"Ain't she sweet, just a walkin down the street?
Now I ask you very confidentially..."
Often, priests dress like women,
a phenomenon anthropologists call "ritual transvestism."
Is this practice unconscious compensation in the psyches of celibate men?
a phenomenon anthropologists call "ritual transvestism."
Is this practice unconscious compensation in the psyches of celibate men?
I notice that her correspondent, Abigail, provides consistently superior argument, a fact Laura herself ratifies by getting pot-shot snarky at the end of the thread. (In the absence of persuasive thought, resort to snark.)
It was interesting to learn that Laura worked as a journalist before becoming a mother and that she has now returned to journalism.
Note that Laura's younger child is now 20 and that she considers him a "grown up." As a "grown up," Laura believes he is immune to her renewed marketplace ministration and no longer needs continual maternal attention.
However, since Laura has operated her blog for at least four years, it appears that she ascribes maturity to 16 year olds.
Since women, on average, live til age 82 and since Laura considers children "grown up" at 16, why is it inappropriate for other women to prepare themselves -- as Laura prepared herself -- to participate in a career for the remaining 66 years of their lives?
Notably, The Thinking Housewife does not answer Abigail's "nosy" question concerning Laura's combativeness.
It is true that we never know what transpires -- at depth -- in another person's life.
We are, in fact, routinely stymied trying to understand what is happening in the Magnum Mysterium of our own lives.
We are, in fact, routinely stymied trying to understand what is happening in the Magnum Mysterium of our own lives.
Still, I see Laura as exquisitely unhappy were she ever deprived of her career - a rather consuming career at that.
It is a great gift that Laura has discovered professional expression, oddly a gift she would withhold from others.
If only to avoid frustration and consequent eruption of anger, are not all people required to liberate their "genius?"
Yes, the genius of some women may center solely on motherhood, although my own mother -- "a mother's mother" -- spent the last 20 years of her "working life" as cafeteria lady at the parish school.
It is a fact, plain as potatoes, that motherhood, for legions of women, is not enough.
Typically, a woman's life requires more. It is in The Natural Order of things.
Even when motherhood has been a joyful experience -- perhaps especially when motherhood has been a joyful experience -- most mothers confront the soul-grinding bereftness of "empty nest syndrome."
Happiness is not a matter of "signing off" on orthodoxy, of subscribing to every jot and tittle of doctrine.
It is a great gift that Laura has discovered professional expression, oddly a gift she would withhold from others.
If only to avoid frustration and consequent eruption of anger, are not all people required to liberate their "genius?"
Yes, the genius of some women may center solely on motherhood, although my own mother -- "a mother's mother" -- spent the last 20 years of her "working life" as cafeteria lady at the parish school.
It is a fact, plain as potatoes, that motherhood, for legions of women, is not enough.
Typically, a woman's life requires more. It is in The Natural Order of things.
Even when motherhood has been a joyful experience -- perhaps especially when motherhood has been a joyful experience -- most mothers confront the soul-grinding bereftness of "empty nest syndrome."
Happiness is not a matter of "signing off" on orthodoxy, of subscribing to every jot and tittle of doctrine.
Laura is quite likely the most "orthodox" woman I "know."
But I am compelled to ask: Does her extraordinary commitment to orthodoxy promote her own happiness?
Often she seems angry and eager to condemn people.
A Lake of Unquenchable Fire?
"Toss 'em in! It is the just dessert of every goddamn liberal."
***
But I am compelled to ask: Does her extraordinary commitment to orthodoxy promote her own happiness?
Often she seems angry and eager to condemn people.
A Lake of Unquenchable Fire?
"Toss 'em in! It is the just dessert of every goddamn liberal."
***
I have no problem with self-contradiction.
Does Laura?
If not, why not?
To quote "The Best Thing Ever Said By A Jesuit": "You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out God hates all the same people you do." Tom Weston S. J. http://www.jrclosaltos.org/
Oops! Jesuit! "Satanic Rebellion Against God!" Pope Francis is not Catholic and Pope Paul IV -- who originated the ghetto-ization of European Jews -- is an insuperable paragon of virtue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Speaking of "image"... and the images we select to pre-screen people, to replace their reality with Platonic caricature...
Laura's continual championship of masculinity and her unflagging support for the deliberate cultivation of masculinity, reminds me -- as one of her correspondents mentioned regarding her own sons -- that boys are hyper-masculine by nature and that they do not need further encouragement to be masculine.
Rather, they need "masculinity-modulation" through deliberate encouragement of their feminine side.
Boys are too "pointy" -- too enamored of penises, pistols, missiles, bullets, knives and spears. They need to become "well-rounded" through closer attention to "the feminine" with its emphasis on softness and curve.
Only then will young men forswear the witless warrioring that has held them perpetual thralls.
Pope Benedict XVI's Question: "Can Modern War Ever Be Just?"
Every politician in the world parasitizes un-modulated masculinity, "stealing away" hormonally-crazed males while they're still young, dumb and eager to romanticize the futility of war.
It is rightly observed that "a politician is someone who will lay down your life for his country."
Rather, they need "masculinity-modulation" through deliberate encouragement of their feminine side.
Boys are too "pointy" -- too enamored of penises, pistols, missiles, bullets, knives and spears. They need to become "well-rounded" through closer attention to "the feminine" with its emphasis on softness and curve.
Only then will young men forswear the witless warrioring that has held them perpetual thralls.
Pope Benedict XVI's Question: "Can Modern War Ever Be Just?"
Every politician in the world parasitizes un-modulated masculinity, "stealing away" hormonally-crazed males while they're still young, dumb and eager to romanticize the futility of war.
It is rightly observed that "a politician is someone who will lay down your life for his country."
"War, Peace and Political Manipulation"
Mostly we fight because presidents need their "own" war, knowing full well that endless legions of young fools will rally 'round, thumping their chests, waving the flag and suffering needless consequence for the rest of their damaged lives.
Do you know Laura's views on Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Granada, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador?
Do you know her views on Uncle Sam's coordinated overthrow of democratically-elected governments in Iran, Guatemala and Chile?
Do you know her views on Uncle Sam's coordinated overthrow of democratically-elected governments in Iran, Guatemala and Chile?
America no longer wages Just War.
Instead we perpetuate just war... banal, counterproductive, catastrophic and increasingly lethal to ever more non-combatants.
Pope Benedict XVI's Question: "Can Modern War Ever Be Just?"
Pope Benedict XVI's Question: "Can Modern War Ever Be Just?"
I suspect The Thinking Housewife has not studied these wars -- that she has surrendered their responsibility to "men" -- and that she goosesteps to nonsensical bellicosity whenever Uncle Sam beats the drum.
If not, I am eager to stand corrected.
If not, I am eager to stand corrected.
Pax tecum
Alan
PS Has Laura noticed that Catholic priests are disproportionately "sensitive" if not "feminine?" And that nuns -- especially mothers superior -- are often rather "masculine?" And why is it normal for clerics to be childless celibates, particularly if we believe in The Natural Order and the natural primacy of family life? No doubt there is a Catholic "calesthenic" to sanctify these abnormalities which -- assuming one has The Gift of Celibacy -- I am prepared to approve despite their intrinsic un-naturalness. Humankind occupies a very large tent - except in the minds of those who are happy to damn everyone but the 144,000 "saved" souls vouchsafed in Revelation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Furthering The Marxist Revolution.
Fostering "The Satanic Rebellion Against God."
Laura writes:
Thank you for your comments. Here are mine.
The whole thing is theater.
It’s dress up. It’s make believe. It’s a masquerade that has little to do with reality. It’s political theater — and there is a major infrastructure of well-funded support behind it. The point of it all is to flatter women in a sick kind of way, to make them competitive and aggressive so they won’t cultivate their real powers, which are a threat to the powers that be. And of course, the point is absolutely to destroy that man’s world you mention and to castrate men.
In other words, the point of it all is to further the revolution.
Abigail writes:
I have read your blog with interest for years now, but your post on the women’s Olympic Hockey team (“Women’s Hockey: Not so Equal After All”) has finally moved me to respond. I am a 41-year-old woman who has enjoyed a lifelong love of sport both as a spectator and as a participant. From that perspective, the comparison between male and female athletes is wholly irrelevant. Quite simply, when we women pursue sport, It’s not about men.
My own sense and, from what I’ve picked up from the many girls and women I’ve done sports with over the course of more than 30 years is that the love of competition and physical exertion is deeply ingrained in the human psyche. Not everyone is athletic, but for those who are (and that includes millions of girls and women), the exultation of a victory based on skill and grit after a sweaty, aggressive, hard-fought competition is one of the great pleasures of life. An activity that promotes a love of life needs no further justification (I posit) but sport also promotes a number of virtues — discipline, healthy living, good sportsmanship, a sense of humility, and a comfort with one’s body. In the case of women, sport counteracts the often pervasive social sense that one’s body is primarily decorative or sexual. It’s no coincidence that female athletes are far less likely to become pregnant in high school.
Mrs. Wood, when you say that the purpose of women’ssports such as hockey is to destroy a man’s world and to metaphorically castrate men, I read with my mouth agape that anyone could think such a thing. To men who are inclined to agree with this thinking, I say, “It’s not about you. Really, it’s not.” The disparity in men’s overall average ability compared to women’s is of absolutely no significance to the experience of women who play sport and those of us who love watching women’ssports.
That said, realism is important — and it goes both ways. Sure, I went through a phase (which I outgrew at about age 12 or 13) when I was troubled by the knowledge that my male classmates could now outstrip me in most athletic endeavors. As a mature, realistic woman, I accept facts, and I go on to live my life in the fullest, most productive way I can without sobbing into my pillow about the fact that there are physical differences between the sexes that are to men’s general advantage in athletic competition. Women with similar attitudes (and far greater discipline and ability than mine) have gone on to smash expectations of women’s physical capabilities in a number of different areas. Men who are inclined to feel emasculated by this fact should learn to accept the facts of life too.
I’ve participated in co-ed road races all my life, and have always defeated (and been defeated by) a number of men, as well as women. I remember once as a teenager, a young U.S. Marine I’d defeated in a 10K race after a sprint to the finish joked with me that he felt “totally emasculated.” But he took it like a man. Just as I must accept the fact of men’s generally greater physical prowess in most areas of sport, and just as I do not let that fact discourage my endeavors, a man must accept that in some areas of sport, he will be defeated by a woman who trains more, trains better, has greater fitness, etc. In the particular example I gave, the Marine understood and accepted that his male body, his strength and the time he spent in the weight room did not translate into the ability to outrun a 16-year-old girl in a long distance road race unless he were willing to train more to that end. I have no doubt that mature men can accept the fact that women are people too, and thus that women love sport too, and also that women can sometimes even defeat them. Mature men should be able to accept these things (and generally do in my experience) without becoming undone and feeling “castrated” and useless.
Laura writes:
Thank you for writing. I was writing specifically about women’s hockey, which is inherently a masculine sport and cannot be made a feminine sport no matter what you do. It is an aggressive, fast-paced, violent contact sport and there are very few women who are drawn to it, which is why I say the whole thing is theater. Very few women were ever longing to play ice hockey.
I did not condemn all athletics for women. Butsports and physical fitness in general are given far greater importance than they should be. I think many women have a hard time being mothers and wives when they get off the athletic treadmill. Their femininity has been suppressed.
Women are encouraged today to be far more aggressive and competitive than they need to be.
Yes, women should enjoysports in their own way, while doing nothing that compromises their dignity or modesty. Unfortunately, a woman athlete today is often turned into what would have been called a showgirl in ages past, i.e., someone who is exhibiting her body to crowds. Modesty is important to a woman’s character. The soul is more important than the body.
The rest of The Thinking Housewife's post is accessible at http://www.thinkinghousewife.
On Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 11:29 AM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
Women love shoes and hats.
On Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 11:29 AM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
which Laura naturally dislikes, but she does make a nice reference to Joan of Arc whom she does favor.
--
My writing blog is Frog Hospital
send mail to:
Fred Owens
35 West Main St Suite B #391
Ventura CA 93001
Women love shoes and hats.
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