Free Republic

EU wants to ban 'sexist' TV commercials Adverts which use sex to sell or promote gender stereotypes could be banned by the EU. By Chris Irvine MEPs want TV regulators in the EU to set guidelines which would see the end of anything deemed to portray women as sex objects or reinforce gender stereotypes. This could potentially mean an end to attractive women advertising perfume, housewives in the kitchen or men doing DIY. Such classic adverts as the Diet Coke commercial featuring the bare-chested builder, or Wonderbra's "Hello Boys" featuring model Eva Herzigova would have been banned. The new rules...

Gov. Sarah Palin's commando muscle-flex in St. Paul Wednesday night eviscerated the argument that she might not be capable of handling the vice presidency and five children at the same time. Indeed, we were left with the distinct impression that on a slow day, she could clean up America, balance our budget with a little help from eBay, and win the Iditarod -- all with 10 kids tied to her back. What Sarah Palin did not do, however, is put an end to the latest national conversation about "trying to have it all." Because the question we're all asking isn't...

From the “you can only be a real woman if you are a rabid liberal” group otherwise known as the feminist movement, their de facto leader Gloria Steinem unleashed a barrage of criticism today against VP hopeful Sarah Palin in an op-ed piece in the L.A Times. Ms. Steinem once again proves her bona-fides as a liberal of the most radical old school left as if the next bra-burning session were just minutes away and she was behind schedule. To cast doubt on Mrs. Palin’s abilities, Ms. Steinem touts Joe Biden’s 37 years as senator and expresses doubts about Mrs....

Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger. By Gloria Steinem ...

Palin is a true feminist role model By Chrystia Freeland Published: September 2 2008 19:37 | Last updated: September 2 2008 19:37 During the Democratic primaries, Gloria Steinem, pioneering feminist and Hillary Clinton supporter, argued that the contest had revealed that gender was “probably the most restricting force in American life”. She illustrated her point by imagining a female version of Barack Obama and contending that no woman with such a slender biography would be considered seriously for the presidency. It is now clear that Ms Steinem was right – although proof comes not from the treatment of the Democratic...

There's something about outspoken conservative women that drives the Left mad. It's a peculiar pathology I've reported on for more than 15 years, both as a witness and a target. Thus, the onset of Palin Derangement Syndrome in the media, Democratic circles and the cesspools of the blogosphere came as no surprise. They just can't help themselves. Liberals hold a special animus for constituencies they deem traitors. Minorities who identify as social and economic conservatives have left the plantation and sold out their people. Women who put an "R" by their name have abandoned their ovaries and betrayed their gender....

"There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women," former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once remarked. Where, then, are the liberal women when it comes to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin? Palin became the first woman to grace a Republican ticket on Friday, August 29, when Senator John McCain selected her as his running mate. The following day, a diarist at the mainstream left-wing Daily Kos (Barack Obama himself appeared as a Kos diarist back in 2005) suggested without any evidence whatsoever that Sarah Palin's son, Trig, recently born and with Down syndrome, was...

Romanticized Pedophilia and Polygamy Raden Adjeng Kartini: Debasing Her Memory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartini.....( added) Having just read the Prologue (available... not without irony, at a website whose name ends with “..Trashy Books”) to Sherry Jones “The Jewel of Medina,” one hopes (against hope) that perhaps the whole “fatwa” imbroglio has been manufactured by Random House to jettison this idiotic “novel.” There are so many layers of irony and tragedy to this story, epitomized most of all by the feckless Ms. Jones who not only romanticizes pedophilia (as observed aptly by Diana West), and polygamy, but seems utterly unaware that she is doing...

I contemplate divorce every day. It tugs on my sleeve each morning when my husband, Will, greets me in his chipper, smug morning-person voice, because after 16 years of waking up together, he still hasn't quite pieced out that I'm not viable before 10 a.m. ..snip.. Maybe one day, marriage -- like the human appendix, male nipples, or your pinky toes -- will become a vestigial structure that will, in a millennium or two, be obsolete. Our great-great-great-grandchildren's grandchildren will ask each other in passing, "Remember marriage? What was its function again? Was it that maladaptive organ that intermittently produced...

- Angus & Co., WE SALUTE YOU!!! I'm not sure regarding the exact date, but at least I know Ac/Dc formed in Sydney back in 1973 (- does anyone here on the greatest Conservative site on the Internet happen to know the exact date?) AC/DC is one of my favorite rock bands and all of Australia indeed ought to be very, very proud of them. AC/DC are admirable out of many reasons. Three of them stands out from my point of view: 1. Their conservatism; while most bands that have been around for some time, sooner or later, tend to...

This morning, I read the magazine What Is Enlightenment that Glenn picked up for me from a local health food store because the cover had a number of articles about men including "Constructing the New Man," "19 Powerful Women Tell the Truth about Men," and "A Scandalous Look at Scandinavia: Where women are women and men are too." Uh, okay, I thought, this can't be good, it's a magazine from a crunchy organic healthfood store with what I assumed would be a somewhat biased picture of the male gender complete with articles describing how men should be more like women....

Feminism Past and Present: Ideology, Action, and Reform CAMILLE PAGLIA Feminism is back in the news. After a long period when feminist debate has been mainly confined to Web sites and to books that, however well reviewed, did not find a readership beyond that of other feminists, the current presidential campaign has restored gender war to the center ring. There has been an explosion of international publicity and acrimony over the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. Hillary is not, as is too often alleged, the first woman to run for president: she has a long line of strong-willed precursors beginning with...

From The Sunday Times August 3, 2008 Where have all the real men gone? Top American columnist Kathleen Parker is causing a furore with her new book Save the Males, in which she argues that feminism has neutered men and deprived them of their noble, protective role in society I know. Saving the males is an unlikely vocation for a 21st-century woman. Most men don’t know they need saving; most women consider the idea absurd. When I tell my women friends that I want to save the males, they look at me as if noticing for the first time that...

How do you think Hillary's feminist supporters would feel if they knew Obama's father figure, Frank Davis, wrote a book called: "Sex Rebel:Black (Memoirs of a G*** Gourmet)" Where G*** is a particularly vile word for that certain part of the female anatomy? Frank M. Davis did in 1968 under the pen name Bob Greene.

Women Bishops in the Catholic Church, Too? Some Are Trying According to Church authorities, ordinations of women are invalid, and those who perform them are excommunicated. Meanwhile, fifty women have already received sacred orders. The latest sensational case is from Saint Louis. Countermeasures by the Vatican by Sandro Magister ROMA, August 4, 2008 – The ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate is a question that divides the Anglican Communion down the middle, as shown by the Lambeth Conference that concluded yesterday. But the question is also present in the Church of Rome, although to a decidedly lesser...

The tyranny of the matriarchy (Feminist agenda) The feminists are whipping up women to join their ranks and rebel against the tyranny of the patriarchy. They claim they want a society that will give them equal rights regardless of gender. They want a unisex society where women can enter the workforce and hold a good career as do the men. The feminists however want something else instead. They want more than a platform over a pedestal, they want a throne. During the sixties when you had in the name of civil rights radicals fighting for so called equality, these people...

“Comparable Worth” = Government Wage Control! The House of Representatives is gearing up for a vote this week on a bill that would institute the longtime feminist dream of comparable worth. Decades ago, in order to address the so-called gender pay gap in America, the feminists invented the code words “comparable worth,” “pay equity,” and the elusive “glass ceiling.” Contrary to feminist dogma, the gap is not created by a conspiracy of male chauvinists, but by the voluntary division of domestic labor. Clearly, a degree in education or women’s studies simply doesn’t earn the same pay as a degree in...

She's revered as a trail-blazing feminist and author Alice Walker touched the lives of a generation of women. A champion of women's rights, she has always argued that motherhood is a form of servitude. But one woman didn't buy in to Alice's beliefs - her daughter, Rebecca, 38. Here the writer describes what it was like to grow up as the daughter of a cultural icon, and why she feels so blessed to be the sort of woman 64-year-old Alice despises - a mother. The other day I was vacuuming when my son came bounding into the room. 'Mummy, Mummy,...

The nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, attracted 9,000 delegates to its annual convention in Washington, D.C., over the July Fourth weekend.--snip--NEA resolutions cover the waterfront of all sorts of political issues that have nothing to do with improving education for schoolchildren, such as supporting statehood for the District of Columbia, a "single-payer health care plan" (i.e., government run), gun control, ratification of the International Criminal Court Treaty and taking steps "to change activities that contribute to global climate change."...

Hi everybody, I’m excited to be posting on BlogHer. Not only because blogging is something I’ve actually been able to beat my daughters to; but because it gives me the opportunity to tell you a little bit about them, my husband, myself, and our experiences traveling all over this great country. Over the course of this campaign, I’ve been hosting roundtable discussions with working women all across America. I’m there to talk about my husband, of course – but more importantly, I’m there to listen. We talk about what it’s like to play multiple roles at once and what it’s...

Are you a "kid-sick" parent? If so, have hope. You've been diagnosed. And all you need is a good "parent-ectomy" to cheer you up. The Associated Press reported July 12 that many American parents are afflicted with a malady some experts dub "kid-sickness." Contrary to what you might think, this "sickness" is not about parents who are sick of their kids. It's about parents who actually want to spend time with their kids. And it's considered an ailment needing a cure. This summer, more than 10 million children are attending recreational camps across America. And according to Boston-based family therapist...

How long ago it seems that supposedly rational Democrats were calling for Hillary Clinton to exit the presidential race, arguing that the math simply couldn’t work out for her to win the nomination, and that she was standing in the way of party unity. The reply from Hillary’s supporters? “Sexist! It’s not over! Why should she have to quit? You wouldn’t tell a man to quit!” They scoffed at the notion that a prolonged primary campaign would work against party unity going into the general election campaign. And Hillary did not exit the race until days after Barack Obama had...

On Sunday, July 13, in Jonesboro, Georgia, an immigrant Muslim father strangled his daughter to death in a so-called "honor killing" because she protested being forced by her family to marry a man she did not know. No feminist uttered a word about the murder of twenty-five-year-old Sandeela Kanwal. On the following Wednesday officials in the city government of Atlanta, Georgia bowed to the pressure from one feminist nut to stop posting "men at work" signs in the city because they are "sexist." The contrast is stark as well as revealing, if not entirely disgusting. It reveals an American feminism...

Last Wednesday, the British House of Commons decided that a father is completely and totally irrelevant to a child's development. The legislation, which dealt with in vitro fertilization, or IVF, would have included a clause requiring a fertility doctor to "consider a child's need for a male role model before giving women IVF treatment," according to news site This Is London. Even though IVF already marginalizes fathers by effectively removing them from the procreative process, feminists would not allow even this bland and toothless reference to men to stand. The clause was voted down. This Is London went on to...

A NeW Kind of Choice by: Rachel Paulk, July 02, 2008 Radical feminists have been hard at work for decades stressing the importance of women choosing career paths over homemaking, corner offices instead of kitchens, and power suits to replace aprons. To a certain extent, their message has been accepted and assimilated into mainstream society. The U.S. Department of Labor reported in 2007 that “A record 68 million women were employed in the U.S.—75% of employed women worked on full-time jobs, while 25% worked on a part-time basis” and “Women accounted for 51% of all workers in the high-paying management,...

I know it is hard to believe but the enduringly disgruntled dames over over at Future Church are, well, disgruntled. Again. For the uninformed misogynists among you [read regular Catholics], Future Church is a group that openly agitates for the ordination of women. But since this issue is a dead letter, they occasionally need something else to agitate about. Today, these pant suit wearing damsels in perpetual distress are upset about the short shrift that women get in the Catholic lectionary. [ICN] "Unfortunately, for centuries, Mary of Magdala's leadership and that of many other biblical women, has been minimized or...

Waste Not, Want Not by: Deborah Lambert, June 30, 2008 There’s a new “academic endeavor” coming soon to a campus near you. It’s called “Waste Studies,” and according to Charlotte Allen in mindingthecampus.com, it’s not “the study of sewage systems or waste-processing plants.” Founded by Susan Signe Morrison, an English professor at Texas State University, San Marcos, the field of Waste Studies involves the way “societies are . . . structured around the control and regulation of excrement.” Not surprisingly, this new Marxist-inspired field of study was cooked up by the women’s studies movement. It seems that the dearth of...

Alice Walker, best known as the author of the novel The Color Purple, is one of the most renowned feminist authors and activists of her generation. She is also a mother, and that fact brought her public and private lives into direct conflict. --snip-- That is because Alice Walker’s brand of feminism was the kind that taught that “motherhood was about the worst thing that could happen to a woman.” So says her daughter, Rebecca, who suffered the consequences of that thinking. In a recent London Daily Mail article, Rebecca Walker reflected on the neglect she experienced with her divorced...

One problem with one-issue activists, it seems, is that they often view matters from only one dimension. This has always been one of the characteristics of feminists. Men get blame for being history’s conquerors and killers, for instance, but no credit for being its innovators and healers. We will hear about how women “create life” while men only destroy it, but forgotten are the fruits of men’s labors. Were it not for male medical advances that virtually eliminated female death during childbirth, many feminists wouldn’t be around to crow about their fecundity. Given this misandrist atmosphere, it’s not surprising that...

It is widely reported that women suffer depression at twice the rate of men. Apparently, more women are clinically depressed than ever before. On the assumption that these assessments are true, the question anyone interested in the subject -- which means anyone who cares about any woman -- asks is, why? In a recent column I offered one explanation -- the impossibly high expectations for happiness that feminism created for many women. There are other possible explanations. One is the way in which many girls have been raised. As every wise person and wise culture in history has known, it...

A rendering of a statue honoring Revolutionary War veterans. Photo Credit: Courtesy Of Loudoun Revolutionary War Memorial Committee Photo What expression would an 18th-century woman have donned as her husband left for war? It depends on which government official you ask. snip... ... In an artist's rendering, the man gazes toward the horizon with a determined stare. The boy's head is upturned, as he looks with pride at his father. The wife? "She's looking pretty beat; she's looking like she's sad," Supervisor Kelly Burk (D-Leesburg) said. "If we could get the representation of her to be more looking forward...

Feminism has been a very disgraced brand for decades. The final nail was placed in the coffin when feminists tried so athletically to see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil with Bill Clinton's record of serial adultery, sexual harassment and even a credible accusation of rape. But now that Hillary Clinton has finally conceded to Barack Obama, the media elites have suddenly discovered the glorious and militant cause of women. Hillary Clinton's failure wasn't her fault. It was sexism that ruined her chances. Feminists have blamed everyone for this crushing burden of sexism. It's most fun watching...

I'm not sure I said enough about domestic violence last week, while attacking a vicious "public service" advertisement from the Canadian Women's Foundation, designed to focus hatred on "white males" -- though perhaps I did say enough to satisfy some of my feminist readers. I mentioned the ad as a token for what has in fact been a long-rolling social and political campaign, nay melodrama, dating back before the "take back the night" spectacles of the '90s, before the "recovered memory syndrome" hysteria of the '80s, before the "pantsuit revolution" of the '70s, to the pioneers of "second-wave" feminism in...

Power Mrs. du Toit Or… “The things your mother should have told you… if she’d known about them.” I want to settle an age old question: “Who Wears the Pants in the Family?”

“Is 40 really the New 20?” asks Fox News, reviewing the Sex And The City hoopla that seemed to overwhelm everyone this weekend. “Pop culture expert and Party Girl author Anna David joins us to weigh in on the phenomenon…” And the burning question is, what do you make of this revolutionary idea that a woman can be single in her 30s, 40s, even 50s, and it’s not shameful, it’s fantastic? Interesting. Let’s explore this revolutionary idea. How did Sex And The City make it okay to be single? After Anna David addresses how threatening this idea is to men—it...

There is a lot of bitterness out there. And it’s not coming from rural voters in Appalachia. There are legions of Hillary Clinton supporters -- from Emily List activists to NARAL members to middle aged female fans -- who do not like the impending outcome of the Democratic primary. They are downright angry about some of the language employed by the media to describe Clinton, and at what they see as the media’s undue haste in shoving her out of the race. And they don’t like some of the phrases tossed around by Barack Obama (“Sweetie;” “You’re likable enough, Hillary”)...

We have become a nation of women. It wasn’t always this way, of course. There was a time when men put their signatures to a document, knowing full well that this single act would result in their execution if captured, and in the forfeiture of their property to the State. Their wives and children would be turned out by the soldiers, and their farms and businesses most probably given to someone who didn’t sign the document. There was a time when men went to their certain death, with expressions like “You all can go to hell. I’m going to Texas.”...

Right now, Hillary is in Godzilla mode, refusing to accept Barack Obama's looming nomination and threatening to tie the Democratic party in legal knots until the August convention and beyond. Those who think she will withdraw gracefully in a few weeks are living in cloud cuckoo land. The Clintons are ruthless scrappers who will lock their bulldog teeth in any bloody towel. In her raw ambition and stubborn, grinding energy, Hillary will certainly cast a long shadow on young women aspiring to high office. She is both inspiring role model and cringe-making bad example - a feminist who never found...

The other day I was vacuuming when my son came bounding into the room. 'Mummy, Mummy, let me help,' he cried. His little hands were grabbing me around the knees and his huge brown eyes were looking up at me. I was overwhelmed by a huge surge of happiness. I love the way his head nestles in the crook of my neck. I love the way his face falls into a mask of eager concentration when I help him learn the alphabet. But most of all, I simply love hearing his little voice calling: 'Mummy, Mummy.' It reminds me of...

SAN ANGELO, Texas - A state appellate court has ruled that child welfare officials had no right to seize more than 400 children living at a polygamist sect's ranch. The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the grounds for removing the children were "legally and factually insufficient" under Texas law. They did not immediately order the return of the children. Child welfare officials removed the children on the grounds that the sect pushed underage girls into marriage and sex and trained boys to become future perpetrators. The appellate court ruled the chaotic hearing held last month did not...

This is one movie that I have enjoyed as much as the trailer! As the end credits started to roll, my six-year-old (girl) popped up her head and loudly asked if I would buy the DVD. . . THE GUYS...ARE GUYS! They are not "juiced up" thirty-somethings with sculpted muscles and steroids to match, nor are they psychologically tortured, identity-challenged, oversexed teenagers. They are young males who are not afraid to spill some blood when necessary for the greater good. . . THE GIRLS...ARE GIRLS! . . . [T]he usual "girl empowerment" pomposity that almost universally plagues today's child actresses...

"Former teacher Brian Presken, 32, was accused of using a mirror to look under a woman's skirt last summer at Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Airport Boulevard in Pensacola."Defense attorney Katheryne Snowden argued that the voyeurism charge should be dropped because Presken's accuser didn't have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a public place under Florida law. "The law under which Presken was charged states, 'It is illegal to secretly observe someone with lewd, lascivious and indecent intent in a dwelling, structure or conveyance, and when such locations provide a reasonable expectation of privacy.' "Snowden said the statute her client...

Feminism has been dying the death of a sick old woman. Shackled to the political party that opposed women's suffrage, just as blacks are manacled to the political party of the Ku Klux Klan, both captives levied en masse as foot soldiers to fight the political party of Susan B. Anthony and of Abraham Lincoln, the party of all the original feminists and all the original abolitionists, feminists, like civil rights straw bosses, long ago sold their political soul. So, when Hillary Clinton is pilloried by the radical Left, her protests of victimhood produce no feminist outrage, because feminists cannot...

Dartmouth English professor Priya Venkatesan is suing her students for “mental harassment” and the college’s administrators for “failure to safeguard my emotional health.” Venkatesan maintains that some of her students were so resistant to her exposition of “French narrative theory” that the classroom became a “hostile working environment.” “They argued with my ideas,” she charged. “They questioned my authority.” The professor’s suit mentions a specific incident wherein students assailed her contention that science is “a patriarchal construct that suppresses feminine ways of knowing.” One of the students took issue, citing empirical evidence in his argument. When he was applauded by...

Suppose you ran a physical education program and discovered that girls were much more likely to suffer serious injuries than boys are. Before recruiting any more girls, would you want to alert them to this fact? Doesn’t seem like a hard question, does it? But the answer is controversial question in some circles, as Michael Sokolove reports in his Times Magazine cover story on girls’ soccer injuries. He notes that female soccer players are 50 percent more likely to be injured than male soccer players, and up to five times more likely to suffer serious knee injuries. (My Science Times...

(IsraelNN.com) A new study carried out at Brandeis University finds that as the liberal Jewish community empowers its women, its men appear to be losing interest in their Jewishness. According to a report in JTA, which publishes parts of the study, "outside the Orthodox world, men are becoming less and less engaged in every aspect of Jewish life, from the home to the synagogue to communal organizations. Numerous studies show that fewer boys than girls go to non-Orthodox youth groups, religious schools or summer camps, fewer go into the rabbinate and cantorate, and fewer serve on synagogue or federation committees....

In the mid-1980s, The New York Times ran a profile of the American writer and activist Alice Walker. Her novel, The Color Purple, had won the Pulitzer prize and was being turned into a film by Steven Spielberg. The article was illustrated by a photograph of Walker sitting on her teenaged daughter’s knee. It was meant to be a “fun” picture; but, in retrospect, according to Rebecca Walker, the photographer unwittingly portrayed the true nature of her relationship with her mother. Alice Walker was, and remains, an icon of the American civil rights movement. “People adore her. I can’t tell...

IRON MAN, Batman, Big Angry Green Man — to judge from the new popcorn season it seems as if Hollywood has realized that the best way to deal with its female troubles is to not have any, women, that is. Not that it hasn’t tried to make nice with the leading ladies, in films like “The Invasion” (with Nicole Kidman) and “The Brave One” (Jodie Foster). Yet, after those Warner Brothers titles fizzled, the online chatter was that the studio’s president for production, Jeff Robinov, had vowed it would no longer make movies with female leads. A studio representative denied...

... There are lots of questions to be asked about Postmodernism, and one of the most important is about politics involved -- or more simply, is this movement toward fragmentation, provisionality, performance and instability something good or bad? ... the postmodern avowal of fragmentation and multiplicity tends to attract liberals and radicals. This is why, in part, feminist theorists have found postmodernism so attractive as Sarup, Flax and Butler all point out. ... postmodernist politics offers a way to theorize local situations as fluid and unpredictible, though influenced by global trends. Hence the motto for postmodern politics might well be...

Feminism on Red Alert by: Deborah Lambert, April 25, 2008 Question: What would inspire a conference on feminism at Harvard to feature conservative viewpoints? Answer: When it’s organized by Professor Harvey Mansfield’s Program on Constitutional Government. The flyer told the tale, saying: “a genuine debate with DIVERSITY of views on THE LEGACY AND FUTRE [sic] OF FEMINISM” adding that “Ladies Receive an Additional 50% off" (at the free conference)…” According to Anthony Paletta, some of the guests at this unusual forum were taken aback at the sights and sounds of conservative speakers like Jennifer Roback Morse, Wendy Shalit and Christina...