Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Feminism is silly

So says Warner Todd Huston of Renew America. Now, before we continue, I want you to click on that link and see if you can keep from bursting out laughing when you see Warner Todd Huston. I couldn't.

I'm sorry if that sounds cruel, but what the hey, I gotta do something until the indictments roll in. Now, on to what he actually says:
now, we can safely say the battle is won. "Feminism," as a movement, is now unnecessary. In fact it has become silly at best and dangerous at worst.


The battle is won? All right! Party over at my place, everybody! Ladies, bring your miniskirts and birth-control pills, we're gonna party like it's 1979!


At Amherst Regional High School in New Hampshire they have decided to stop calling freshmen students by that long standing and venerable name. They have decided to call their students "Ninth Graders" instead of freshmen.

I'd bet you've already sensed why this decision has been made, haven't you? That's right, Amherst High has decided to stop using the word freshmen because that appellation has the word "men" in it. How gauche to have a word that might be misconstrued as having a possible male connotation despite the fact that no one even considers the word to be gender specific.

So far, actually, I agree with this, such a decision does seem silly, cosmetic, and arbitrary. But I'm not sure whether making a fuss over it is any better or worse than the people who made a fuss about "freshman" in the first place.

Staff writer, Rachel Hanley, of the Daily Hampshire Gazette said that the school wanted to "move away from 'freshman'" as a "result of conversations among faculty that began after the controversial production of The Vagina Monologues two years ago."

So, it's perfectly fine to talk about "vaginas" in high school using a word that seems suspiciously gender specific, but not the word "freshmen"? Curious that.

Um...Warner...The Vagina Monologues is about vaginias. It's monologues about them. Vaginias themselves, in fact, are gender specific. There are no male vaginas but there are female freshmen, and I think that was their point. Again, not saying I agree with it 100% or approve of the actions being taken, but...

Oh, by the way, as we go on, do you notice that Mr. Huston has the kind of relationship with good writing and literacy that would make him a prime candidate to be a FEMA aide?

We have already dummed down our college course with too much social "sciences," and inapplicable and pseudo fields such as Gay studies, Women's studies or Minority studies. Why not add Popsicle stick art and finger painting as college level courses, the same relevance and seriousness would apply?

Yes...I suppose we have "dummed" down our college course[s], haven't we?

The battle for feminism has been won, yet he still feels comfortable equating the study of the place of women (or gays or minorities) in history with activities for children. Uh-huh.

No, feminism has become as much a thing of the past as rotary phones or buggy whips. It's time to move on, girls. Join the men as leaders of the nation, not as spoiled, half-educated whiners, would ya?

But Warner Todd! The leader of the nation is a...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Incidentally, and I know it's probably a typo, if you're commenting on someone misspelling 'damned', you'd better make sure you've got 'vagina' spelled right... I'm on your side, dude.

Ben Varkentine said...

I was commenting on someone misspelling "dumbed," but it's a fair cop...

Anonymous said...

You know, having been educated in the US system until uni, when I went to Canada, I have to say I prefer labelling it by grade number rather than "freshmen/sophmore/junior/senior". It's a heck of a lot more clear, especially in university where many of us took more than four years.

Also, notice how he uses "girls" to refer to women, but "men" to refer to men? Yeah, feminism is so dead. Right.

Anonymous said...

Pretty funny how YOU misspell things while complaining that others do so!! It's also funny that you seem to be making fun of how the guy LOOKS! Yeah, REAL substantive comment there, dickhead.

All in all, it seems his ideas are at least cogent whether you agree with them or not. Yours are just childish.

Ben Varkentine said...

You really should sign your name to your comments, Mr. Huston.