A stoic’s view on feminism
Tick-tock, a second passes and another thing changes just a
little bit. Tick-tock, another second passes and things change even more or
perhaps now there are two things changing. Another tick-tock and one can see
that regardless of effort, a person will see change as change is inevitable;
tick-tock.
1960s America America ’s
fight against communism shifted south to Vietnam America
Joseph McCarthy1, the junior senator from Wisconsin
American corporations and their government noticed this and
realized that a potentially new pool of workers was available. Basic economics states
that the scarcity/abundance of a good or service dictates the price and so when
women were encouraged to join the workforce, under a guise of freedom, resulted
in wages stagnating. This so called freedom for women can be marked by the
demise of the soap-opera around 1995; I hold that women did not become free,
they became taxable.
The money people still had one problem, the capricious
nature of the male penis, and that had to be managed. Not trusting the men, the
keys were given to women who always controlled access to sex, they could not
control the resulting gestation period and of course the post birth care which took
woman out of the tax base. The solution was the combined oral contraceptive,
more commonly known as The Pill, and with The Pill the taxes would be kept flowing.
When The Pill failed in its promise, abortion was institutionalized and made
readily available via a sales pitch of ‘Safe, Legal, and Rare’; though that
didn’t always work out that way.
Recapping the events so far, upon seeing the plight of women
in the house hold, some men improved the household tools, and other men saw how
to capitalize this through mass production; all the while doctors were telling
everyone what brand of cigarettes tasted best. What is now known as
‘Big-Pharma’ then came along with ‘The Pill’ thus allowing women to remain in
the workforce, all of this being done in the name of freedom. To understand
just how little corporations have changed, after the overturning of Rowe v.
Wade at the US Federal level, Amazon started offering female employees a free
trip to a clinic in a pro-abortion state; thus saving Amazon the cost of
employee absenteeism along with any maternity leave expenses.
The 1970s were a period of social chaos, the duality of
public messaging was a mess. Many parents and grandparents were fraught with
worry over the promiscuous ways of the youth; a cohort of freshly minted adults
who did not see the problem, as for them there seemed to be no consequence.
There are always consequences and something had to take a
hit, and the one social act hit particularly hard was courting. Courting was understood to be emotionally
driven acts with the intention towards marriage, and when it was wacked was
marriage followed suit. Marriage once considered a safe haven for women, though
it didn’t always work out that way did provide in its promise. Courting/Marriage
was also beneficial for men for they got a partner who prepared meals, kept the
house, and raised the children while the man laboured; though that too didn’t
always work out that way. This division of work and responsibility stood for
many centuries allowing mankind and civilizations to grow and expand.
The old path was: dating, courting, engagement, and
eventually marriage. The death of courting opened the door to more dating, and
now feeling financially secure and safe from the consequences of nature, in the
name of politeness; let’s say that it was not just doors that were being opened.
The now fully empowered woman had a career, was financially secure, and could
keep the company of anyone she wished, meaning they were set for life. Yet
maybe everything wasn’t all roses and rainbows, because to get that carrier
they had to go for a post-secondary education, meaning no children at that
time. Following that they had to build on maintaining their career, which meant
no children at that time either. The one problem that has risen within the social
consciousness is that many women want to have children2.
Some feminists like to claim that housework is unpaid
labour, though I don’t see many housewives paying for room and board. Anything
outside of both parties agreeing to a fair exchange of value is at some level a
form of communism or slavery, which makes a distinction without a difference.
Of course all of this is from the view of a man, a view
which many may readily dismiss; to those people I say ‘hold on and think about
it for minute’. Feminists have long decried the patriarchy, and yet with the help
of the pharmaceutical industry in the 1960s they decided on a ‘if you can’t beat
them, join them’ strategy. Women were encouraged to take up the trappings of
men; sadly, a lot of cats have been sold due to this ideology. I guess when
some finally figured out that they’ve been sold a bad bill of goods; a cat made
a good comfort companion.
Like so much in life, any myopic view of the world will
beget some level of bigotry. In retrospection the question must be asked, what
if the rise of feminism in the 1960s and 70s was not the cause but an attempted
cure against prolonged misery. 1973 saw oil shortages across the Western world
due to embargos from many of the oil producing nations. The price of oil and
the line-ups shocked many people by exposing an economic vulnerability, this
uncertainty scared many people away from parenthood.
A similar reaction recently occurred during the pandemic
driven government lock-downs. Many may assume that mandated stay at home orders
would produce a bumper-crop of babies, and yet that has not observed3.
The government imposed lock-downs were not limited to just the citizenry but
also to businesses and once again the impact of financial uncertainty can be
seen by the lack of fresh new faces.
Progress can not be had without change, yet change does not
guarantee progress; furthermore, those who speed towards change may miss the
warning signs of an un-railed cliff over which they just might plunge. So
ladies and some men… I will offer an answer to the opening question; feminism
gave you cats, an obligation to working, taxes, and enough social capital to
have your safe spaces invaded by members of a newly minted oppressed class
whose month of recognition comes with nicer weather.
END NOTES:
- Sen. McCarthy, rightly or wrongly, was set upon
by the mainstream Media and some within the US Government. The term
‘McCarthyism’ was coined, as a metaphorical reference to witch-hunting, in
order to describe Sen. McCarthy’s pursuit of communists and their
activities within the
- A beyond ‘the point of no return’ poll creates
the problem of unconscious bias because the person polled may indicate the
position that supports their truth over their reality.
- The current birth rate for
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