Above Rubies

A wife - for a woman whose full time role is managing a household, what might her 'job description' include:

Running the household? Making sure there's enough food in the cupboard and ensuring the house is clean? Perhaps involvement with her husband's career - entertaining clients, acting as a personal assistant?

That doesn't sound so bad does it?

In one's own professional career, it is extremely common to encounter the husband and wife business owners where the wife's role in the business is bookkeeper, office manager and personal assistant in addition to managing a household.

That doesn't sound oppressive does it?

Well, it does in the bizarro world inhabited by feminists who have castigated a man who has give the label 'virtual wife' to a job advertisement as described above.

Domestic violence worker Chantal Eastwell, who is helping co-ordinate Brisbane's Feminist Conference, was shocked.

"What angers me is that some men do think they have the right to control women in this way," she said.

"It's terrible to have the attitude that women are subservient, and I hope no one wants to take this job."

Ms Eastwell obviously believes that a woman working in partnership with a man is the equivalent of servitude.

What would she rather women do? Just sit on their arses all day waiting for hubby to come home and shower them with jewels? Or live the Sex And The City self-indulgent and empty-headed neurosis first hand?

Stay angry Ms Eastwell, stew in your silly impotent rage - the rest of us women have work to do.

-- Nora

A Bet Each Way

It seems unlikely that Hillary Clinton will get the Democrats nomination in the upcoming US election.

The reason why is made plain by that fabulous observer of leftist feminism, Camille Paglia:

If they are to be truly equal, women must fight their own fights and not rely on a borrowed spotlight. Hillary has tried to have it both ways: to batten on her husband's nostalgic popularity while simultaneously claiming to be a victim of sexism. Well, which is it? Are men convenient sugar daddies or condescending oppressors?

As her presidential hopes have begun to evaporate, Hillary has upped the ante in the crusading feminist department. Her surrogates are beating the grievance drums, trying to scare every angry female out of the bush. From that rag-tag crew, she will build her army. Let the red flags fly! Hillary is positioning herself as the Crucified One, betrayed, mocked, flogged, and shunted aside for the cause of Ultimate Womanhood.

But doesn't this saccharine melodrama undermine the central goals of feminism?

Do read the rest.

-- Nora

If The Booty Fits...

Nicky and I enjoy reading the weekend opinion pieces on a Saturday morning. They generally give us a laugh.

Like this piece by the Herald Sun's Janine di Giovanni.

Apparently she's the author of Madness Visible: A Memoir of War - serious and depressing subject matter to be sure, which appears to have skewed Janine's thinking into unintentional comedy in her other writing.

THE SMS arrived close to 5am. I know because I was sleeping next to my husband's phone when it bleeped. He went on snoring. I, of course, read it.

If she was sleeping next to her husband as well, couldn't she have nudged him to say, 'you've got a message'? But okay, perhaps the di Giovanni household is like the Charles' where the one nearest to the phone opens the message.

To say it was hopefully romantic would be putting it mildly. This was a blatant message from someone who wanted sex with my husband, and from the sound of it, at that moment.

If this happened in the Charles' household the reaction would be a modern variation to this exchange from The Thin Man:

Nora Charles: Pretty girl.
Nick Charles: Yes. She's a very nice type.
Nora Charles: You got types?
Nick Charles: Only you, darling. Lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.

So how does Janine react?

When he woke up, I said he had five minutes to explain himself. My husband has many flaws, but lying is not one of them. He was as baffled as I was. He phoned the woman, a colleague, while I stood there fuming.

Gee, there ain't a lot of trust or respect going on in Janine's marriage is there?

She was sheepishly apologetic. She was drunk, she said, and she had a little crush on him.

She had a little crush? What woman doesn't mind having other women think 'her man' is a good sort? Janine apparently.

Didn't she know he was married with a small child, he asked in a perturbed voice (and that my wife checks my SMSs, I thought)?

See the subtext here: 'I'm pussywhipped'. I'd have thought more of Mr di Giovanni if he gave said woman a confident, firm and polite rebuff (rather than being sheepishly 'perturbed').

The woman apologised, profusely. She even asked to speak to me and breathlessly begged forgiveness, saying no harm was ever done. She was just trying to see if she could get lucky.

This woman is to be pitied, not pilloried. Obviously she lacks grace, wit, not to mention the emotional maturity to sustain a real relationship. The only way she can enjoy sex is to phone someone at random and say, in essence: 'let's fuck'. It's not the stuff a life long romance is made of, is it? Janine picks up on this but doesn't know where to run with it.

My spouse and I laughed about it, but it made me think. Now that I am old enough to say 'in my day', I will say it. In my day, it was the men who made the booty calls.

And my criticism of Ms Horny's maturity above applies equally here, but oddly enough Ms di Giovanni doesn't mind that in a man. A booty call is hardly elegant wooing is it?

But these days, it is women who are making the first moves. There's a lot of dirty SMS going out there.

The 600-page Study on Sexuality found that French women have twice as many partners as they did in the 1970s.

The study basically revealed that the old role of the male being the hunter of flesh and the female waiting patiently by the cave is long over. Now women are doing it for themselves.

As a feminist, you'd think she'd be delighted, you know, sisters are are doin' it for themselves:

Now, this is a song to celebrate
the conscious liberation of the female state.
Mothers, daughters,
and their daughters too, woh yeah,
woman to woman,
we're singing with you, ooh, ooh.
The "inferior sex" has got a new exterior.

But she's not:

I asked around, and my friends seemed to be having the same experience. One friend, the mother of two young girls, said her husband's assistant relentlessly pursued him.

He said no several times, then he caved in, she said sadly. I just don't think that would have happened a few years ago.

Oh dear.

The feminist principles a few decades ago, when I came of age, would have excluded women from going after other women's property, even if there was sexual liberation.

Eh? What's this? A man being another woman's 'property'?

Hang on, I thought the entire feminist movement was about reclaiming a woman's identity, that she wasn't her husband's property, that no person could 'own' another?

It seems I was mistaken - 'women's liberation' was all about getting their own back on the 'patriarchy'.

And, despite the image of an independent, liberated woman, there has always been a taboo about a sexually voracious woman.

By other women mainly.

"Its just unattractive to see a woman on the make," says Laurence, a male friend. "But if I have my coffee in the morning in a bar, I get lots of looks from the mothers who just dropped their kids off at school."

Another friend's husband ran off with one of those hungry mothers and says the woman made the first move.

Yay! Sisters are doin' it for themselves.

I blame it all on new French First Lady Carla Bruni.

That's a big call.

She said monogamy was boring and talked glowingly of conquests.

If monogamy is boring, it's because you're not doing it right.

The report says young women have sex earlier, and have more partners - an average of five in their lifetime. In the 1970s, it was under two. (Men still have had the same number for the past 40 years - an average of 13.)

Where will this lead us? To a society of Carla-like, Amazonian women who take the lead not only in industry but in sex?

But, but, 'girls can do anything' - that's what two generations of young women have been indoctrinated to believe. The problem is, as Janine here has just discovered, women have taken that to mean 'girls can do anything they want without consequence'.

I am too old-fashioned for this. Go back to the male booty call, I say. And girls, let the men make the first move.

Ah Janine, the first blow from the clue-bat always hits hardest.

-- Nora

Buyer's Remorse?

A US state supreme court has ruled against a woman who had brought a malpractice suit against her doctor for not telling her she was carrying "a complete, unique, irreplaceable human being" before performing an abortion.

An abortion that the woman herself requested.

Hmmmm.

-- Nora

Hooray For Equality!

University of New England’s chair of sociology Kerry Carrington said the cases highlighted a global trend about violence and young women.

“More girls are committing violent crimes,” Professor Carrington said.

“The gender gap is closing (and) it is a worrying trend.”

Teens commiting murder is not new and certainly not to be unexpected when the social mores and conventions which helped moderate behaviour in the past are being eroded.

-- Nora

Sands Through The Hour Glass

Blogger Tiberius, writing at A Western Heart has a few sage things to say about Nine's A Current Affair story about a woman whose daughter was abducted by her Muslim ex-husband:

Of course that begs the question of what the f**k is wrong with you women? Why the f**k are you still marrying these muslim savages and then wondering why they ‘change’ on you. Here’s a hint, you stupid molls – THEY DON”T CHANGE! That is how they really are and you are either too f**king blind to see through their bullshit act or you are too f**king stupid to understand what islam really is.

Colourful, but accurate.

Also from Egypt comes reports on the persecution of secular bloggers.

-- Nora

Not Just Because There's Footage

How come this:

Doaa Khalil Aswad was a member of northern Iraq's Yazidi religious sect but, according to local officials, was murdered on April 7 by her brothers and uncles after she allegedly converted to Islam.

...gets on the front page of new.com.au but this:

If they are found guilty, Mrs Sürücü's murder will be the sixth "honour killing" within Berlin's 200,000-strong Muslim community in four months.

...doesn't?

Nor this:

Humaid contends his Muslim beliefs should be a factor because he killed his wife after she hinted she was having an affair with a business associate.

or this:

Two men murdered a six-year-old girl by setting fire to her house to warn her brother off a relationship he was having...

or this:

Ayesha Baloch was dragged to a field, her brother-in-law held the 18-year-old down, her husband sat astride her legs and slit her upper lip and nostril with a knife.

or this:

Having eloped, Zena was told by relatives that she and Jack had so besmirched the family name that they were 'walking corpses'. So seriously was the threat taken that in the intervening years they have received protection from Special Branch, two new identities and have moved house no fewer than 30 times.

or this:

Ajmal Butt Aziz, 24, is accused of murdering his 20-year-old wife Khudeja because she refused to follow Islamic tradition and wear a headscarf, according to the charge sheet published by the Corriere del Ticino newspaper.

-- Nick

Control, Shift, Delete

A must read feature from the Telegraph:

In all social change, nothing ever turns out quite as predicted. Campaigners tend to believe, Pollyanna-like, that human nature is endlessly perfectable, and all will be solved when new laws are put in place. In truth, human nature is rather better described by Dr Johnson, who observed that: "Whatever is done easily will be done frequently."

And that, I suggest, is the short answer to those who wring their hands asking why Britain's abortion rate climbs annually, despite the wide menu of contraceptive choice. Abortion is relatively inexpensive today: it is easily accessed and the acceptable social attitude is that it is simply a personal choice, with no moral or ethical dimensions. This is not quite how it always works out, but that is broadly the way it is seen.

Easy, cheap and accessible - why wouldn't it increase each year? More than one in 10 women in their late twenties to early thirties has had an abortion, according to a survey earlier this week. Moreover, some women actually prefer abortion to contraception as a means of controlling their fertility. An experienced abortion practitioner once told me: "Some women do not know whether they want to be pregnant until they are. They want to exercise that choice after the pregnancy has occurred, not before.

-- Nora

A Voice In The Wilderness

Hopefully there may be more...

(Gina) Khan is particularly worried about how mosques are brainwashing children and young people: “To me, it is starting to look like a cult.” And her local community certainly seems to be in denial. “After the raid I went to the corner shop here, and they were all saying it was a conspiracy. I turned round and said, ‘No, it is not. Let us be honest’.

-- Nora