true. There is evidence; you choose to ignore it. And the lefts explanation for the secrecy surrounding Obama’s past has been accepted. But the few people who could be considered birthers, rather than intrigued or just mildly interested, just don’t amount to much. As usual the left made more of it than the right for obvious reasons…smear with that broad brush!
Back in a bit…
back again and continuing…
“on a ship that’s done sunk”
You got that right. The second term is turning into a real stinker.
“Too late now … time to move on.”
Really? Why did you ask for the evidence if it’s “time to move on”? Or was the answer unexpected ot uncomfortable ugly?
“When was it decided we must all go to the bathroom together after all?” What in the world is that? No woman wants to go into a men’s bathroom. I’m a guy and I find them disgusting smelly holes.
“Wow, a double-snot shot from our true femme fatal, Blame-The-Victim Libby. I agree, to be a true progressive feminist you have to be as stupid as, well, you know. No need to spell it out.”
A man calling a woman stupid because she is not in the political party? Sounds like a middle eastern statement to me.
Bottom Line How about men worry about men and let Women worry about women not be dictated to?
All humans are different and have different talents. Worry about oneself.
I must say I do not like to hang out with many men in Chico, I find them a little less educated for my taste. My friends and I meet elsewhere for our football games ect. maybe I am just not a redneck.
I will say I will never stand for this kind of talk in public in a woman’s presence. I will stand with her for her equality. My wife would put this post to shame in 5 minutes.
People that have to demean others are not comfortable in their own skin. They already feel good and do positive things for the community not try and tear down others.
men often have more Physical strength , women can multi task, they go well together. Does not mean man is king.
My wife and I make a great team and she is free to be herself.
Good Job Chico Tea party!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/17/967731/-California-s-Annals-of-Racism-Denial-The-Tea-Party-Edition
Dewey: “What in the world is that? No woman wants to go into a men’s bathroom.”
Do us all a favor. Refrain from interpretation of that which you don’t understand.
” I will stand with her for her equality.”
Who spoke against equality? The subject is respect and praise for the contributions of men.
“Does not mean man is king.”
Nobody suggested that.
It appears that you too converse with that caricature in your head.
Dewey I could load you up with pictures created by Democrats, unions members, even a black woman with a sign: “F” George Bush. One picture depicted Condoleeza Rice as Aunt Jamima and referred to her as Bush’s House N-word. Bush was portrayed as Hitler and a monkey.
If you have evidence that that flyer was produced and distributed by a Tea Party member make the case, otherwise give it up.
Simple logic….
Raving Loon = Dewey
Dewey = Libby
Libby = Raving Loon
Let them spew this stuff it gets out the vote against the Tea Party
What stuff would that be?
I have to say your doing a bang up job making Independents look like fools and your links to Democrat sites as proof of your ranting disjointed opinions can only help the Republicans and that won’t hurt the Tea Party a bit.
You never have said what you stand for.
“What stuff would that be?”
I think he might have been referring to the inclination, when cornered, to resort to simple-minded and nonsensical, personal abuse. It goes right along with the racism thing … a decided low level of intellectual functioning that is just a little too prevalent among members of the TP.
Libby that is very unfair of you to label the TP as racist when there’s no evidence of that whatsoever! Oh sure, it’s been said many times by people on the left, so what? There’s been allegations from members of Congress (who were black) that said people from the TP used the N word. But, the latter was totally untrue and television recordings proved it. In allegation aftre allegation, it’s been shown to be an indictment from the left to discredit this decent organization because the left feel threatened by them. So unless you are prepared to show evidence that racism is prevelent within the TP, I would request you stop saying it. It’s not true.
Libby: “he might have been referring to the inclination, when cornered, to resort to simple-minded and nonsensical, personal abuse.”
Really? Isn’t that just something anyone might do…human nature?
Independents and Democrats do it.
” It goes right along with the racism thing … a decided low level of intellectual functioning that is just a little too prevalent among members of the TP.”
There is no way in hell you could possibly know that to be true, therefore, it is simply an impression you have formed made real by the leftist smear campaign to make it “truth” in the minds of the citizenry.
I thought you were smarter than this, Libby. But I should have known better. You have said you would stoop to anything if it meant you win.
I’d check that “level of intellectual functioning” on your part if I was you. A so-called intellectual that embraces that low level of morality and ethics is no intellectual at all; he is a blatant propagandist.
I should be really clear about this. Racism is endemic in the species. We all go around making such classifications. It’s really the low level of intellectual functioning, the lack of self-awareness, that’s the problem.
Do you realize your motivation … or do you not? If you do, it’s generally possible to keep from scrawling racist sentiment on a piece of cardboard and waiving it around in public.
And the fact that all these anguished white folk were not anguished at any one of the seven times that the Schrub raised the debt ceiling does tend to give lie to the economic motivations touted by the TP for its agenda.
I know that you officially disavow the placards and the flyers and the birthers, but still, these all have arisen from within your midst.
Okay Libby, I can accept the fact that we as human being all harbor at least a little racial bias and there are times when that bias shows up, hopefully not frequently or openly.
The Tea Party endorses all Constitutional rights and emphasizes honesty and accountability in government. At the core of this organization is economic responsibilty for a healthy and sustainable future economy.
The people who belong to the TP are generally family types, between the ages of 30-60, they tend to be middle-income and conservative politically. Beyond that there is nothing relevant about this group that needs to be said. They are not racists and there’s no evidence of that. They do not promote racism and if there are any oddball characters that pop up, they’re uncommon and unwanted and certainly not reflective of the greater group’s ideals or goals.
Libby, you mentioned birthers, they should not automatically be labeled as racist either. Racism is one thing, questioning where a person was born because there was some evidence that caused them to be suspicious is another. I think if the same circumstances existed for a man of Irish decent that would have caused people on the opposite side of his politics to look into it too. There were many suspicious things that lingered on much longer than they should before being explained by Obama. The president’s background is not all that clear! That’s a fact, from where/how he obtained the money for an Ivy League college to his actual student work, his missing thesis, to odd statements by Obama himself, and his wife and occurances associated with his birth certificate. Most Kenyan’s believe he was born there…so is anyone faulting them?
Libby, I wanted to make one point really clear. We’re kinda like a family here because we care about you, we care about our readers and all our commenters even though we may argue, and sometimes heatedly! But, at the end of the day, we’re still family. That’s why we try to understand each others political positions, and show empathy and agreement when and where we can. Running a free speech podium for the public is a challenge at times…but, we try to do it right and offer up reasoned positions. So, even if we disagree I hope everyone will understand… it’s why we do what we do that really matters most. The Latin term for this is called, mens rea, a state of mind. In a courtroom this mens rea often determines an evil act from a good act, even if the later is done wrongly. (I’ve never questioned your good intentions, but I sure wonder about Dewey! lol)
Libby if the standard is that one or two people flashing racist signs or saying racist things marks the entire group does that mean the entire Democrat Party is racist?
Would you be considered racist because of the left radio host calling Rice Aunt Jamima and insinuating that she was Bush’s house N-word?
There was also an offensive cartoon that demeaned her qualifications and character:
And tell me please why the left, if they truly do care about minorities doing well and achieving great things, does not celebrate the achievements of people like Condi Rice and Clarence Thomas?
Why were they not pleased (And vocal) about the many “people of color” that have served in Republican administrations?
In fact, why does the left disparage and condemn conservative blacks?
Paglia slam dunk on the PC socialist-fascists —
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/19/paglia-duck-dynasty-uproar-utterly-fascist-utterly-stalinist/?onswipe_redirect=no
e I completely agree with every single word Paglia had to say on the Duck Dynasty flap.
Paglia did a bang up job addressing the issue.
This article, about giving men their due, is a good place to discuss the suspension of Phil Robertson if anyone wants to weigh in.
You’re welcome, Dee. Thank you for taking the time to post a comment. I hope you will comment again. We always enjoy hearing from our readers and honor everyones right to speak their minds.