The idea of a “war on women” is now a liberal cliche. But a recent article in Slate describes a much less publicized “war on men” by American women engaging in sex-selection of embryos.
From the article, “Women Are Paying Huge Sums To Have a Daughter Rather Than a Son”:
The conventional wisdom has always been this: Given a choice, couples would prefer sons. That has certainly been the case in places like China and India, where couples have used pregnancy screening to abort female fetuses. But in the United States, a different kind of sex selection is taking place: Mothers like Simpson are using expensive reproductive procedures so they can select girls…
For Jennifer Merrill Thompson, the reasons were simple. “I’m not into sports. I’m not into violent games. I’m not into a lot of things boys represent and boys do,” she said. Thompson is the author of Chasing the Gender Dream, a self-published book that documents her use of gender-selection technology to conceive her daughter.
Interviews with several women from the forums at in-gender.com and genderdreaming.com yielded the same stories: a yearning for female bonding. Relationships with their own mothers that defined what kind of mother they wanted to be to a daughter. A desire to engage in stereotypical female activities that they thought would be impossible with a baby boy.
Imagine the outrage if fathers were selecting baby boys over girls, citing reasons like:
I’m not into dollhouses and tea parties. I’m not into a lot of things girls represent and girls do. I’d like to be able play catch with my son just like I did with my old man. And we all know that girls can’t throw. I yearn for some male bonding with a son that would be impossible with a baby girl…
I guess gender stereotyping is ok if it’s done by affluent American women.
Yikes! What has happened to the females of our world? She only want a girl?!
Am I to make a guess this person isn’t married either? So there isn’t a father there to fill in on the guy stuff or if he is there he wouldn’t be allowed to do guy stuff with a male child? Do people still think boys don’t like to cook or care? Do people not know that fairy tales were written by men for men? Children are work female or male. They should be your greatest joy and accomplishment if they are not why have them? Both sexes are a wonderful opportunity to learn and be grateful.
What cannot be sustained, won’t be.
The bleeding edge of the Womyn’s Movement writes the end of the movement large on the wall, as wll as the end for the liberal segment of our population that subscribes to permanent childhood.
They subscribe to abortion on demand, and they play with sex selection, thinking that progressive social thinking and heavily subsidized health science will always be crutches that they can lean on.
They have forgotten about the Gods of the Copy Book.
Mostly they have forgotten that the conditions of affluence that they take for granted as their right, is the result of an extraorinary period of Human history, and is a direct result of the American experience. The normal state, for such as these, who have no understanding of the fragility of the structure that that they live in as parasites, is abject poverty, violence, and early death. Of course, when that comes back, they will call it bad luck. (hat tip to Robert Heinlein)
Look, it so simple–Feminists don’t want Men to have power anymore–or at least not manly men. And there have been excesses by Men in the past. But basically, having lived cheek by jowl with Men, they (Progressives) have determined it is a group that must be challenged and contained until it examines itself and changes in a way more to their (Progressives’) liking. A top priority of theirs, conscious or subconscious.
This philosophy is at play here, if you go deep enough. The thinkng–intuitive on their part, perhaps–is probably “Society losing another male child is no big deal, whereas society always benefits from having another girl who will turn into a woman. Because men are questionable in how they turn out, but girls are rarely so.” (And, to be fair, there is some truth to the criticism of men.) so Feminism evolves into something where men are something to be challenged, contained, and reduced in power, for the benefit of all.
But this is exactly how I feel about Feminists, and Democrats. Groups to be challenged, and contained and influence reduced until they change more to my liking, for the benefit of all, because, to be fair, there is truth in the criticisms of both groups. Good for the goose…
The glaring flaw in that logic is that we aren’t seeing girls turn into women. Instead, we are seeing them remain girls while pretending to be men. That’s a denial of reality, and those never end well.
Who posted this? There’s no byline.
Chipperoo:
I wrote this post. For some reason, my name appears on the Tatler main page, but not this subpage.
Ok, the position of the woman in this article is the height of willful blindness.
One of the basic facts of the sexes I’ve gleaned through almost a half century of observation, plus having both a son and a daughter myself, is this:
Two women, especially a mother and a teenaged daughter, cannot live in the same household but for so long before things get decidely catty.
These foolish women are setting themselves up for a huge fail when they realize their daughters are not carbon copies of themselves, and indeed are not the picture perfect angels they have convinced themselves these daughters will be.
My daughter-in-law is the oldest of three children in her family, all girls. Both times when she was pregnant, she didn’t want to have daughters. “Girls are too much drama!”, she said from apparent experience. Fortunately for her, she had sons. Personally, I would’ve loved to have another granddaughter.
I totally reject sex-selection in any way, shape or form. You get whatcha get, and just pray the baby’s healthy!
However, women raising daughters to be “carbon copies” isn’t exactly a new phenomena. My mother also raised me to be hers, and in my later teen yrs. (mid-late ’70s) we had huge struggles, mostly b/c no matter how much she wanted me to be an exact duplicate of her, I (of course) am me, my own person. She eventually came around & I gave a bit too; we negotiated & worked it out.
I will say, though, that my mom was always my best g.f. She knew stuff going on all the K-12 school yrs. that prob. no other mom even had a clue about. Even during the few yrs. of quarrels we could talk. Now she’s been gone 2+ yrs. after passing at 83 (on Mother’s Day 2010) from a 3rd bout w/cancer. I’m still not over it, and miss my best girlfriend many times every day.
Hated of women is called mysogny, hatred of men is called Feminism.
Did you mean “misogyny”?
I wouldn’t want any boy to be raised by some man-hating harpy anyway. That would be akin to child abuse.