Feminism lied?

Nigel Farage’s checkered past in British politics likely reflects shifting sentiments in the population as voters “grow older and wiser” rather than changes in his core beliefs and policies.

Woke Men, Broke Women: The Sexual Politics and Reform UK.

This Substack essay John Mac Ghlionn, with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, offers some interesting insights into the evolving cultural dynamics of sexual politics. In it, the following appears:

Here's the uncomfortable truth: feminism lied. Not the suffragettes who fought for the vote, or even the second-wavers who tackled genuine workplace discrimination. No, I’m talking about the boutique feminism peddled since the 1990s, the kind that convinced women they'd find liberation by speaking like HR managers with head trauma. This feminism traded Joan of Arc for Gwyneth Paltrow. It promised empowerment and delivered wine-soaked book clubs, therapy-speak, and a generation of thirty-something women wondering why they're so exhausted, so isolated, and so damn unhappy. The buyer's remorse is setting in hard.

Enter Farage—not as a fantasy, but as a correction. Not a sex symbol, but a seismic shift. His appeal transcends politics; it's existential. He's not offering perfect policy; he's offering a raised middle finger to a culture that demanded women contort themselves into impossible shapes, work themselves barren, and date men who treat masculinity like a hate crime.

Identity politics gone mad.

Please don’t roll your eyes when this old man begins the next sentence with: “When I was a boy…”.

Yes, when I was a boy, gender politics was very clear and undistorted. In the 1950s and 60s, boys were boys and girls were girls. Premarital sex was discouraged prior to the “pill” for obvious reasons. Attitudes towards same-sex relations were frowned upon (to put it mildly) and not discussed ‘in polite company’ while openly berated in ‘not-so-polite’ circles.

Today, everything is on the table.

Nothing is hidden. Opinions are openly expressed for better or worse, especially on social media. Hiding anonymously behind a keyboard is virtually risk-less for anyone who comments with an obviously “edgy tone”, or worse.

Society has fragmented into groups that defend their corner of the much broader topic — all things sex related. Tribal affinity and loyalty are now the norm for every topic from gender politics, to sports team loyalty, to favourite entertainment stars, to trending fashion brands, to party politics, to nation-state divided loyalties, and much more.

I miss the simplicity of my youth but not the veiled hypocrisy. I remember the women’s rights movement of my youth. Women like my mom entered the workplace in large numbers out of necessity than a desire for “self-fulfillment” and respect outside of the home. Mom was expected to become superhuman — to juggle the duties of home life while navigating career demands with five children in tow.

My father, a WW2 pilot who took part in midnight bombing raids over Germany in Lancaster aircrafts, suffered from what we now call PTSD. He re-entered Canadian society in 1946 after a long period in a Scottish ‘rest home’. Post war, dad was employed by the federal government to fly cartography missions in the Canadian north. Until I was nine, dad was away for months at a time leaving mom in our Oshawa home alone to raise a young family under near poverty conditions.

When dad’s flying job ended in 1958, he tried sales for which he was not temperamentally well-suited. Mom, the only parent with a university degree, accepted employment in Toronto in 1961 to become the family’s primary bread winner because we were losing our Oshawa home due to failure to make mortgage payments. We moved to Willowdale.

Mom started teaching at St. Gregory’s Catholic School at Sheppard and Bayview. With her teacher’s income, my parents qualified for the $20,000 mortgage to buy a house under construction in a new subdivision of Don Valley Village. Our new home was just large enough to raise their five kids (a girl and four boys).

Dad eventually became a teacher too after he was accepted at University of Toronto to begin a Bachelor of Science degree part time; he completed it in the late 1970s about the same time that I graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours B.Sc. Mom taught for three decades, finishing her career as Vice Principal in the St. Joseph’s Commercial School for Girls. Dad remained a Catholic primary teacher until his retirement.

I grew up with the Women’s Rights Revolution.

I tell the above story to recall how my family circumstance shaped my Life Lens vis-a-vis the prevailing expectations of women in the workforce combined with the pressures of family life.

I have always been surrounded by educators. My wife was a primary school teacher who finished her career as a Principal. Her mother was a career primary school teacher who was forced to work as a divorced mother of three daughters. Her second husband was a high school teacher who taught my wife as a high school student - she introduced him to her mother which turned out well for everyone.

Today, public education is primarily a woman’s profession. In fact, the expansion of the workforce since my parents’ day has seen women entering social services professions large numbers — mostly in government employment where levels of job security, compensation, benefits and expectations of work-life balance are superior to private sector employment. Women have clearly left their marks on the workplaces of those government-dominant professions.

My concerns about teaching today.

Cultural pendulums swing according to the nudging of societal groups, shifting public attitudes and prevailing socioeconomic conditions.

Over the years, primary and secondary schools gradually adopted values and standards that reflected the eventual dominance of women in the teaching profession. Colleges and universities became vipers’ nests of cultural Marxism which is characterized by radicals who champion their socialist vision of empowering government institutions to serve the interests of “victims of (real or perceived) oppression” and the otherwise “disadvantaged”.

In public education, a “feminization” of school culture has become the norm. The natural “rough and tumble” behaviour of boys has been discouraged, and even curtailed altogether.

An ever-increasing culture favouring ‘care giving’, ‘nurturing’ and ‘victim protection’ policies are now universal. There is little room in schools left to model “manliness” for our youth.

Today, “woke” sensibilities dominate.

The mantra of ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ is expresses often. “Hate crimes” are the latest edition to our legal statutes.

Canada has become crippled by ‘identity politics’ cultural milieu that resembles the schoolgirl dramas in the 1960s playgrounds. This will be difficult to unravel 🥺.

In my day…

Boys growing up in the 1950s emulated men who were strong, self-reliant, fearless, resourceful, accomplished, confident, self-made, daring, athletic and who spoke their mind.

Today, a man is expected to present himself in a socially, mannerly, and “politically correct” manner. In conversations with mixed company - a cautionary atmosphere dominates lest someone’s feelings are hurt and “safe spaces” are required. Of course, ‘guy humour’ is also frowned upon.

A case in point. One member of our golf course has not spoken to me in three years. She and her partner were personal friends until her man, approaching age 80, left her one morning with no notice, no forwarding address and no note of explanation. In a subsequent conversation, I offered by honest views on why I suspected he left. The price of honestly is evidently social banishment.

My opinion (for what it’s worth)

The cultural pendulum has swung too far. The countervailing forces needed to bring it back to some acceptable middle ground are starting to percolate in public sentiment. Thank goodness. It’s about time 😐.