feminine-genius

Aftermath

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

by William Butler Yeats (1865-1936), a man who was born amidst chaos and died on the eve of yet more.

a Mad world dissected

Yes, I'm a Mad Men fan, and here's an article about this week's show:

What I saw in the episode were two seemingly unrelated stories coalescing into one. Besides the tragedy of Lane’s choices, there was the story of Sally, an angry young girl caught between two self-absorbed parents, Don and Betty. She endured their eventual divorce and ensuing marriages, with each seeing her more as annoyance than person. Since she didn’t want to go on a ski vacation with her mother, Sally acted out in the most insolent way possible, ramping up the decibels of rudeness until her mother relented and sent her to spend the weekend with her father. There—unannounced and inconvenient—she could proceed with a surreptitious plan to meet with a young man.

Spoiler alert. The rest is here...  [and the most compelling discussion, as ever, here]

Komen Caught in the Crossfire

Now that the controversy has died down over the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer foundation, let’s assess the lessons. Readers will recall that Komen had been lobbied for a number of years by concerned pro-lifers, and the foundation finally agreed that offering grants to Planned Parenthood didn’t forward its mission.

An announcement that Komen would henceforth cut off those grants brought two divergent responses:  pro-lifers were jubilant, and Planned Parenthood and its supporters were enraged.  After a relentless 48-hour media jihad, Komen promised to reconsider all grants on a case by case basis—including those to Planned Parenthood. The board member suspected of having influenced the initial change of policy, Karen Handel, tendered her resignation. "I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it. I openly acknowledge my role in the matter and continue to believe our decision was the best one for Komen's future and the women we serve."

CEO Nancy G. Brinker admitted, “We have made mistakes in how we have handled recent decisions and take full accountability for what has resulted, but we cannot take our eye off the ball when it comes to our mission.” She mentioned “the need to distance Komen from controversy,” but perhaps didn’t fully grasp that it’s simply too late. Komen is now a symbol of the extreme divisiveness that accompanies legalized abortion, and it may well be the undoing of this noble charity.

Previously, the Pink Ribbon campaign was relatively uncontroversial—at least to the bulk of Americans unconcerned about the wide number of studies linking breast cancer to abortion and hormone-based birth control methods. Few families were untouched by this sort of tragedy and it was reasonably safe to support a search for a cure. Pink was ubiquitous, and most didn’t mind.

No more. Despite all the protests to the contrary, Komen is now a bellwether for people’s opinion about “abortion rights.” Pro-lifers are absolutely justified in withholding support, for there is no guarantee about what will happen in the case of future grants to Planned Parenthood. Komen may actually never give them another dime, but it won’t matter. Having shied from standing by its new policy (which didn’t last 72 hours) there is no firm principle guiding its donations. “Case by case” isn’t enough for serious pro-lifers, and their enthusiastic support withered to wavering disappointment.

But what about Planned Parenthood supporters who crowed over their victory? Technically, it wasn’t a victory. There is still no guarantee that any money will go to the nation’s leading abortion supplier; the success they claimed was actually just the collapsed bravado of a group that works very hard to help women.  Unfortunately, we’ve learned that if such help threatens in any way to impact the sexual license of women, then it must be demolished. Promiscuity is sacrosanct, despite its myriad harms, and Komen—and all others—have been duly warned.

The supreme irony is that pro-abortion women won’t visibly support Komen either. Pink will no longer be a mindless accessory, a nod to an unimpeachable cause. Supporters of Planned Parenthood are fiercely  angry that Komen tried to buck the tide, and they’ll withhold their support as well.

The “Race for the Cure” will lose its community support, large buildings will no longer be bathed in that rosy glow, and Komen’s kitchy couture will be a thing of the past. Rather than having to explain what qualified support stands behind each pink ribbon, women will just pass.

So in that sense, it is a victory for Planned Parenthood, which is a tragedy for women everywhere.

Anarchists in lockstep

Well, this was only a matter of time:

Two California high school students became one of the first lesbian couples crowned homecoming king and queen in the nation this weekend. Rebeca Arellano, a senior at Patrick Henry High School, was made the school's first female homecoming king when her name was announced Friday at a pep rally.

"They were chanting my name and it was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had," said Arellano.

Arellano's girlfriend, Haileigh Adams, who also attends Patrick Henry High School, was made homecoming queen at Saturday night's dance.

Rebeca sounds bubbly and positive (of course) but repeatedly refers to her partner as "my girl." Odd phrase, perhaps trying to be like an old-fashioned guy? Not sure, but she draws a line of demarcation in a exaggerated place:

"For all the girls who think tradition should be continued, go back to the kitchen, stop having sex before you're married, get out of school and job system, don't have an opinion, don't own any property, give up the right to marry who you love, don't vote, and allow your husband to do whatever he pleases to you. Think about the meaning of tradition when you use it in your argument against us."

That's why "tradition" is the wrong place to look for guidance on vocation--either feminine or masculine. She has confused particulars (or accidentals) with substance, not to mention ignoring the relationship between virtue and the overall health of society.

Poor dears. Egged along by their parents, their peers and the educational establishment, what were they to do? There was a time when younsters would have rebelled, but when rebellion becomes mainstream, the kids don't know integrity from a hole in the ground.

Communicating life

Short piece at Catholic Lane today:

The alignment of a few highly visible events this month provide an opportunity to consider the most important topic before us: life. There is the death of Apple founder, Steve Jobs; there is the 40 Days for Life campaign that takes place around the country; and finally there are the “Occupy” sit-ins around the country, beginning with Wall Street, but echoed in other cities from coast to coast.

Read it all, and please spread the word about that wonderful site. Comprehensive and Catholic -- all good, fresh every day!

Indigestion in the lunchroom

This is unfortunate, given the age of the children. They are essentially trapped:

A parent of two young girls was caught off guard recently when her daughters came home from school with questions about a man dressed like a woman on duty in the school cafeteria. The parent was further chagrined when officials in the Sierra Sands Unified School District confirmed the story but insisted their hands were tied.

What continues to floor the parent, Phyllis Fernandez, whose daughters attend kindergarten and third grade at Faller Elementary School, is that the employee’s attire would not be permissible for students. The employee, a substitute lunch duty worker, was wearing makeup and a spaghetti strap shirt, with his bra straps visible to students. District dress code policies for students ban both spaghetti straps and visible undergarments.

“I shouldn’t have to be explaining to my five and eight year old girls why a man at their school is wearing a bra,” said Mrs. Fernandez. “The school believes they have to give special treatment to this individual because of his chosen gender expression, but the learning environment is suffering.”

With the current legal trajectory in place in this country, there is only more of this on the horizon. Technically, there is nothing to be done, given our refusal to stand by Judeo-Christian morality. In a secular state with no effort to define morality, the children will be fed to the lions.

Even worse "economic" news

Let me say that the article I'm going to cite is secular, brazen, and often vulgar. It also happens to be entirely true. Granted it's missing the pious rhetoric in which such topics are usually couched for our Catholic ears, but brace yourself and read it anyway. 

In today’s lousy economy, men can take comfort in knowing that there is one sought-after good that is becoming steadily more affordable: sex.

Women are jumping into the sack faster and with fewer expectations about long-term commitments than ever, effectively discounting the “price” of sex to a record low, according to social psychologists.

“The price of sex is about how much one party has to do in order to entice the other into being sexual,” said Kathleen Vohs, of the University of Minnesota, who has authored several papers on “sexual economics.” “It might mean buying her a drink or an engagement ring. These behaviors vary in how costly they are to the man, and that is how we quantify the price of sex.”

Sex is so cheap that researchers found a full 30% of young men’s sexual relationships involve no romance at all -- no wooing, dating, goofy text messaging. Nothing. Just sex.

Men want sex more than women do. It’s a fact that sounds sexist and outdated. But it is a fact all the same -- one that women used for centuries to keep the price of sex high (if you liked it back in the day, you really had to put a ring on it). With gender equality, the Pill and the advent of Internet porn, women’s control of the meet market has been butchered.

How is that for a recap of Humanae Vitae? There is the requisite apology for sounding old-fashioned, and then a recap of every snippet of advice given by mothers to their daughters for centuries. (It was even provided in a creepy way by the OB/Gyn to the new secretary, Peggy Olson, on Mad Men, Season 1, Episode 1, remember?)

Interestingly, the economic model provides this backdrop, which explains part of the challenge for women:

The issue is partly one of supply and demand, and it begins at US colleges, where 57% of students are women. With such an imbalanced sex ratio, women are using hookups to compete with other women for men’s affections. Once they get out of school, the pool of successful, educated men also is imbalanced, and the bed-hopping continues.

But of course, the challenge wouldn't exist without a broad collapse in societal standards and women's inordinate need to  "fit in" with their wider peer group. The surest way for women to navigate this depraved world is to have a strong set of self and a firm understanding of virtue. These require having a mother and a father (in an ideal world) and a remarkable amount of grace (available even if those components are missing).

Sadly, it has had to sink to this level in order to get the attention of the most secular among us. And what is the net result?

It’s little wonder that the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds who are married has shrunk by an average of 1% each year this past decade -- down to 46% now. Single women have been catching on, but those who don’t discount sex say they can’t seem to get anyone to “pay” their higher price.

So this is the bottom line that will ultimately affect all of society. While many are fighting over the definition of marriage (which is very important) the definition is only part of the deeper crisis that has been brewing. The larger problem is that fewer young people are entering into marriages, fewer of those who do see their unions as binding for life, and most young people don’t consider marriage as a requisite for starting families.

It's hard to stand firm for Christian values in this atmosphere, but be assured that statistics are now proving the Church right. Speaking forthrightly for chastity might be like whispering in a maelstrom, but even the softest words are true. They are also the words of authentic love -- carry on.

"Women were pretty mean to me"

That's the experience of Annette Charles after taking the role of "Cha Cha" in Grease, which you may remember (here's a little help). Even as a teenager, I despised the movie when I first saw it in the theatres, and I have only come to dislike it more as the years pass. (It doesn't help that every year Catholic schools across the country love to perform it with younger and younger casts.)

The movie was a riot of adults behaving badly, of teenagers lacking guidance, and of vice conquering virtue. Remember, just as bad boy Danny (John Travolta) realises that he should straighten up if he wants to win the pure Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) she likewise has a change of heart (and a change of costume) and embraces her inner sleeze.

This was just one in a long string of films that proved that the straight-laced 1950's was a hot-bed of hormones just waiting to spill over (Animal House was another in this genre) and that those who weren't complete hypocrites were just morons. The frustration may have been related to the often vapid, vaguely-Christian promotion of conformity and "good behaviour" as thin gruel--more important for social order than actual imitation of Christ. There was also a near-puritanical horror of sexual urges, and if we've learned nothing else in the last ten years, it's that Jansenism is no way to form children in authentic chastity.

I may be simplifying it too much, but something caused the culture to topple, and the Protestant ethos of the public square had no ability to push back. In fact, it buckled and caved. That said, we pray for the soul of Annette Charles. This starring role put her on the map, but her destination was somewhat confused after that--as was the nation that latched onto such entertainment at an enormous cost.