Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, which inspired a flood of commemorative essays everywhere from Slate to the New York Times.
It also inspired what I think is one of the most hilariously dumb sentences I’ve ever read on The Spearhead. In a post talking about Friedan’s “youthful Bolshevik activism” – she spent a number of years as a labor journalist – Spearhead head boy W.F. Price offers this assessment of the book that jumpstarted feminism’s second wave:
Although I haven’t read the book, it apparently stresses the need for women to engage in work outside the home, which is a basic Communist tenet.
Yeah, that’s why most women work. Not to pay the bills, but because they are pawns of the worldwide communist conspiracy.
Weirdly, Price is well aware that he’s full of shit here, and that most women throughout history have worked, not because of Communism but because of economic necessity. Indeed, he even points this out in his post. But he follows this acknowledgement with more thoughts on Friedan’s evil commie ways:
[I]t looks as though Betty Friedan was one of the many dedicated Communists who caused so many problems immediately after WWII. I once looked up a list of known Communist front groups in the US, and noticed that quite a few of them were women’s groups. Combined with accounts I’ve read from former Cheka agents, it makes for pretty convincing evidence that feminism was deliberately fostered in the US by Soviet agents. It makes sense to use women in that manner, because authorities are not as suspicious of women, and they can operate under the radar far more easily than men. Women also make excellent spies.
Although I’m sure resurgent feminism would have emerged in one form or another with or without Betty Friedan, it is interesting to note second wave feminism’s Cold War origins in Marxist infiltration of US society. …
It turns out she was little more than a loyal Bolshevik pawn who suddenly stumbled onto success by writing a thinly-veiled Marxist critique of American capitalist society from a woman’s perspective.
In the comments, TheTruthishere enthusiastically agreed with Price’s feminism-was-a-Soviet-plot thesis:
You are right a read the same thing on another site … feminism was thought up in a russian thinktank to basically destroy the family as the states smallest cell. Basically so communism could be introduced in the western world. Well, it worked, it just took them longer than expected. By the way the Rockafellas are involved in this as well
RockEfellers. Not RockAfellAs. Or even RockAfellERs.
Uncle Elmer gave us this weird socio-sexual fantasy:
Speaking of Freudian, all feminists have a major clit-boner for “1963”, though it was not technically part of the mythic “50s”. Based on their persistent mention of that era, it’s clear they would gladly trade in their Birkenstocks for a chance to be slapped and rogured by Ward Cleaver.
They didn’t call him “The Cleaver” for nothing.
And Towgunner, for some odd reason, used the opportunity to express his disdain for “female” – in quotes – music composers.
I have a lot of classical music as my pandora stations, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, etc. So, guess what gets inter-mixed with the play sets from time to time…yep, the token “female” composer. I’m usually doing something else while listening and this never fails – I always know its a female composer because it, well, is bad music. Also, all of the female composers I’ve heard basically sound the same. All things aside, forget I’m an MRA, it has very little aesthetic value for anyone, except for those who think talent is the same thing as “social justice”. female composers create music that is akin to cold coffee left over from breakfast and now its 2:00 PM. And its not after a few minutes, I can tell a female composer in the first few seconds…that too never fails. Many of them painfully subject their listeners to simple scales and scattered and disagreeable harmonies…kind of like the background music for greys autonomy or any chick flick. Above all, it’s not, even in the slightest, original…frankly female composers are a perfect case study in that you can hear the innate female tendency towards conformity.
By the way, here are some songs by female composers – sorry, “female” composers. I’m not sensing a lot of conformity here.
Me right now
Here: you can all have the cake mix cookie recipe.
1 cake mix, any flavor
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water (or other liquid: spiced rum or other alcohol is good. Strongly flavored juice. 1/8 cup lemon juice mixed with 1/8 cup water for lemon cookies. Use your imagination)
Add chocolate chips or nuts or candy pieces if desired.
Mix well. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.
You’ll get moist, chewy cookies…unless you use Pillsbury cake mix. Then you’ll have crunchy cookies.
Damn you people! I have a decadent chocolate raspberry cake left in the fridge that the boyfriend ordered from an amazing baker a couple days ago. I already had some today, so I should really not get anymore. But you all are making me want a big slice, right now.
I love when these dudes admit they have never read a book, then set in to talk about it like “experts.” Last year in one of my classes I mentioned that I loved Chopin’s The Awakening and some guy next to me proceeded to tell me why it was a horrible story (while getting most of the major points wrong) and that’s why he never read it. Sigh. Just read the book guys, it’s not that hard!
I apologize for this temporary derail, but I only just now remembered this from my youth and the relevant thread is kinda done.
“Lucifer’s Hammer” was a science fiction novel from 1978 written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle about the end of the world following a comet striking the earth.
I remember reading it and coming across a line something like this: The one good thing about the comet was feminism was dead a millisecond after it hit.
I remember being furious. Not only was this an unbelievably stupid remark, but it came out of the blue having nothing whatsoever to do with the character speaking the line.
Apparently the end of the world being a good thing ‘cuz it will destroy feminism is not a new trope.
Well I’m not going to miss a chance to post my favorite female composer: Hildegard von Bingen. She’s also one of the most amazing women in history.
Wait, that’s not canon? I don’t pay much attention to Bond movies (and have no interest in the books), so I didn’t even realize that wasn’t Fleming’s idea.
I’ve been thinking about that as well, because that’s a Bond movie I might actually watch (especially if she still gets to seduce ladies).
I’m mostly just a lurker, and late to the party at that, but I just have to give kamilla1960 a shoutout for the wonderful videos of great women composers. Some were new to me – and wow, what amazing music! Thanks, kamilla!
In the books Bond is one person. There are other recurring characters (outside of the ministry), so we know it’s one person. It’s also true that we are meant, in the main, to see him favorably; though one book (the spy who loved me) is told from a non-Bond perspective,and he comes off as scary/creepy.
As a point of trivia, he learned to drink martinis in the USA, which is why he wants them shaken, not stirred.
The books, btw, are very good; and nothing like the films.
They don’t read, they don’t research but they can’t stop themselves from writing. That bit about feminists having a “boner” for the ’50s is a product of his imagination. The culture throughout the ’50s, via advertising mostly, was big on trying to get women to forget about Rosey the Riveter, and that women poured into the workforce to make up for all the men that went overseas during WW II. The country didn’t cease to function. Naturally, this Stepford Wife campaign focused on the white middle class — other demos didn’t have the luxury of maintaining a household with a stay-at-home spouse.
1963? Meh. The first half of the ’60s was a lot like the ’50s (see Mad Men, seriously, the research for that show is astonishingly accurate). If there was any year when feminism was totally punk rock, I’d say 1973.
gelar – LOL!
Kim – hadn’t heard the theory but it’d explain why all those Bonds look different. 😉
I wonder if Uncle Elmer once saw some women in rockabilly style and thought they wanted to put up with all the shit from the 1950s rather than just enjoying the styles?
But then what better could you expect from someone calling himself Uncle Elmer anyway …
Idris Elba for the next Bond!
I’d so be there for that. Plus for the first time an actual English man would be playing Bond.
Ha! Idris Elba is an excellent choice! So is Jennifer Garner. 🙂
When men rant about women working outside the home (which in their minds seems to be a recent thing), to me it always seems like their real complaint is women devoting time to things other than taking care of men. Sure, they mention children, but it’s really themselves they are concerned about.
Hiya, lumi! Did you see the comments Hrovitnir posted with suggestions for your dog’s food?
The trouble with Jennifer Garner, IMO (other than her being American), is that I don’t think it’s a good idea to cast someone in a spy series who’s already been in a famously successful spy series. It would just make the next few Bond movies seem like big-screen episodes of Alias (which admittedly would be awesome in its own way).
Jennifer Garner? A woman as 007 isn’t something I’ve thought about (not much of a fan), but it would actually really shake up the franchise in a good way. So much to explore! Sadly, it doesn’t seem likely that fans would accept it – a lot of the appeal of Bond is in the male power fantasy. Putting a woman into that role would be very risky, and Hollywood is very conservative regarding gender roles.
Then there’s the Doctor, where there is no damn reason to not have a woman (it’s canonically possible!) except tradition, and the fanboi cries would likely be muted by fangirl approval, but it’s still probably not ever going to happen.
I would love Idris Elba though. He just oozes class.
How about … Idris Elba as the Doctor?
Maybe. Is he silly enough, though?
Dunno, I’ve only seen him in a couple of episodes of Luther.
Let’s see, actors to play the Doctor if only they would/could … Judi Dench!
I can really see her doing it, actually.
Kitteh, thanks for reminding me to check back to that thread! That advice sounds really good, and of course the last point that old dogs just get that way is reassuring 🙂
One thing that makes this place cool, which the trolls will never get, is the mix of expertise and all the helpfulness.
Exactly, lumi! It makes me laugh (in a slightly bewildered way) when the trolls go on about us being hateful, etc, etc … do they ever read all the other stuff we talk about?
Oh yeah, they do when they want to complain about us being trivial or whatever. Predictable, they are.
I was really happy to see Hrovitnir’s advice too, especially as it works for cats, too. I’ve a couple of tins of kitten food to give to Fribbie now, and see if she likes it.
@katz: I haven’t seen a lot of Idris Alba’s work, but is silliness really intrinsic to the doctor or is that just what we’ve been taught to expect recently? It could be interesting to see a more serious doctor.
I have seen a lot of people suggest Helen Mirren for the doctor. Personally, I like Maggie Smith, but what are the odds she would even agree if asked?
Omigod Judi Dench. That would be amazing. I will now pine for the fact that this would never happen.
(I always feel like an ignoramus discussing who should play the Doctor, especially with other Americans, because so much of our exposure to British actors is from Doctor Who, so we’re always like “Catherine Tate! Wait, no, that doesn’t work…”