Another Feminist Victory, Gendercide Edition
In the Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Last reviews "Unnatural Selection," a book that sheds light on a disturbing global trend:
In nature, 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. This ratio is biologically ironclad. Between 104 and 106 is the normal range, and that's as far as the natural window goes. Any other number is the result of unnatural events.
Yet today in India there are 112 boys born for every 100 girls. In China, the number is 121—though plenty of Chinese towns are over the 150 mark. China's and India's populations are mammoth enough that their outlying sex ratios have skewed the global average to a biologically impossible 107. But the imbalance is not only in Asia. Azerbaijan stands at 115, Georgia at 118 and Armenia at 120.
What is causing the skewed ratio: abortion. If the male number in the sex ratio is above 106, it means that couples are having abortions when they find out the mother is carrying a girl.
Years of feminist influence have taught us nothing if we don't all agree that mothers should have the right to terminate any pregnancy at any time for any reason, right? I'll be curious to read how feminists respond to this.
The article points out that societies in which men substantially outnumber women are not nice places to live. We also learn why supposed upsides to the killing of so many unborn female children -- such as the lack of women means the ones that survive will become more valuable -- only lead to further oppression of women.
How best to fight this disturbing trend? A leader of Tiananmen Square who came to the U.S. and eventually converted to Christianity has started a new group that pays women to bear and raise female children, hoping to counteract the economic disincentives that promote gendercide. Any other ideas?
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Dec '10
Re: Another Feminist Victory, Gendercide Edition
As I said on another thread, feminists are leftists first. Therefore, gendercide which might lead to demographic implosion due to the inability of societies to reproduce is a feature, not a bug. On the left, people are considered pollution, whatever their gender. Abortion of girl babies is just another means of achieving the left's Zero Population Growth goal.
How do we counteract it? I thought that's what we're trying to do every day at Ricochet. Some of us are getting mighty tired of propping up the Judeo-Christian pillars of western civilization and could use a little break from the work by those on the right who keep conceding ground to the left on things like abortion and same-sex marriage. A little help here?
Mar '11
Re: Another Feminist Victory, Gendercide Edition
You have to look at the upside of these things if you're a Chicom commissar or an Indian power broker looking to solidify your country's superpower status. Lots of extra boys means lots of expendable cannon fodder when you're stretching your new empire. It's like population control x2... a win win in Beijing. And let's face it, those guys will come in handy when it's time to conquer Siberia and grab all those yummy resources.
Re: Another Feminist Victory, Gendercide Edition
Lots of extra boys -- the surplus in China and India is said to be 100 million each -- can also mean revolution. Men, not anchored in families by women, tend to get out of control. Were I a power in Beijing faced by increasing unrest, which is the situation they face, I would be nervous.
Aug '10
Re: Another Feminist Victory, Gendercide Edition
Testosterone fueled, underemployed, millions-strong males ? They'll be grabbing more than resources !
This is why Freidman and Zakaria and Obama are so wrong about those "powerhouse" economies, they are houses of cards. How far is eugenicism from creating "an improved factory drone ". Enormous prostitution enterprises will be controlled by the state, or their mafia handmaidens. Recipes for disaster, not world domination. If the state allows the continued gendercide, eventually the "stay-at-home" daughter will disappear and the state will have to prop up the aging.
Limiting the number of children exacerbates this and they invite their own destruction. As for the 43 million babies per year around the world ? What does that say about us ?
Edited on Jun 20, 2011 at 12:45pmDec '10
Re: Another Feminist Victory, Gendercide Edition
I'll help you out on the abortion thing, but not on same sex marriage. I don't know what that has to do with it.
Aug '10
Re: Another Feminist Victory, Gendercide Edition
Western liberals should keep this in mind as well. Social engineering and policies that erode the value of traditional marriage in society have worse side effects than merely increasing the divorce rate.
As far as the anti-girl bias in abortions... you can't fight that trend under multiculturalism (their culture values boys more and you can't condemn other cultures), or under moral relativism (can't say their decisions are immoral).
Either you repudiate abortion itself, or you must actively condemn and change a culture which uses it as a tool to pursue cultural norms. But as Mark Steyn will point out, many Western cultures have systematically weakened themselves to the point where they can not mount cultural critiques, or even assert their culture has superior answers to foreign cultures.
Feminism in America has become a shallow stream of complaints about blemishes in American society. Why would they have any rational argument against obliterating a generation of foreign women, if it would explicitly condemn one of their favorite sacred cows?
Apr '11
Re: Another Feminist Victory, Gendercide Edition
I can just picture some nut on the Huffington Post suggesting that we in the West should start aborting boys to bring about global balance.
Aug '10
Re: Another Feminist Victory, Gendercide Edition
Why not stipulate that all babies born by anonymous sperm donation must be female-I presume it's scientifically feasible and who could argue with it on any other grounds?
Dec '10
Re: Another Feminist Victory, Gendercide Edition
Don't worry. Medical science is catching up, and soon a simple blood test early in pregnancy (as early as 9 weeks after conception) will let parents know not only their child's gender but also other important genetic markers, say, for instance, eye color, or a genetic propensity to homosexuality. So instead of waiting for the fetus to develop to the stage where sex can be detected by ultrasound examination or amniocenteisis, women will be able to have a quick blood test and then an easy first-trimester abortion if they don't like the baby they're getting.
Wait - what? You don't regard that as progress toward a better future?