Somebody please explain why in Finland, a country with some of the most progressive women's rights, more educated women chose to be stay at home mothers, and people are still getting married and having families. Finland polls as one of the happiest places. Young people in the US are depressed and suicidal.
I think there is more going on that just the economic changes. I think the cultural Marxists in control of our institutions have been pushing an ideology into primarily female student heads and the result is that more females dislike males, and more males dislike females. I think this change is by design by American feminists.
Regarding Finland, women don’t tend to choose to be stay at home mothers for many years, but rather take advantage of the year, long paid maternity leave after a baby’s birth, with a guarantee of returning to their previous jobs. Some stay for a few more years with reduced pay. Stay at home mothers of school age children are virtually unheard of. Much fewer people than in the US actually marry, but that is only because the legal status of a cohabiting couple and their children is the same as that of a married one and health insurance isn’t tied to one’s employer but a national program.
Ok, so eliminate my claim that more marry. Finland progressive liberal culture accepts unmarried couples having children. Nothing else you wrote really refutes my point that Finnish women are more likely to choose having a family and children and more choose that over career than do American women.
"The majority (85%) of people in Finland aged 20-45 said they wish — or would have wished — to have children if they lived in an ideal situation, the study found."
44% of people 18-49 years old say no kids. 56% of those say they just don't want them. The split is equal between females and males, but historically in the US females were much more likely to want children than were men.
American women poll much more unhappy and more depressed than Finish women even though Finish women, because of their northern geographic locations, spend months without much sunlight.
I do agree that financial and healthcare considerations play a part, but the polls separate those that have reasons for not wanting kids from that just don't want kids for no particular reason.
I once has a role in admission to grad. school. I noticed that a surprising number of men had good GREs but low GPAs because of poor grades the first two years of college. I decided to only look at the second two years and things evened out and we were able to admit more males. This was not a policy but something I did in one place.
I've made this comment before, perhaps here perhaps elsewhere, as I am a 1-trick pony at best, but I'll add my 2 cents again because Brad is a very generous host:
My wife is a mentor to young women writers (in LA, mostly), and I often meet them or at least read their manuscripts and these women all seem to more or less follow the same pattern: they are all attractive, well educated, come from good homes (often come to our home in one of their parents' expensive cars)—and of course I don't know the intricacies of their past and there could easily be some unseen issue or as all the cool kids say "trauma"—but they all believe deep in their bones that they live under the reign of an unseen omnipotent "Patriarchy" that orders and rules our world like a deity, and this belief is usually front and center in their writing.
I can only guess as to why this is: because all their screens say so? is this just a standard dogmatic belief of the young and educated now? Or maybe when you have no real problems and no one to blame them on, you have to invent a Satan who exists to vex you?
I hesitate as a man to pontificate about the female psyche or generalize about Women and What They Want, but that being said, part of me thinks the "Handmaid's Tale" vibe is part dystopic fairy tale but also part subconscious desire/return of the repressed: for many young women, esp the privileged, all this personal autonomy lived inside the digital panopticon of the 21st century seems to immiserate and destabilize them, and perhaps the eradication of traditional masculine/feminine roles has transformed all this freedom into an emotional prison.
Or, more simply, every time you tear down one of Chesterton's fences, you're forced to learn why it was there in the first place and why it served a vital purpose.
The wholesale takeover of Academia by Marxist has led to two generations, coming up on three, of young adults who only have the ability to reason through first order thinking.
A society that churns out young adults who are primarily first order thinkers is much easier to control.
Low and behold, we find a world in which it is rare to see those capable of 2nd order thinking being able to utilize that skill set for any practical advantage when they are subsumed in a culture of first order thinkers.
Two first order thinkers do not (or for that matter 100 first order thinkers) equal the ability to possess 2nd order thinking/rationale.
However, when you think about it, two second order thinkers can share ideas as to why there is a fence and make 3rd order, and beyond, decisions. This applies to both addition and subtraction which is required in order to know, on a net basis, what is ZERO; as in this case, maybe the answer is/was to do nothing. Covid is a prime example of this.
So we've gone around clipping peacock tails, not understanding that it also affects peahens.
Happy Father's Day all. I had the fun of watching a lot of Little League and T-ball this spring and the dads were there. SO MANY DADS! The Little league District All-Stars games are going on now and anyone feeling low about the role of men--get to a ball park in your community. You'll feel better.
What I also find interesting in the debate around this is that it is often portrayed as if women have no agency. The men get blamed for choosing not to go to college, choosing not to study, choosing to enlist in the military etc.. Meanwhile, if a woman chooses to stay home and take care of the kids because the husband (she chose) earns more it's somehow her husband's fault or the patriarchy that made her do it. Men make things happen, things happen to women. It's really odd and disempowering.
Hi Brad. Can you do an article that juxtaposes your argument here ( which I agree with) with the forces turning women into non-persons. Non-male, so to say. Seems to me, this is an anti-human process. Weakening the role of men was one leg, removing women another. What’s the third leg of the stool?
It's especially strange since a lot of people these days reduce anything to the group identity, there are no individuals anymore. Woman has a bad interaction with a man that's misogyny, Black man has a bad interaction with a white woman, that's racism and so on.
Edit: Forgot to add, at the same time some of these identity categories become a lot more malleable, e.g. anyone can declare themselves to be a woman or just join some newly invented group (e.g. queer, non-binary). Or even use flimsy genetic / genealogical claims like Elizabeth "Fauxcahontas" Warren...
It used to be a man's world, we are told. It is no doubt that men built the technological/industrial world that we live in and that provides what is by far the highest standard of living in history.
Women seem to be sure that it will be easy to keep it running. We'll see, I guess.
Pretty sure it's the decisions of men as fops that are determining much of this. Wouldn't want the dean or principle or boss accused of sexism, so just another example of cancel culture run amok.
Young white males are typically thought of as the most privileged ones, but simply by virtue of them not having a victim card to flash around, they are being told that their voices don’t count. This was my son’s experience in University. For some reason only minorities and victims these days are allowed to have a voice.
As a mother and grandmother of boys, thank you for writing on this topic. I try to encourage my 6 and 8 yr old grandsons in their normal boy behavior. Just hope society recovers its sanity before they grow up!
Another fantastic article Brad- also heartbreaking- it makes me both so sad and mad as hell. Today's (and prior) feminism is truly toxic, vindictive and utter bullshit !
I actually do believe in the patriarchy exist and it is needed. I'm not an advocate for equality. I argue that equality has actually ruined Western civilisation. Good news is that a lot of career and educated type women are breeding themselves out.
That was a great interview, I do wish they spend more time on issues other than vaccines though. Kennedy really gives one hope that there can be some sanity left in the political system.
Somebody please explain why in Finland, a country with some of the most progressive women's rights, more educated women chose to be stay at home mothers, and people are still getting married and having families. Finland polls as one of the happiest places. Young people in the US are depressed and suicidal.
I think there is more going on that just the economic changes. I think the cultural Marxists in control of our institutions have been pushing an ideology into primarily female student heads and the result is that more females dislike males, and more males dislike females. I think this change is by design by American feminists.
Regarding Finland, women don’t tend to choose to be stay at home mothers for many years, but rather take advantage of the year, long paid maternity leave after a baby’s birth, with a guarantee of returning to their previous jobs. Some stay for a few more years with reduced pay. Stay at home mothers of school age children are virtually unheard of. Much fewer people than in the US actually marry, but that is only because the legal status of a cohabiting couple and their children is the same as that of a married one and health insurance isn’t tied to one’s employer but a national program.
Ok, so eliminate my claim that more marry. Finland progressive liberal culture accepts unmarried couples having children. Nothing else you wrote really refutes my point that Finnish women are more likely to choose having a family and children and more choose that over career than do American women.
https://www.elfac.org/family-barometer-most-finns-want-2-kids-but-often-dont-end-up-having-them/
"The majority (85%) of people in Finland aged 20-45 said they wish — or would have wished — to have children if they lived in an ideal situation, the study found."
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/25/study-single-american-women-say-career-is-priority-over-having-kids.html
In this 2018 study only 8% of American women 30-45 said they are planning to have children.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/11/19/growing-share-of-childless-adults-in-u-s-dont-expect-to-ever-have-children/
44% of people 18-49 years old say no kids. 56% of those say they just don't want them. The split is equal between females and males, but historically in the US females were much more likely to want children than were men.
American women poll much more unhappy and more depressed than Finish women even though Finish women, because of their northern geographic locations, spend months without much sunlight.
I do agree that financial and healthcare considerations play a part, but the polls separate those that have reasons for not wanting kids from that just don't want kids for no particular reason.
Rush nailed it long ago. Feminazis. Thirty year old term. These are the results.
I once has a role in admission to grad. school. I noticed that a surprising number of men had good GREs but low GPAs because of poor grades the first two years of college. I decided to only look at the second two years and things evened out and we were able to admit more males. This was not a policy but something I did in one place.
But it was a pattern I observed.
I've made this comment before, perhaps here perhaps elsewhere, as I am a 1-trick pony at best, but I'll add my 2 cents again because Brad is a very generous host:
My wife is a mentor to young women writers (in LA, mostly), and I often meet them or at least read their manuscripts and these women all seem to more or less follow the same pattern: they are all attractive, well educated, come from good homes (often come to our home in one of their parents' expensive cars)—and of course I don't know the intricacies of their past and there could easily be some unseen issue or as all the cool kids say "trauma"—but they all believe deep in their bones that they live under the reign of an unseen omnipotent "Patriarchy" that orders and rules our world like a deity, and this belief is usually front and center in their writing.
I can only guess as to why this is: because all their screens say so? is this just a standard dogmatic belief of the young and educated now? Or maybe when you have no real problems and no one to blame them on, you have to invent a Satan who exists to vex you?
I hesitate as a man to pontificate about the female psyche or generalize about Women and What They Want, but that being said, part of me thinks the "Handmaid's Tale" vibe is part dystopic fairy tale but also part subconscious desire/return of the repressed: for many young women, esp the privileged, all this personal autonomy lived inside the digital panopticon of the 21st century seems to immiserate and destabilize them, and perhaps the eradication of traditional masculine/feminine roles has transformed all this freedom into an emotional prison.
Or, more simply, every time you tear down one of Chesterton's fences, you're forced to learn why it was there in the first place and why it served a vital purpose.
Thanks, Brad!
You're on to something!
See the following for examples:
- lockdowns
- War on Drugs
- invasion of border
- global scale vaccination
- Bud Light
- Patriot Act
- etc., etc.
The wholesale takeover of Academia by Marxist has led to two generations, coming up on three, of young adults who only have the ability to reason through first order thinking.
A society that churns out young adults who are primarily first order thinkers is much easier to control.
Low and behold, we find a world in which it is rare to see those capable of 2nd order thinking being able to utilize that skill set for any practical advantage when they are subsumed in a culture of first order thinkers.
Two first order thinkers do not (or for that matter 100 first order thinkers) equal the ability to possess 2nd order thinking/rationale.
However, when you think about it, two second order thinkers can share ideas as to why there is a fence and make 3rd order, and beyond, decisions. This applies to both addition and subtraction which is required in order to know, on a net basis, what is ZERO; as in this case, maybe the answer is/was to do nothing. Covid is a prime example of this.
So we've gone around clipping peacock tails, not understanding that it also affects peahens.
Happy Father's Day all. I had the fun of watching a lot of Little League and T-ball this spring and the dads were there. SO MANY DADS! The Little league District All-Stars games are going on now and anyone feeling low about the role of men--get to a ball park in your community. You'll feel better.
https://www.littleleague.org/university/articles/little-league-international-tournament-what-parents-need-to-know/
What I also find interesting in the debate around this is that it is often portrayed as if women have no agency. The men get blamed for choosing not to go to college, choosing not to study, choosing to enlist in the military etc.. Meanwhile, if a woman chooses to stay home and take care of the kids because the husband (she chose) earns more it's somehow her husband's fault or the patriarchy that made her do it. Men make things happen, things happen to women. It's really odd and disempowering.
Hi Brad. Can you do an article that juxtaposes your argument here ( which I agree with) with the forces turning women into non-persons. Non-male, so to say. Seems to me, this is an anti-human process. Weakening the role of men was one leg, removing women another. What’s the third leg of the stool?
Absolutely, that's definitely a worthwhile topic. Women are being erased.
It's especially strange since a lot of people these days reduce anything to the group identity, there are no individuals anymore. Woman has a bad interaction with a man that's misogyny, Black man has a bad interaction with a white woman, that's racism and so on.
Edit: Forgot to add, at the same time some of these identity categories become a lot more malleable, e.g. anyone can declare themselves to be a woman or just join some newly invented group (e.g. queer, non-binary). Or even use flimsy genetic / genealogical claims like Elizabeth "Fauxcahontas" Warren...
The third leg is a column, built of the concrete that is aberrant sexuality. No male/female attraction, no babies. It's being poured as we speak.
Your point number one about women initiating more divorces is not necessarily a comment on men as partners.
Good point!
Brad, Excellent piece. Really the pithiest summation of this area I have read. Thanks for doing this.
It used to be a man's world, we are told. It is no doubt that men built the technological/industrial world that we live in and that provides what is by far the highest standard of living in history.
Women seem to be sure that it will be easy to keep it running. We'll see, I guess.
Pretty sure it's the decisions of men as fops that are determining much of this. Wouldn't want the dean or principle or boss accused of sexism, so just another example of cancel culture run amok.
Young white males are typically thought of as the most privileged ones, but simply by virtue of them not having a victim card to flash around, they are being told that their voices don’t count. This was my son’s experience in University. For some reason only minorities and victims these days are allowed to have a voice.
As a mother and grandmother of boys, thank you for writing on this topic. I try to encourage my 6 and 8 yr old grandsons in their normal boy behavior. Just hope society recovers its sanity before they grow up!
Another fantastic article Brad- also heartbreaking- it makes me both so sad and mad as hell. Today's (and prior) feminism is truly toxic, vindictive and utter bullshit !
Fantastic article. Thank you.
I actually do believe in the patriarchy exist and it is needed. I'm not an advocate for equality. I argue that equality has actually ruined Western civilisation. Good news is that a lot of career and educated type women are breeding themselves out.
Ironically, in regards to fascism, there's plenty of women supporting fascism, see the Nordic Resistance Movement in Scandinavia. Many of them reject gender equality. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2021.1916772
That was a great interview, I do wish they spend more time on issues other than vaccines though. Kennedy really gives one hope that there can be some sanity left in the political system.
Yes, it would be great if there was another 2-3 hour podcast on what his plans are for the country.