Taking the oath to "do equal right to the poor and to the rich," Sonia Sotomayor was finally sworn in as the first Latina on the U.S. Supreme Court. No sooner had the kerfuffle surrounding her "wise Latina" remark subsided, when Carol Smith saw fit to pen this wise verdict in the New York Times: "In my experience, female bosses tend to be better managers, better advisers, mentors, rational thinkers."
Not to be outdone, last week NPR analyst Cokie Roberts opined in the Washington Post, "Women tend to be a lot more commonsensical than men are" and admitted to hectoring her husband that "Men are just lesser beings."
Call it whatever you want — female empowerment, turning the tables, girls letting off a little steam, whatever — it's time to blow the whistle on feminist-inspired misandry.
For decades, male-bashing has been deemed an amusing side show in the Battle of the Sexes. Some consider it funny when an advertisement depicts a man maimed by his girlfriend. Others will say an abused man simply had it coming. (Think former NFL star Steve McNair, shot four times in his sleep by a jealous girlfriend — but no one could bring themselves to call it "domestic violence.")
In recent years, gender supremacism has entered the mainstream of political discourse. Former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas once declared, "I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which a man structurally does not have."
And consider Hillary Clinton's remark, "Research shows the presence of women raises the standards of ethical behavior and lowers corruption." Thank goodness we have ethical paragons like Hillary to show us out of the wilderness.
Sometimes pronouncements of women-as-uber-species approach the point of logical absurdity. Appearing on NPR radio, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona once gushed that women "get so much done because we make lists." Somehow that sounds like the freakish musings of an obsessive-compulsive, not the reflections of a person trying to make the world a kinder, gentler place.
A February 5 editorial in the Christian Science Monitor announced grandly that "a woman leader governs differently than a man, bringing new perspectives and helping other women."
I'm sure that came as a surprise to the men who worked long and hard to enact Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and a bevy of other programs that primarily benefit women.
Sometimes the gender supremacists get downright ugly, lapsing into demagoguery to cast men as abusers, deadbeats, and batterers. If you want a real eye-opener, take a look at University of Michigan Catherine McKinnon's writings. And don't forget Valerie Solanas' SCUM (Society for Cutting up Men) Manifesto.
Not all academics are enamored of the feminist antics. Professors Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young of McGill University have written two scholarly tomes that probe the feminist dystopia. Their first book, Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture, lamentably concludes "men are society's official scapegoats and [should be] held responsible for all evil, including that done by the women they have deluded or intimidated."
Their second work, Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systematic Discrimination Against Men, reveals how feminists have capitalized on their disdain for men to reshape policies in such wide-ranging areas as marriage, divorce, custody, and even employment.
Case in point is the recent revelation that President Obama's stimulus plan is skewed to favor women, even though men in the manufacturing and construction industries have been hit hardest: www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/090723 .
America has a courageous record of drawing on our traditional notions of fairness and justice to confront supremacists in our midst. We have faced down the bigots, the xenophobes, left-wing fascists, and race-baiters.
Now we must come to terms with the dark side of modern feminism, a movement that fosters contempt and scorn for men.
© Carey Roberts
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/090811
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