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I just read a fascinating article by Helen Andrews: "The Great Feminization." She makes the point that much of what we're seeing with today's social and political trends, from cancel culture to wokeness, is not due to leftism, but rather due to the feminization of our institutions and culture:
Female group dynamics favor consensus and cooperation. Men order each other around, but women can only suggest and persuade. Any criticism or negative sentiment, if it absolutely must be expressed, needs to be buried in layers of compliments. The outcome of a discussion is less important than the fact that a discussion was held and everyone participated in it. The most important sex difference in group dynamics is attitude to conflict. In short, men wage conflict openly while women covertly undermine or ostracize their enemies.
She suggests that feminization of a business or other organization - when that organization becomes majority female or close to it - generally results in enormous changes in that organization, making it very difficult for that organization to function as before. Ms. Andrews finds this to be a compelling explanation of much of the toxicity in today's society:
This cancellation was feminine, the essay argued, because all cancellations are feminine. Cancel culture is simply what women do whenever there are enough of them in a given organization or field. That is the Great Feminization thesis, which the same author later elaborated upon at book length: Everything you think of as “wokeness” is simply an epiphenomenon of demographic feminization.
The explanatory power of this simple thesis was incredible. It really did unlock the secrets of the era we are living in. Wokeness is not a new ideology, an outgrowth of Marxism, or a result of post-Obama disillusionment. It is simply feminine patterns of behavior applied to institutions where women were few in number until recently. How did I not see it before?
I don't have time to write a post about this, and I don't want to oversimplify her argument. Although it's important to note that she's not talking about feminism. She's talking about how women tend to deal with conflict, as opposed to men.
So please read her entire article. It's fascinating. It will be worth your time.
I may have more time tomorrow to digest this. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your perspective in the comments below.
Discussion (92)
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My perspective: Well, DUH! I thought this was apparent to most conservatives.
I'd slightly argue with the title of the post, however. Wokeness and leftism are due to feminization of society. Sure there are male leftists, but the degree of success of the left in our country could not occur without the feminization of society. Why do you think the left couches its arguments in emotional terms? To appeal to women (and feminized men).
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I took note when a report said that the Des Moines (Iowa) school board that in early 2023 hired illegal immigrant conman Ian Roberts to be superintendent was, at the time of his selection, all female. That is consistent with what I read of school board minutes from the time period (February 2023). The school board now appears to have two men on it, though it remains majority female.
All appearances are that the (all or majority) female school board was bedazzled by the opportunity to hire a "person of color" for the superintendent position, and chose not to investigate thoroughly the then-candidate's credentials and background, and chose to forgo further searching for a potentially more suitable candidate.
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The feminization of primary and secondary education has bothered me for a long time, since our children were in school 30 - 20 years ago.
I understand why men left the teaching profession - too much risk of (unfounded) accusations of inappropriate sexual contact.
But, the almost complete takeover of the education system by females has significantly altered the educational process. And correlates with the decline of male student performance.
Our daughter had a long-term male substitute teacher in either first or second grade (about 1992) who, when not teaching small children, was a wild land fire fighter. He had stories to tell! And he took a very different approach to teaching than the mostly female other teachers did. He challenged the children in ways to do hard things that no female teacher would. Our daughter was quite proud of the things that she and her classmates ended up being able to do that most people would say 6 and 7 year old children could not do.
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Well, I certainly see the femization of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis was one who pushed this:
Under Francis, the endless meetings and listening sessions ballooned due to his love of Synodality. He even invited women to participate in what is supposed to be a synod of bishop. These go on and on without evangelizing or drawing people to God. It follows perfectly what the author wrote.
Fortunately, the TLM is drawing a younger crowd with more traditional virtues - the young Church is becoming more masculine. That is a good thing in my opinion.
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Did Pope Francis promote female priests?
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