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Douthat. . . assumes that everyone can agree that "the steady advancement of single motherhood threatens the interests and happiness of women" . . . This, of course, is a little concern-trollish, too -- who is Douthat to tell Catharine MacKinnon, et al., what a real feminist would do?There's much more of that delicious flaying. Very good, Helen. Very, very good. Just one word of advice: Next time, find an excuse to link me. (Rule 2.)
The real feminists, of course, have turned up right on schedule to tell Douthat that, if he were really on their side, he'd join feminists in supporting their two favorite methods of reducing single motherhood: abortion and the Pill.
And that's the real problem with Douthat's column. . . .
After all, what Douthat doesn't know is that the feminists have been stigmatizing single motherhood, just not in a way that would please him. . . .
You're pregnant on your own -- what, were you drunk or something?
That kind of stigma works, but presumably the conservative half of Douthat's alliance couldn't really unite behind it. This leaves Douthat in a corner from which there are a limited number of ways to escape. . . . If Douthat accepts late marriage as a social given, then he'll have to create an America in which "thirty-year-old virgin" isn't a punchline.
UPDATE: Dan Collins of Protein Wisdom advises via Twitter that he went to Dartmouth, and so I take that back about Helen being the only Ivy Leaguer I actually like. And I could probably think of some other Ivy League alumni who are decent human beings. But most of them are as obnoxiously snotty as Douthat.
Aye.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Stacy, I finally started investigating this Rubio character. Goddamn, if this isn't the GOP's Obama -- in three cycles or less. I watched his farewell speech to the Fl. legislature. Wow. It's a rare thing to hear a man whose public talk of God doesn't make me snicker. (My great sins are cynicism and skepticism.) The guy has got something. I'm sending him 50 bucks ASAP. Keep the spot light on Rubio!!!
Phil
Stacy:
ReplyDeleteI think Douthat is a total Douthat, but feminists - the modern ones - are not really against single motherhood. They actually see it as a legitimate lifestyle choice, even if - or especially if - the single mother needs to make claims on the general treasury or commit paternity fraud in order to subsist until the tykes can support themselves with the fruits of their criminal careers.
Feminists only use "single motherhood" in the negative sense when they're appealing to middle of the road folks (who see single motherhood as a bad thing) regarding distribution of contraceptives to children and gaining access to them to promote their perversions.
Thanks a lot, Stacy.
ReplyDeleteAn intern and college student wrote that? The woman has a bright future!
ReplyDeleteIf there is any average graduate more annoying than an Ivy Leaguer, it is a Swarthmorean. I think fully half my graduating class went on to become leftist lawyers.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's right. Me. Kremlin on the Crum and all that.
Swarthmorians are impossible, this is true, and second only to the categorically hideous student body at Bryn Mawr - speaking, as I do, as an alumnus of a certain Augustinian institution in the same general area.
ReplyDelete"...only Ivy Leaguer I like.."
ReplyDeleteI could swear you like George W. Bush. But maybe I misunderstood.