Men, too, are victims of gender inequality

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Let me be clear: I am a committed feminist and a passionate supporter of the Enlightenment and its ideals. Indeed, I have been the beneficiary of those ideals in ways unimaginable to most people in the western world. I traveled from a genuinely patriarchal society poisoned by Islamism to a free, secular society where women, whatever issues we might still have, were equal to men under the law and able to pursue opportunities I could scarcely have dreamed of growing up.

As I have written before, however imperfect western civilization might be, we haven’t seen anything like it anywhere else in human history. The progress we have made is dizzying. One of western civilization’s greatest achievements is the emancipation of women. For most of human history, and still across large swaths of the world, women have been, at best, second-class citizens and, at worst, chattel. In the West today, women are freer than they ever have been. Why would a woman want to be born anywhere other than in the modern West?

But however grateful I am, I cannot pretend that the legacies of feminism and the Enlightenment are perfect. Like many women born into societies that oppressed them, I fully embraced western feminism, warts and all. But these days I am beginning to really see the warts.

When I first read Christina Hoff Sommers’s 2000 book The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men, I admit that I was puzzled. Now I realize that Sommers was on to something. I paid too little attention to her argument that boys were being left behind by badly thought-out policies which penalized them as being privileged and as barriers to the equality of girls. I am grateful to Sommers and other writers who have offered enlightening critiques of modern feminism and the sexual revolution, among them Mary Eberstadt, Louise Perry, Caitlin Flanagan and Heather Mac Donald.

Much of modern feminism — and I want to emphasize that I in no way mean to denigrate all modern feminists — seems to be more interested in vengeance than fairness. Whereas feminists of the past focused on attaining legal and social equality between men and women, too many today desire power rather than real justice. How else to explain the authoritarianism evinced by many feminists over utterly trivial issues like so-called “manspreading”? Even one of the world’s most powerful women, Hillary Clinton, has recently complained about manspreading — in this case, from Vladimir Putin. So while Ukrainian women are being raped by Russian soldiers and women in Iran face beatings and imprisonment for daring to remove their hijabs, western feminists shriek at the way men sit on public transport.

You would also not know from mainstream feminism that Sommers was right: boys and men face daunting challenges of their own because of their gender. A 2019 study on how gender stereotypes impact adolescent health in fourteen low-income countries found that boys were more likely to report neglect, abuse and involvement in violence than girls. The study’s co-author Robert Blum notes that “the only group where life expectancy has gone down is white men over fifty, mainly due to self-directed violence and access to guns.”

This holds for wealthy countries, too: the Basic Index of Gender Inequality, which claims to use a less female-biased methodology, shows that in the US, boys are, among other inequalities, less likely than girls to be enrolled in secondary education and that men have a lower life expectancy than women. The great emancipation of women has gone hand in hand with the great emasculation of our brothers.

None of this is to deny that women and girls still have issues in the West. Indeed, my nonprofit, the AHA Foundation, works hard to end female genital mutilation, child and forced marriage and honor violence right here in the United States. But it is accurate to say that male issues are often ignored because mainstream feminism is too preoccupied with laughable “problems” like “mansplaining.”

Why the silence? As I said, I suspect it has to do with vengeance. The popular slogan “the future is female” is very telling: the past was male-dominated, so now we women must dominate the future — and who cares if that means men have a few problems of their own? This spirit is also apparent in other emancipation movements. Racial equality is out. “Equity” is in.

In universities, I see countless beautiful young women angry at their supposed victimhood. I have come to think of this as the Titania McGrath phenomenon, named for British comedian Andrew Doyle’s parody of ultra-woke activism. These Titanias shout and scream about the silliest of non-issues while ignoring the very real issues facing women — and men. Titania, to me, is a stand-in for the new, vengeful form of feminism. She would rather deconstruct patriarchal norms in movies than do anything as genuinely meaningful — or as uncomfortable — as challenging the misogynistic values of, for example, many Muslim communities in the West and beyond, let alone advocating for boys and men.

If feminism is to reclaim its radical, transformative, humanist spirit, then it must tame Titania. It must knock her from her powerful perch in education, entertainment and beyond. It must rediscover its universal ideals. It must stand up for minority women and recognize that men, too, are victims of gender inequality.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/08/its-time-for-feminists-to-say-mentoo/

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Inside a Pregnancy Center That Pro-Abortion Vandals Attacked

LYNCHBURG, Virginia—Something didn’t feel right to Susan Campbell as she checked the security camera feed from Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center, where she is executive director.

It was less than a day since the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending pregnancy on demand across America. And to Campbell, things seemed a little too quiet.

Campbell’s fears were confirmed June 25 when she arrived from home to learn that the pregnancy center had been attacked.

“They had taken crowbars to almost all of our windows, two of our doors, and just shattered all of the glass,” Campbell told The Daily Signal. “They had spray-painted [the shapes of] coat hangers on the sidewalks, on the brick facing of the buildings, and [wrote] political things like ‘Vote blue.’ In red on the stamped concrete, it read ‘If abortion ain’t safe, you ain’t safe.’”

Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center, in Lynchburg, Virginia, is one of about 40 pro-life organizations attacked since May 2, when someone leaked the Supreme Court’s draft majority opinion in the case called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

That draft previewed the high court’s official 5-4 decision, released June 24, to end abortion on demand and return the issue of abortion to Americans and their state representatives.

“Anybody who thinks that it’s OK to vandalize a center that’s aimed at helping women [in] their most desperate needs are cowards by every definition,” Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said during a visit to the Lynchburg pregnancy center following the act of vandalism.

“They hide behind a mask and they think they’re making a political statement,” Miyares, a Republican, said of those who vandalize pregnancy centers. “They’re absolutely victimizing the very women they claim that they’re standing up for.”

Pregnancy centers such as the one Campbell runs exist to provide women with an alternative to abortion when they face unexpected pregnancy. They often offer parenting classes, adoption resources, and emotional and financial support to women in crisis pregnancies.

“We do not want financial resources to be one reason or any hindrance,” Campbell said, explaining that all the resources offered by Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center are free, from diapers and baby clothes to counseling and ultrasound.

The Lynchburg center serves about 50 to 75 women a month, Campbell says.

Shortly after the attack on the center, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., made headlines for speaking openly against pro-life pregnancy centers.

“In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers—that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help—outnumber true abortion clinics by 3 to 1,” Warren said. “We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country.”

In response to the Massachusetts Democrat’s remarks, Campbell says she would “love to invite Elizabeth Warren to walk through these doors.” She said she would “take her through on a tour, show her, shadow an appointment, show her the life-saving measures that we are able to do.”

And to those who vandalized the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center, Campbell says, her message is “immediate forgiveness.”

“If you were to dwell on what they had done, … it would be easy to fall into unforgiveness and even bitterness because you felt so violated,” she said. “But I know as a Christian I’ve walked that path many times, and I won’t allow my heart to go down that direction.”

Now more than ever, Campbell says, she and her team are committed to keep on offering “guidance and support” to women facing crisis pregnancies.

“[We] not only help save the crisis pregnancy,” she said, “we care about the whole person.”

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/08/07/inside-a-pregnancy-center-that-pro-abortion-vandals-attacked

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Contrary to Mainstream Narrative, Black Americans Want Criminals Behind Bars: Horace Cooper

Black Americans in urban areas are suffering the consequences of the progressive Democrats’ anti-police “soft on crime” policies, despite the fact that these are the communities the policies were supposedly going to help, said Horace Cooper, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, in a recent NTD interview.

Cooper told NTD that because progressives Democrats are too soft on crime and conservatives are afraid of being called racist by the left, crime has come to an all-time high in urban areas and is disproportionately harming black people.

The black community wants criminals to be prosecuted, said Cooper.

“I would argue that it would be smart to stand up, find out where black Americans are, and champion the kinds of policies and issues that interest them,” he said. “On the issue of crime, black Americans are ready to bring in law enforcement, are ready to increase penalties, and they are ready to stop the violent wave of crime that we see.”

Cooper is also chairman of the board for Project 21, which established a network of black conservative and libertarian leaders in 1992 to highlight the diversity of viewpoints within the black community.

Project 21 has identified 10 key areas for reform that, if accomplished, would help black Americans reach their potential and attain the American dream.

Black Americans Want Less Crime

Cooper said that out of the 10 areas, one of the key issues that need to be addressed is the crime in black communities.

“We have a ‘Blueprint for a Better Deal for Black America’ that we’re releasing this fall, and one of the core issues is going to be the idea of crime control,” said Cooper.

Crime disproportionality affects black communities, and the people who live there don’t support policies like “Defund the Police,” he said.

“During the Rodney King riots, during George H.W. Bush’s presidency, there were a lot of voices that came out that said when you saw this violence, when you saw this mayhem, that it was justifiable. It was a natural outworking. ‘This is what blacks just do,'” Cooper said.

“In fact, most black Americans don’t believe that this kind of behavior is acceptable.”

In a Gallup poll conducted in June 2020 at the height of the George Floyd riots, 61 percent of black people surveyed said they wanted to keep the same level of policing in their neighborhoods, and another 20 percent said they wanted more police presence.

In late 2021, a consortium of news organizations surveyed 800 voters in Minneapolis, where George Floyd died in police custody, and asked them what they thought of the city’s police department. Three-quarters of the black respondents said the city shouldn’t reduce its police force.

Cooper said that Democrats and the Biden administration do not understand what the black community really wants, and instead perpetuate racist ideas about blacks.

“We’re seeing the outworking of that during the Biden administration, this tacit idea that it’s criminals who are the victims, and if you really want to support blacks, you’ve got to support criminals.”

In addition, Democrats install radical prosecutors who double-down on this narrative in Democrat-run inner cities, he said.

“We’re seeing what I would call the ‘woke prosecutors’ who actively say to criminals, ‘there will be no accountability. There will be no punishment.’”

‘Woke’ Prosecutors Won’t Punish Criminals

Cooper said that while black men make up just 7.5 percent of the American population, they commit 40 percent of all violent crime.

“That’s staggering,” he said. “But these woke prosecutors and their supporters, they say, ‘Well, the truth is just America’s unfair, America is bigoted, America systematically mistreats,’ and that these people who prey on the rest of us, ‘They’re not predators. They’re just fighting back.'”

The problem with this narrative is that there is no evidence to support those claims, Cooper said. The way to stop this type of predatory behavior is to punish it, he added

https://www.theepochtimes.com/contrary-to-mainstream-narrative-black-americans-want-criminals-behind-bars-horace-cooper_4632955.html

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Owner of Australian antique centre that sells golliwogs, Nazi memorabilia, ivory and indigenous artefacts forced to put warning sign up after 'outraged' visitors abuse staff

The owner of an antiques market which trades in golliwogs and Nazi memorabilia has taken on outraged visitors who say such historical relics should not be offered for sale.

A sign has been placed outside Morpeth Antique Centre in the New South Wales Hunter Valley describing the dealership as a 'purveyor of history' and warning customers about some of the controversial items they might confront inside.

The sign says the emporium's stallholders stock golliwogs and other 'black Americana', World War II German militaria, 'child and slave labour objects' and Barbie dolls.

The centre also sells stuffed animals, fur, whale bone, ivory, religious icons, 'colonial and empire jewellery' and indigenous artefacts from around the world.

'Entry is free,' the sign states. 'At your discretion.'

The antique centre, which operates from the 180-year-old Campbell's Store on Morpeth's main street, is one of the two-pub town's biggest weekend tourist attractions.

In recent years it has also become a target of 'politically correct' antagonists who object to some of the wares on offer, particularly Nazi war relics emblazoned with swastikas.

The sign, which went up about three weeks ago, is the work of centre owner Trevor Richards and his daughter Kylie, who refined the wording over several months of considering how to get their message across.

The pair was sick of having to deal with outraged visitors, some of whom were abusive to their staff.

'We put it up just to try and minimise people being offended by some of the products we sell,' Mr Richards said.

'And explain to them what the expectation is when they enter Campbell's Store.

'As the sign indicates at the top, we are purveyors of history and history includes things like gollies, which were very fashionable in the 1900s.'

Golliwogs - black dolls with frizzy hair and minstrel faces that first appeared in children's books in the late 19th century - were popular toys in Australia into the 1970s. There is a large display of them on the centre's first floor.

The most contentious material for sale is World War II memorabilia from Nazi Germany's Third Reich. The centre has Jewish relics from the Holocaust era as well.

Stallholder Matt Robinson, who sells German World War II uniforms, weapons, medals and books including Hitler's Mein Kampf, previously told Daily Mail Australia that Nazism appalled him.

'It's history,' Mr Robinson said. 'I don't sell it to glorify it.

'I also sell Japanese World War II items which are extremely popular as well. As Australians, technically we probably should be more offended by that than anything with a swastika on it.'

Ms Richards said it was a only tiny minority of visitors who took issue with what was on sale at the centre but she and her father wanted to diffuse any trouble.

'Usually you can have a good conversation with a customer about whatever it is that's caused them offence but sometimes they really do get quite defensive about it all,' she said.

'The team managing the counter downstairs don't need to put up with people walking in the door and abusing them about this, that and the other.

'Finally it got to the point where we just got one too many comment.'

Ms Richards said the sign was meant to advise anyone who came into the centre 'that it's chock-a-block with thousands of years of history and that some people might be offended by what they see.'

'Our position in a very polite way is to say well, it's a part of history and we shouldn't be writing history out of books and society,' she said.

'We're not confrontational. We don't want to be that. We just want people to come in and enjoy themselves without it necessarily becoming a woke issue. 'But it's their choice. It's a private business, we're not forcing you to come in the front door.'

Ms Richards said the first complaints staff received when the centre opened five years ago were about the large number of golliwogs in a cabinet filled with black Americana.

She dealt with those protests by displaying a pamphlet which explained the origins of golliwogs and how it spread as a marketing icon for Robertson's jam in the early 20th century.

When Ms Richards was told that brochure presented a 'rose-coloured' view of the dolls she wrote a second one which recognised their racist connotations in modern times.

'That got handed to every person who made a comment and it was just there as a general information sheet for customers as well,' Ms Richards said.

'But of course we get a fair few comments about other things, which is basically all the things that are written on the sign out the front.'

There was seemingly no end to the items that could cause offence including uranium glass which contains the radioactive metal. When put under an ultra-violet light it glows.

'We've had people have a go about Barbie dolls, the taxidermy, fur, blood diamonds, whale bone, colonial and empire jewellery, anything Edwardian,' Ms Richards said.

'There's some about indigenous artefacts as well, and we get the odd one about antiquities too - "you shouldn't have Roman coins" and things like that. We get a little bit of that as well.

'Semi-precious stones that have been mined out of Sri Lanka and Burma - that type of thing.

And Noddy.' The fictional character Noddy was created by English children's author Enid Blyton for a series of books published between 1949 and 1963. The original publications featured golliwogs, often cast as villains, and in recent decades Blyton has been accused of being racist, sexist and xenophobic.

Barbie, the collectable fashion doll launched by Mattel in 1959, is blamed for perpetuating gender stereotypes and conveying an unrealistic body image to girls.

'Even Smurfs - we get the odd comment about Smurfs too,' Ms Richards said. 'But it's mainly Noddy and Barbie.' Asked how Smurfs could offend anyone, Ms Richards said: 'I don't know about that one'. French academic Antoine Bueno claimed in 2011 the little blue figures represented an 'archetype of totalitarian society imbued with Stalinism and Nazism'.

The centre's loudest critic has been Dr Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, who lives in Victoria and has never visited the store.

Dr Abramovich has been spearheading a national campaign to ban the sale of Third Reich paraphernalia and believes the trade encourages neo-Nazism.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11075591/Morpeth-antique-centre-owner-warns-visitors-sells-golliwogs-Nazi-memorabilia-cheeky-sign.html

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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