Oy, for those of you who missed this story, here’s a guy who thinks strong women are bad roll models for little girls.
A guy wrote a letter to the editor of the Victoria Advocate, claiming that his daughters got along better when they played with dolls. After they saw a show about two women working on the space shuttle, they started fighting with each other.
This genius is a Christian, and he aparently lives in Texas. No big surprises there, huh? (With apologies to any Texan skepchicks, I do realize that Molly Ivans and Bill Moyers also hail from your state, giving it some slight redemption.)
Here’s what Mr. Righteous really wants to know:
Whatever happened to little girls playing with dolls and dreaming of becoming wives and mothers? Whatever happened to young men looking for a good Christian wife and finding a young woman still clinging to her doll?
I’ll tell you mister, we stopped being subservient to men like you. We stopped living to make other people happy and comfortable. We started realizing that women are people, too.
At least the guy know’s hes a pig. Sadly, he’s not ashamed of that fact.
Me, old fashioned? I guess. Me, a male chauvinist pig? To answer that I would have to say, “Oink, oink, oink.â€
Maybe the girls were fighting to get a seat on the shuttle so they could get away from their jerk father.
I have a six-year-old daughter who fights with her brother all the time. She's doing just fine.
Another cautionary tale about another person clinging to the past, wallowing in a sense of naustalga, and musing about how things were better in the times long gone by. I think every generation thinks the generation before was better, "the golden age", and that future generation is messing everything up "end of civilization".
Generally, the type of guy that makes me feel that I have to sometimes apologize for my gender. These "male-chauvinist pigs", the good ol' boy type, and the new wave of hogs I call the "man-show men". I know I'm affected by the society and social norms of the period and place I grow up in, but I still strongly believe in the social, political, and economical equality of the genders. Really everything I have experienced in this world, seeing how men and women act, feel, and think, has lead me to this conclusion. I think it be a positive belief, and one I feel would benefit society to share.
The bright side (what little there is) is that by announcing he is in an idiot he is (hopefully) taking himself out of the genepool by disgusting women. Is this too optimistic? Are there enough chauvanistic women for him to get away with this kind of thinking?
It must be some sort of recessive allele. It's a pity we can't screen for it along with other genetic disorders.
Ahhhhhhh, for the days when Natural Selection would automatically cleanse the gene pool…
"Whatever happened to young men looking for a good Christian wife and finding a young woman still clinging to her doll?"
Do these good christian brides-to-be suffer from arrested development or is he suggesting that young men should be trolling elementary schools for prospects? It's the 'clinging' part that really makes me suspect that he is a proponent of sanctioned pedophilia.
I'm 23, I think that qualifies me as a young man. That said I am looking for a confident productive intelligent woman that will contribute more to society and towards the good of the species than merely making a few children and apple pies. I value a woman that can think for herself and stand up for her beliefs instead of waiting hopelessly for someone else to solve her problems or to approve of the ideas within her head. I don't want to spend my life with someone with the mentality of a little girl clinging to her dolly, I want someone that will challenge me, correct me when I'm wrong, openly and regularly give her opinions and solutions to problems. I want an equal partner alongside me as we help one another through the uncertainty and challenges of life. This guy will never comprehend the beauty and enjoyment of sharing ones life with a woman. I just hope his girls wise up and realize their true potential in this world before it's too late.
I'm teaching a class on sex crimes and sex offending next semester and I want to give a point of clarification:
If it's a sexual attraction to a child, it's pedophilia and if acted upon a crime…
If it's an attraction to an adolescent, it's ephebophilia and if acted upon is a crime only if the adolescent is below the age of consent. If they're above the age of consent, it's just weird and creepy…
If it's the doll that does it for him, it's pediophilia, which is also weird and creepy but as long as he sticks to just dolls, it's not a crime…
Unfortunately, I can't find a paraphilic classification for someone who's attracted solely to Christians with good American values…
*sigh* I'm tired of all the morons being from my state. I assure you there are some Texans out there with some more sense (in addition to Molly Ivans and Bill Moyers).
You know, I played with dolls a lot myself, but I couldn't think of someone any further from his Christian, subservient, cow-eyed, doll-clinging ideal. I guess the difference is that I would mostly pretend my dolls all had infectious diseases that needed to be quarantined and cured, or they'd time travel, and yes, I even had dolls who were astronauts. So, what does that mean other than that I just blew this guy's mind!?!
All I know is, the clinging-to-a-doll-ready-to-marry-bit is tremendously creepy. and this man is tremendously stupid. Poor little daughters.
"All I know is, the clinging-to-a-doll-ready-to-marry-bit is tremendously creepy."
It's all kinds of f-ed up is what it is.
He would probably love this verse 1Timothy 2 11-12
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.
and they say Islam represses women
What pathetic excuse for a man would want a "young woman still clinging to her doll"??
Since so many comments seem to be fixated on the dolls, I just have to add this story. When I was a kid, one of our family friends had a lot of antiques, including a giant hope chest with the date carved into the side of it. I've forgotten the date, but the chest was around 400 years old. The chest got my attention not only because it was old, but because it had weird holes drilled into its sides. When I asked about the holes, my friend told me that the chest had belonged to a young girl who had gotten married at around 12 or 14 years old. She kept her toys in her hope chest and one day when she climbed into the chest to play with her dolls, the lid fell closed, and she died of suffocation. After the girl-bride's death, someone had the smart, but belated, idea to put some airholes in the thing. I guess in case another girl-bride decided to play with her dolls.
I couldn't have said it better:
"A hard man is good to find."
"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."
[To the question "Have you ever met a man that could make you happy?":] "Several times."
"Why don't you come on up and see me sometime, when I got nothin' on but the radio?"
"Good girls go to heaven, but bad girls get to go everywhere."
"Sex is like bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand."
"My left leg is Christmas and my right leg is New Year's. Why don't you visit me between the holidays?"
[To the remark, "Goodness, what a beautiful diamond!":] "Goodness had nothin' to do with it, dearie."
"It's not the men in your life, it's the life in your men"
All courtesy of the lovely Mae West, circa 1936
See? I can wax nostalgic about a more simpler time as well.
The image I instantly had in my mind was of a girl in a pinafore clinging to a doll. Creepy father…
Worse is his understanding of how children develop – they're throwing Pampers at each other! Unless he has them in diapers long past the average age, they should be at the stage when sharing and playing nice are an issue with all children and I seriously doubt – no, I can almost be sure – that a frackin shuttle program had nothing to do with their sudden fighting.
It's a shame he didn't cling to his brain.
I think we can all agree about feeling disgusted by the whole "men going for women clinging to dolls" thing.
But what about ladies going for men who cling to dolls?
What if it was a Randi doll they were clinging too?
Jaco45,
I can heartily endorse your criteria for the kind of woman you want to marry. I married just such a woman 16 years ago, and am eternally grateful that I did so! She is my best friend and my equal (or better) in all respects. She's not much for baking pies (that's MY job), but I trust her judgment deeply, and I have never made a significant decision without seeking her counsel. Like any long term relationship, we've had our rough patches (word to the wise: never be afraid to seek professional counseling in times of trouble), but our partnership continues to strengthen with each and every year. My daughters are lucky to have her as their mother.
I have nothing but pity and contempt for "Mr. Righteous", and can only hope that his daughters (and sons, if he has any) can manage to escape from the trap he has set for them.
digithead wrote:
Dreamers?
I mean, does that even exist, a christian with good American values? Since it appears many good American values are unresolvably contradictory to good christian values (like bombing abortion clinics, mutilating gay people, hoping your female offspring contract uterine cancer or get pregnant if they have sex before marriage, etc…).
The worst part for me was the comment PZ highlighted from a women on the origonal piece:
Its ok. Christ did command us to subjigate our will, and that is what is so hard for people to do in this day and age. It's all about "ME" in this day and age. Christ taught us humility and charity. As Christians, we are not our own, we are bought with a price. Christ paid it. If God tells me to submit my will to my husband, who is also in Christ, who am I to defy God's will?
urg. 'I've been paid for and now I do as I'm told'. I repeat, I think I just threw up a little.
neverclear5, that is a great example that clearly shows how regligion is used by those in power to keep fools under their thumbs. It's so sad that people do this voluntarily. It's why I say that religion is evil.
I guess this highlights the biggest difference between religious people and atheists:
Religious people don't seem so upset to waste their lives, because they're convinced they'll get a second one where they can be ultimately happy.
Atheists realise that's a very big risk to take, without evidence, and prefer to live the live they know they have to the fullest, or at least kick themselves for not doing so.
What I'm wondering though, is what good a second life is, when you've got to waste your first (and potentially only) one in order to receive it?
I think this is basic psychology at work: a promised reward is much more powerful than one you actually have to hand out, and it works for a much longer period too, since the reward given serves no purpose any more once it's been given.
Oh, yeah, my point:
Perhaps atheists tend to be a bit more outspoken about perceived injustice, because they don't assume it's just another integral part of life? They see injustice and realise they can stand up and do something about it.
Religious people might be more complacent and just say "it's all part of god's great, big, mysterious plan". People have to suffer in order to receive the illustrious reward that's been talked and speculated about a lot, but which nobody's actually confirmed to even exist.
So anyway, if "helping the sick and poor" wasn't at least part of the religious doctrine of, for example christianity, I'm sure it would have died ages ago from lack of any positive influence on society.
>>"After they saw a show about two women working on the space shuttle, they started fighting with each other."
I'm assuming it wasn't a documentary about NASA love triangles?