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Unexpected Costs of Total War Between the Sexes
Townhall.com ^ | April 13, 2019 | Suzanne Fields

Posted on 04/13/2019 3:00:33 AM PDT by Kaslin

Between the sexual revolution of the 1960s and the #MeToo movement of the present day lies a battlefield strewn with bodies and minds battered by the changing weapons of physical and psychological destruction. The war between the sexes, like all wars, exacts an unexpected price.

Between stories of John F. Kennedy skinny-dipping in the White House swimming pool with two interns code-named Fiddle and Faddle, titillating capital gossips and former Vice President Joe Biden's nude swimming freaking out women in his security detail lies a sea change of aquatic moral attitudes.

Between rape -- a crime that not so long ago was punished at the end of a rope or a seat in the electric chair -- and something one cynic describes as "about the equivalent of shoplifting" lies a multitude of sexual harassment interpretations.

Swiftly changing sexual mores define the cultural and political "gotchas" and confuse and confound men and women who often talk to one another as if speaking in different tongues. A romantic encounter that seems safe enough in its opening stage can overnight be perceived as perverse and pornographic as two people discover their differences and dislikes. Confusing cues and ambiguous signals between sexual strangers move forward on a changing spectrum of perception, from deeply sensitive to censoriously inappropriate, from emancipated and liberated to what their grandmothers would decry "Oh, you cad."

How did this happen? That's the subject for a book, not a column, but in a provocative article in the conservative journal First Things, published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life, Katherine Kersten blames "false feminism," where there has emerged a serious disconnect between women's feverish attention to sexual impropriety on the part of men at the same time they embrace the nation's sex-drenched popular culture that demeans and hypersexualizes women.

"Movies, television shows, and video games routinely depict women as male playthings, and women willingly buy into it," she writes. "Indeed, the best-selling women's magazine, Cosmopolitan, coaches them in how to project sexual desirability and availability to men -- how to make themselves 'hot.'"

Kersten, a senior policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment in Minneapolis, cites chapter and verse of female doublethink and hypocrisy. Hillary Clinton, a feminist heroine, saw no hypocrisy in mocking President Trump in a video with raunchy rappers Snoop Dogg and D.J. Khaled. Clinton had suffered her own disconnect with sexual conflict by dismissing sexual abuse accusations -- one of them a credible accusation of rape -- against her husband just as she won praise from feminists for championing women's causes.

Emily Ratajkowski, a popular actress and model, drew media attention when she was arrested for disrupting the confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, where she imagined unsubstantiated sexual accusations against the judge would disqualify him for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. But neither her fans nor her supporters, writes Katherine Kersten, saw any irony in her having launched her career dancing nude in an R&B music video and "arousing the male libido that fires the 'rape culture' she deplores."

There may be no credible link between the rough and randy pop culture and unwanted sexual aggression. But the sexual revolution blurred the differences between men and women and their intimate responses to one another at the same that the campaign for equal rights for women flattened the perception of sexual differences. In the intimacy of sexual congress, a man and a woman may be equal in their minds but not in the act. When it comes to sex, Jessica Bennett, who is something called the "gender editor" at The New York Times, argues that the two sexes have "wildly different understandings of consent."

Many women are resigned to just go with the flow, despite their disinclinations, because it's easier than fighting off the man. In one learned study, where 61 percent of the men were confident they could accurately read their mating partner's silent affirmative gestures, only 10 percent of the women said they gave their consent with their body language.

Some of today's confusion is the result of the parallel but paradoxical appeals of sexual liberation and feminism. Sexual liberation embraces doin' what comes naturally, and feminism emphasizes equality where the participants by their nature are simply different. Feminism, despite its aims, undermines the female ability to successfully confront the challenges of the sexual free-for-all by persuading women to think of themselves both as equal and helpless. Men of good will increasingly fear guilt by accusation without due process and worry over entering into a relationship, lest it later be characterized as nonconsensual.

"#MeToo," concludes Kersten, is the wrong response to a serious problem. The women of #MeToo blame sexual indignities on toxic masculinity and the rape culture, when they ought to look as well at their own responsibility to confront the excesses of runaway liberation. You don't have to be Grandma Grundy to deplore that.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: gender; metoo
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1 posted on 04/13/2019 3:00:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

hmmm point well taken imho

tease, punish, tease, punish

push, pull, push, pull


2 posted on 04/13/2019 3:13:23 AM PDT by SteveH
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To: Kaslin

Then you’ve got Kamela Harris, who teaches us it’s ok to use sex to advance yourself professionally. Right?


3 posted on 04/13/2019 3:21:03 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Kaslin
A romantic encounter that seems safe enough in its opening stage can overnight be perceived as perverse and pornographic as two people discover their differences and dislikes.

Sounds like a typical evening at home with the missus!

Regards,

4 posted on 04/13/2019 3:23:15 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: FreedomPoster

Women use sex to advance their careers all the time. Then they get older.....they hit their expiration date somewhere in their 30s. Next they accuse the last guy on the promotion train with “sexual harassment “...... works like a charm.


5 posted on 04/13/2019 3:33:43 AM PDT by Fred911 (YOU GET WHAT YOU ACCEPT)
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To: Kaslin

What “rape culture”? The author treats “rape culture” as an accurate description but it’s not.


6 posted on 04/13/2019 4:23:21 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: yldstrk

Just wait till the muzzies take over. People will be trained to treat their women like cattle. Buy and sell and use however they want.


7 posted on 04/13/2019 4:27:20 AM PDT by oldasrocks (Heavily Medicated for your Protection.)
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To: oldasrocks

Well we are a long way from the muzzies taking over, friend.


8 posted on 04/13/2019 4:28:44 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: FreedomPoster

>>Then you’ve got Kamela Harris, who teaches us it’s ok to use sex to advance yourself professionally. Right?<<

kameltoe combines the world’s two oldest pprofessions.


9 posted on 04/13/2019 4:56:43 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (As always IMHO)
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To: Kaslin

The things these rats rail about are the things they are all in on. Ok for them lot for us


10 posted on 04/13/2019 5:29:59 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (nic dip.com)
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To: Kaslin

Interesting. It would be a best selling book


11 posted on 04/13/2019 5:50:56 AM PDT by SomeCallMeTim ( The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them!it)
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To: FreedomPoster

>>Then you’ve got Kamela Harris, who teaches us it’s ok to use sex to advance yourself professionally. Right?<<

kameltoe has combined the world’s 2 oldest professions.


12 posted on 04/13/2019 6:01:26 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (As always IMHO)
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To: Kaslin

It’s not nearly as complicated as the author makes it out to be.

The fundamentals have not changed in 100,000 years, at least.

Oh, except for the stupid belief by modern women that they can put themselves at extreme risk by taunting the very base nature of man...and still be in control of the situation.

And it’s modern feminism that is teaching them this false belief. It’s never been true.

And it will never be true.


13 posted on 04/13/2019 6:17:09 AM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Kaslin

The women of #MeToo blame sexual indignities on toxic masculinity and the rape culture, when they ought to look as well at their own responsibility


So, is blaming the victim in style now?


14 posted on 04/13/2019 6:34:12 AM PDT by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: Fred911
Women use sex to advance their careers all the time.

For every woman who uses sex to advance her career or any number of advantages, there is a man who is granting those advances in exchange for that sex. It's those men who are screwing everyone over.

Next they accuse the last guy on the promotion train with “sexual harassment “...... works like a charm.

If a woman is willing to trade sex to advance her career, that should be the first clue of the type of person he's dealing with. Who's to blame if he can't look past that lump of flesh hanging between his legs to see that.

15 posted on 04/13/2019 6:49:29 AM PDT by TwelveOfTwenty (Prayers for our country and President Trump)
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To: TwelveOfTwenty

It takes two to tango. They’re both at fault.


16 posted on 04/13/2019 8:17:40 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: FreedomPoster

I agree, but in that scenario it’s the man who is making the decision to promote the woman at your expense.


17 posted on 04/13/2019 10:05:32 AM PDT by TwelveOfTwenty (Prayers for our country and President Trump)
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To: yldstrk

“Rape culture” is probably a great description for many Third World immigrants to this country.


18 posted on 04/13/2019 10:19:35 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: TwelveOfTwenty

That scenario used to bother me at work; years ago I realized it presented a great opportunity to reduce my workload/hours. Nobody can complain when you do the bare minimum - and it is still far more than the female “office toys” or the lonely men in positions of authority pursuing them. In fact, they don’t even seem to notice; their absurd games can be beneficial for all involved; the general lowering of standards provides a much better work/life balance.


19 posted on 04/13/2019 10:30:09 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Mariner

“Oh, except for the stupid belief by modern women that they can put themselves at extreme risk by taunting the very base nature of man...and still be in control of the situation.”

I liken it to someone insisting on, or demanding his right to walk around the savanna with a slab of red bloody meat around his shoulders and not be attacked by a lion.

That’s how stupid insane Feminazis have gotten.


20 posted on 04/13/2019 10:40:44 AM PDT by aquila48
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