Monday, November 26, 2012

The "Male Mystique"

Hanna Rosin is a former Washington Post religion reporter who has turned her satiric eye to male-female relationships. This piece in Slate - Fox News Figures Out How Women Have Ruined Men, posted Nov. 26 - is clever but too glib for my taste. The relationships between men and women are changing dramatically and it impacts everyone. The 20th century notion of "male" and "female" roles have been shattered. It's fair to say we have no prototype for a "female" role or "male" role - and that has turned American culture upside-down. 

Here's her column in full:

When I was writing the End of Men I mulled over many reasons why men
in certain segments of society were dropping out of work and family
life: the end of the manufacturing era, the housing crisis, their
unwillingness to get a college degree. I talked to hundreds of men and
pondered their stuckness, their general sense that they were ill
equipped for the modern economy and didn’t quite know how to fix that.
I arrived at an imperfect explanation that men were suffering from
some kind of “masculine mystique,” trapped in an all too narrow set of
social roles which were no longer serving them well. What I did not
consider was that the true and complete answer was right under my
nose, or more precisely, all over my face, staring back at me from the
mirror. The reason men could not move forward was ME.

I am angry. I am angry and resentful. I am angry and defensive and
resentful and men do not find that attractive. The worst part is, I
did not even know that until I read it in a FOX news story called “The
War on Men” written by Suzanne Venker, niece of and frequent
collaborator with Phyllis Schlafly. This story has been very popular
on the site for many days because it explains so much, so many
dynamics that Schlafly tried to make us understand during the course
of her long and patient career but which apparently are even more true
today.

Venker’s jumping off point is a Pew study showing that the share of
women ages 18 to 34 claiming a successful marriage is “one of the most
important things in their lives” has risen since 1997 from 28 percent
to 37 percent, while the share of men saying the same has dropped from
35 percent to 29 percent. At the same time, women have become more
ambitious than men. Two-thirds of young women ages 18 to 34 rate
career high on their list of life priorities, compared with 59 percent
of young men. You might wonder, what do these nice young men now give
a shit about, if its not family or work? (Halo 4 was not on the list).
But this is not where Venker went with it.

But what if the dearth of good men, and ongoing battle of the sexes,
is – hold on to your seats – women’s fault? ... After decades of
browbeating the American male, men are tired. Tired of being told
there’s something fundamentally wrong with them. Tired of being told
that if women aren’t happy, it’s men’s fault.
Contrary to what feminists like Hanna Rosin, author of The End of Men,
say, the so-called rise of women has not threatened men. It has pissed
them off. It has also undermined their ability to become
self-sufficient in the hopes of someday supporting a family. Men want
to love women, not compete with them. They want to provide for and
protect their families – it’s in their DNA. But modern women won’t let
them.
I knew that women had become more educated. I knew they were steadily
earning more money. I knew they had gained a lot of power of late, and
sometimes even more money and power than the men around them. But I
did not realize they had become so powerful that they could mess with
the men’s DNA. How did I miss that? How has J.J. Abrams not made a
movie about it?

Unfortunately, Venker is somewhat enigmatic about how to reverse this
problem, beyond a few vague clues. Women, she says, “have the power to
turn everything around” (Duh, of course, we have ALL the power). “All
they have to do is surrender to their nature – their femininity – and
let men surrender to theirs.” Surrender to my femininity. Surrender to
my femininity. I get the general idea but what does it mean, like, in
practice? Not wear pants so much? Let my hair grow. Ask my boss to pay
me a little less? Open to ideas.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Big Wins for Women!



What a win for women! Virginia and the entire country are changing and this election proved it. As of now, women’s issues are no longer fringe issues and women are no longer a special interest group.  Women cast the bulk of the votes this election - 53% - and were a force in winning campaigns across the country. Now we need to be sure our candidates and elected officials know it.

You already know the facts but for the record: Nationally President Obama won the women’s vote by 55% - an 11 point margin (he won by about the same margin in 2008, showing this is likely a reliable shift, not a fluke). In Virginia, he won the women's vote by 54%. Tim Kaine did slightly better with 56%. In other swing states, women also favored the President: 51-48 in Florida, 55-44 in New Hampshire, 52-47 in North Carolina, and 57-43 in Iowa.

The largest number of women ever will serve in the 113th Congress, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, An all-time high total of 20 women (16D, 4R) will serve in the Senate, and there will be a record of at least 77 women (57D, 20R) in the U.S. House. 

The Rutgers center also noted that the number of women running for Congress this year beat previous records. Roughly half the 33 Senate races had a viable female candidate – another record number. In two of the races, women faced off against each other (in Hawaii, the winner, Democrat Mazie Hirono, v. Republican Linda Lingle, and in New York, the winner Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand v. Republican Wendy Long).


More information
About Republicans’ failure with the women’s vote

Demographic data

Women elected

An interesting article that argues that women are not a “voting block” and that race and ethnicity are better predictors of voting patterns than sex, see

My sense, from talking to women voters, is that the Virginia Republican’s  transvaginal ultrasound bill was a factor in motivating women to get involved in the campaign and to vote. Talking about lady parts doesn’t work. Just ask losers Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock. While women are still outraged about the ultrasound legislation,  the Democrats’ positive, broad, and inclusive messages were successful in moving the discussion beyond anger. That’s a lesson for us as we begin the 2013 campaign for governor, lt. governor, attorney general, and all 100 members of the House of Delegates.

Our win among women in Virginia was also (again, in my opinion) the result of highly effective outreach by the campaigns to women. Moderate messages and themes worked: support for Planned Parenthood, equal pay for women, reproductive health care as a family and economic issue, and the importance of family and medical leave among them. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and Lilly Ledbetter (whose name now graces the equal pay legislation signed by President Obama on his first day in office) made the point that Democrats consider “women’s issues” to be mainstream, non-controversial family and economic issues.

According to the Rutgers center, Obama’s win nationally was the second-largest gender gap in American history, exceeded only by the 1996 election. 

There were a number of firsts this year.
·         Elizabeth Warren is the first woman elected to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate and takes the seat formerly held by the late Ted Kennedy. 
·         Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin is now the first openly lesbian or gay person elected to the Senate. 
·         Both Baldwin and Rep. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii are also the first women elected from their states to serve in the Senate. Hirono will serve as the first Asian-American woman in the U.S. Senate. 


·         New Hampshire is now a matriarchy (woman governor, two women senators, two women House members). The state already had two female senators – Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Kelly Ayotte – but now two Democratic women – Carol Shea-Porter and Ann McLane Kuster – will represent New Hampshire in the House of Representatives. The state also elected Maggie Hassan, who will be the country’s only female Democratic governor.


·        In a hotly contested House race in Illinois, Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth prevailed. As a double-amputee, Duckworth will gain much-needed visibility for people with disabilities in leadership positions. 

Women activists and voters made the difference in all of these victories, from the top of the ticket on down. Nationally, we've got to hold Congress accountable for the policies women support: the Paycheck Fairness Act, strengthening of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and essential social services, fair taxation of the wealthiest, comprehensive immigration reform and civil rights for all, including same-sex couples. We must keep moving Virginia and the country forward.