Suzanne Venker
Washington Examiner
Taylor Swift just proved my point. My last post was about feminism's harmful influence on millennials; and less than 24 hours later, a friend sent me this USA Today article that highlights an interview Taylor Swift gave on a promotional tour in which a German reporter asks Swift if she has children or family on her mind since she turns 30 this year.
A quick caveat: I feel compelled to write that this question shouldn't be asked of any woman, as it's no one's business but hers. However, such probing questions by the media are inevitable at that level of fame. Swift is entitled to dodge the question, which she did. But her reason for not answering it speaks volumes: "I really do not think men are asked that question when they turn 30, so I'm not going to answer that now."
Here's a newsflash for Swift and other young women who didn't get the memo: No one asks men that same question because men don't have a biological clock. Women do.
I know you've grown up believing since the day you were born that men and women are, or should be, sexual equals and should thus be treated as identical beings. But sexual equality is a bogus mission (which you will see in time if you ever do have children, for it is then that sex differences become glaringly obvious) because it's inextricably tethered to a progressive political movement that has no basis in reality.
After my last post, I got an lot of email. One was was from a man who chastised me for suggesting millennial women have been bamboozled by feminism. I can't think of any greater proof that women have, in fact, been bamboozled by feminism than this latest comment by Swift.
Women of her generation - and mine, quite frankly (I'm a Generation Xer) - were taught that America is an oppressive patriarchy and that men and marriage (and children) hold women back from being their true selves. But a technological revolution, along with social media, upped the ante for millennials, who were raised to be entitled and self-involved. (The title of Swift's new single, "Me!", makes this abundantly clear.) They were also told that uncommitted sex can be harmless fun, that marriage is optional even if you want kids, and that divorce is inevitable for many women because men are Neanderthals.
To wit, over Memorial Day weekend, my husband loved the guacamole someone brought to the party and suggested I get the recipe and make it - at which point his 34-year-old niece (whom I love dearly) said, "You can make it yourself, you know, Bill." That's exactly what I mean when I said we've underestimated feminism's influence on young women. Such knee-jerk assumptions about marital roles loom large. They see sexual inequality everywhere, even where none exists.
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Washington Examiner
Taylor Swift just proved my point. My last post was about feminism's harmful influence on millennials; and less than 24 hours later, a friend sent me this USA Today article that highlights an interview Taylor Swift gave on a promotional tour in which a German reporter asks Swift if she has children or family on her mind since she turns 30 this year.
A quick caveat: I feel compelled to write that this question shouldn't be asked of any woman, as it's no one's business but hers. However, such probing questions by the media are inevitable at that level of fame. Swift is entitled to dodge the question, which she did. But her reason for not answering it speaks volumes: "I really do not think men are asked that question when they turn 30, so I'm not going to answer that now."
Here's a newsflash for Swift and other young women who didn't get the memo: No one asks men that same question because men don't have a biological clock. Women do.
I know you've grown up believing since the day you were born that men and women are, or should be, sexual equals and should thus be treated as identical beings. But sexual equality is a bogus mission (which you will see in time if you ever do have children, for it is then that sex differences become glaringly obvious) because it's inextricably tethered to a progressive political movement that has no basis in reality.
After my last post, I got an lot of email. One was was from a man who chastised me for suggesting millennial women have been bamboozled by feminism. I can't think of any greater proof that women have, in fact, been bamboozled by feminism than this latest comment by Swift.
Women of her generation - and mine, quite frankly (I'm a Generation Xer) - were taught that America is an oppressive patriarchy and that men and marriage (and children) hold women back from being their true selves. But a technological revolution, along with social media, upped the ante for millennials, who were raised to be entitled and self-involved. (The title of Swift's new single, "Me!", makes this abundantly clear.) They were also told that uncommitted sex can be harmless fun, that marriage is optional even if you want kids, and that divorce is inevitable for many women because men are Neanderthals.
To wit, over Memorial Day weekend, my husband loved the guacamole someone brought to the party and suggested I get the recipe and make it - at which point his 34-year-old niece (whom I love dearly) said, "You can make it yourself, you know, Bill." That's exactly what I mean when I said we've underestimated feminism's influence on young women. Such knee-jerk assumptions about marital roles loom large. They see sexual inequality everywhere, even where none exists.
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