Feminists vs. the Patriarchy

If there’s one truth that would impact culture for good more than just about any other if it were more widely believed, accepted, and embraced, it’s this: males and females are quite different from each other. We are. And not just anatomically but physiologically and emotionally.

The determination by some…mostly women…to willfully ignore or deny the differences contributes to a gender conflict that might broadly be described as Feminists versus “the Patriarchy,” with the so-called Patriarchy being attacked and blamed for everything from dress codes to limits on abortion. So you have groups like Stop Patriarchy fomenting unrest and anger by promoting an imaginary “war on women” and urging followers to “take patriarchy by storm!”

An example of this intentional disregard of the obvious is seen in this organization’s rallying cry that women are not “incubators” nor “breeders of children.” And that “forced motherhood is female enslavement.” Using the language of victimization, they lay all the responsibility for the creation of new life on the men, portraying women as merely disadvantaged participants in a sexual act who sometimes find themselves pregnant, as if they didn’t know that could happen.

And to further support their contention that restrictions on abortion are merely attempts by the Patriarchy to subjugate them and force them to be breeding machines, they make claims like this, that a fetus “is not a human being until it is born, and takes its first breath.”

I could write a whole post on why that’s such a bald-faced and ridiculous lie, and maybe I will, but what I want to highlight in this post is the tendency of radical feminists to ignore or gloss over gender differences in their struggle for sexual equality.

Women have a uterus. Men do not. Women are VIPs in the very important plan of reproduction. We carry and feed the child in the womb, and are specially designed to feed the child after it is born. Men do not and are not. The fact that the woman has the responsibility of caring for every newly created human being makes her the object of some attention and legislation not directed at men.

Men are, generally speaking, physically stronger than women and innately wired with a need and desire to be the protector of and provider for their families. Though I totally support equal pay for equal work, ideologies that seek to elevate women by discounting or denying this very real motivation in men do more harm than good when the result is a frustrated and confused male populace who feel like their natural instincts are unappreciated and even misguided.

Women and men are different in the relational and emotional support and guidance they provide to children. Children need a mother and a father. It is unfair and gravely inconsiderate and selfish to intentionally deny them one or the other.

Men and teenage boys are naturally, and helplessly, stimulated by the sight of the female body, certain parts in particular. The reverse is not the rule for women and girls. Expecting those boys, whose peak testosterone levels can easily make the sight of a female classmate in a low-cut top turn their brains to jelly and other parts to something quite the opposite, to just deal with it and not expect the girls to do their part by not dressing seductively is, frankly, sexist. Denying high school girls carte blanche in their choice of school apparel for the purpose of providing a learning environment with minimum distractions is not unreasonable or unjust.

Though we are of equal worth, the sexes are different. I pray I will not be misunderstood as promoting an Islamic-like society of subjugated women in full hijab. What I am promoting instead is an appreciation and celebration of our gender-specific qualities. I’m all for women being respected and encouraged to reach their full potential. Heck…I’m a woman. But I’m also for encouraging men to reach theirs, and for recognizing and embracing the truth that men and women….we are not the same. And that’s a beautiful thing, because we complement each other, so that together we are more than we could ever be alone.