The feminist movement may have been started by women with legitimate gripes but it has become reactionary to the point of the absurd. Early on as the movement began to pick up steam it meandered into an ill-advised liaison with Marxism. Licentious cohabitation yielded a hideous progeny, a hydra we call “radical feminism.” The radical feminist agenda is to destroy God’s distinction between the male and female sexes while proclaiming with demonic authority that “gender” roles are social constructs. Radical feminists make the absurd claim that men and women are and ought to be equal in every respect. To believe this is to be senseless. But seeing as how we live in a senseless age, this senselessness has a wide appeal. We have reached such ridiculous heights of folly concerning feminism that all those born with XY chromosomes have to walk on eggshells not to offend those born with XX chromosomes when it comes to notions of equality.
It is true that men and women are equal in their intrinsic dignity and worth in the eyes of God, but there equality ends. Men and women are not equal; they are different, obviously so, measurably so, visibly so, and beautifully so. Nowhere is the difference between men and women more apparent than in the area of athletics. Men and women are simply built differently: Men in general are stronger, faster, and more agile on the sports field. That is the way it is.
The company Always, which manufactures feminine products, has put out a pathological masterpiece of feminist propaganda in this video. It is a gut-wrenching assertion that “violence” is done to pubescent girls by the wide-ranging implications of the “chauvinistic” slur, “you throw like a girl.” The video is steeped in pathological platitudes and undergirded by the false assumption of equality between the sexes–a false assumption which beautifully lends itself to the oppressor/oppressed dichotomy. This vile video would have its audience believe that girls are oppressed by any man who would utter the insult, “you throw like a girl.”
For time immemorial man has been prodding his brother onwards and upwards with the insult, “you throw like a girl.” One of the first questions Always asks its audience is “when did doing something like a girl become an insult?” Always uses the particular case of doing athletics “like a girl” and then draws the general conclusion that saying that someone does something like a girl is an insult. Well it is an insult, but not to girls, unless one is operating under the false assumption that boys and girls are equal and that they do in fact throw with the same ability. What makes “throw like a girl” funny is that in general, boys do throw a ball better than girls. It is an incongruence that humorously insults a male companion.
Along similar lines, girls and boys walk differently, eat differently, and generally smell differently. If girls tell their girlfriend that she “walks like a man,” or “eats like a man,” or “smells like a man,” then surely she will be insulted. However, because everyone knows that in these three areas men and women are different, no man would be insulted by such comments. To be insulted would indicate a hypersensitivity or even an alarming egocentrism.
The feminist movement is arrogantly and angrily screaming at a scapegoat. Man is not the creator; the Creator is the creator. If feminists do not like the created order they should take it up with God, not take it out on innocent men. Yet the feminists at Always are relentless. They take offense to comments not even directed at them and then claim that “a girl’s confidence plummets during puberty.” Even if this is true, what does this have to do with guys making comments to other guys? The radical feminists want speech codes to propagate further disorder and misunderstandings between the sexes, especially concerning their notions of equality.
It is a bad idea to submit to speech codes required by the purveyors of political correctness and worse still to acquiesce to the radical feminists. One of the glaring problems with speech codes in general is that they claim an exaggerated offense to buttress the status of the “oppressed.” Certainly there are things that ought not to be said because they are genuinely an offense to truth, God, and man. But taking offense at such a line as “you throw like a girl” is a grand irony. “You throw like a girl” is not an offense to women, but just to be sure, perhaps we can subject the line to the morality test.
To determine if an act is moral it must meet three conditions. One, the act must be a right act. Two, it must be in the right context. And three, it must have the right intention. First of all, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with telling someone they throw like a girl, especially if they do. If the radical feminists are right and boys and girls are equal, then there ought to be no slight. If they are wrong, then why would telling someone who is not a girl that they “throw like a girl” be an insult to girls?
There is nothing intrinsically morally wrong with observing and telling someone they throw like a girl if one is conveying a truth. Still, we must consider the context. Normally, while playing ball a guy may make a weak or bad throw, and in that context his buddies tease him by saying “you throw like a girl.”
If the intention is purely for humor’s sake or as a humorous way of prodding a friend to a higher level of achievement, it might in the final analysis be licit. A moralist could object on the grounds that the intention is disordered. Surely it is not the nicest thing to say and that would require some introspection on the part of the one giving the insult. Even if by some degree the supposed slur is immoral to say, there is no reasonable way a woman or a girl ought to take offense to this thing said to a male by a male.
At the end of Always’ video, the undergirding intentions of the feminists who produced it are clear. They champion the slogan “Rewrite the Rules.” This is simply Sir Francis Bacon’s terrible exhortation to conquer nature by applied science, and additionally in the case of Always, by social pressure, shaming, and the plea for a false equality.
If we recognize the inherent dignity of both male and female, we will desist from the madness being foisted upon us by angry and misguided feminists backed by the makers of feminine hygiene products. Throwing a ball well is best done by men. Where is the crime in observing and stating the obvious? There are many things women do better than men, but why the spitting contest? Women would be better off returning to their rightful and rightfully-ordered feminine virtues and allowing men to cultivate the manly virtues free from the kind of madness the feminists would impose upon an already troubled society.
Whatever the moral implications of men telling other men on the sports field that they “throw like a girl,” it is a distortion to suggest that this phrase causes so much offense to girls that men ought to be forbidden to say it. The injury in this saying is not to pubescent girls and their confidence. The suggestion of a speech code is a disingenuous cry to camouflage the truth that the radical feminists want to destroy the differences between the sexes–and thus God’s plan for the ordering of the family and society.
One might rightfully object that the issue of the insult, “you throw like a girl,” is not a big enough deal to even raise; to the contrary, it is the camel’s nose under the tent. The radical feminists are engaged in a power struggle with men. In the well-ordered society, the sexes are complementary. Far from competing for power, good men and woman ought to serve each other by the gift of self-donation, and thus the good society will grow out of well-ordered and virtuous families. Let us reject the equality feminists’ agenda so basely portrayed by the Always video. Our civilization indeed depends on it.
Books on the topic of this essay may be found in The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore.
Vive la difference!
As Russell Kirk observed, society requires orders and classes that acknowledge “natural” distinctions.
Our problem is that the US government justifies its domestic and foreign policies on its advocacy of egalitarianism. So the radical feminists have the weight of the regnant ideology on their side, no matter the chaos caused by their refusal to accept reality.
Thank you, Mr. Rummelsburg. I would submit, as an Army veteran, that the most pernicious effect of this false philosophy might be the degradation of the armed forces under the risible assertion that women can do as well in physical combat as men–and the attendant lowering of standards required to realize this pipe dream.
Amen Sue!
Mike, it is a tsunami of support from all quarters, all of it grounded in intellectual dishonesty- Good point! I still have to get back to you on your book, congratulations!!!
Dr. Furnish, It is quite something to behold, it is in fact breathtaking how disconnected from reality it is to live by the ideological foolishness of egalitarianism grounded in identity/gender politics and abject narcissism. The mythology growing around the saying “you fight like a girl” confronts reality in combat, and it is embarrassing and patently unmanly- two things we don’t need in our military. Thanks for your sober comment.
As the father of four daughters, I have, on various occasions, told each of them “you throw like a girl”. Each has invariably replied with a proud smile “I am a girl!” That is the moment when my wife and I realize we have raised a self-aware, assured, intelligent and confident young woman.
Great article, Steven, but I fear you are fighting a losing battle. Logic and common sense were the first casualties of the media-concocted “battle of the sexes”, and weaker men tend to acquiesce in absurd ways that, in fact, exhibit true sexism (i.e. over-complimenting a female truck driver who can back up to a loading dock successfully). They say the liberal arts have been taken over by strong women who hold dominion over weak men. I say they’ve been undermined by bullies.
Paul, my eldest daughter does not throw like a girl, she is an amazing softball player. There is certainly no shame in throwing like a girl if you are a girl. If you are a guy and throw like a girl it is a defect. Well done on raising good daughters!!!
Chris, losing battle indeed! I couldn’t agree with your comments more. I have agreed to fight windmills for my wife, daughters and what is left of the Great Western Tradition as my duty to justice. I am happy to take up arms against a sea of troubles because everything is at stake here, eternity itself is on the line. I worked in the public schools for 23 years, I know the enemy and its hideous underbelly like few others. Like you said, logic and common sense had to be the first causalities, they were the last guard to stand between humanity and the sexual liberationists. Thanks for your good words. May God grant us the peace of Truth!
Steve, the feminist movement was not started by women with legitimate gripes. Feminist “waves” is nonsense. It’s all egalitarian folderol…the “waves” talk is just for cowardly conservatives who partly/secretly mind being called slurs and who want to be a part of the pop culture, which is precisely as impossible as a good Catholic being a part of pop culture. Don’t fight it, expect it: lunacy regards reason as lunacy.
If one fights it too much, one will end up chasing down tortuous, obviously wayward paths as to why “there are many undiscovered or overlooked great women writers” or why conservatives should embrace distributism or common core. Things generally are straightforward. The world makes sense. Women, unlike men, haven’t written many good books. Distributism is just as unsubsidiarian as any planned economy. Common Core is the worst. Some premises shouldn’t even be indulged; they’re intellectual zeroes with no fruit to bear.
Exactly what are the “feminine” virtues and how do you propose to restrict us to them?