Here’s the next installment for all of you diehard readers who can’t get enough of this ridiculous topic. Every time I pound out one of these pieces my mailbox fills up, but the vast majority of readers who write back agree with my observations, no matter what I write. Go figure. Like usual, this piece is nothing more than a brief snapshot of recent news items on the subject. I don’t make up the news, I just use selected bits and send them on, but you’d never know it by reading my email from the under-30 female crowd. I can hear their claws coming out already.
Fans Fawn Over Fleischer
Apparently, what many women want is Ari Fleischer, the White House Press Secretary, age 42. Elise Proulx writes, “A new national sex symbol is emerging from an unlikely source: Washington, D.C.” Benjamin Marino of Philadelphia runs a website that includes a tribute page to Fleischer. Marino says, “To us, he encompasses suavity…. As far as his popularity with women goes, Ari has what all women want – complete confidence.Everything on top of that is just extra…. They’re sure to notice that he’s one of the best-dressed men in D.C. He also possesses a charismatic glow that is unmatched by any of his predecessors.” An Ari Fan Club poster writes, “I could watch those kissable sweet lips move all day…and I’m Canadian!!!” International appeal?
Over 800 Pairs of Women’s Underwear
KSTP reports that the police at the University of Wisconsin Stout arrested Anthony Scholfield and charged him with felony burglary and criminal damage to property for stealing over 800 pairs of women’s underwear. “Investigators displayed a garbage [pail] stuffed full of panties that have disappeared from homes around Menomonie [Wis.] the past four years. Some of them came from a home where police camped out Sunday night and say they caught Scholfield after he broke in through a basement window. The women who live there know Scholfield and say this is no joke, but his grandpa doesn’t take the case seriously. ‘Well I think it’s a joke. What’s he going to do with panties and thongs?’ What these women want: their undies back in the drawer.
Portia Hankers for Babies
Australian film star Portia de Rossi, age 30, of Ally McBeal fame wants to have children with her girlfriend, Francesca Gregorini. Nui Te Koha writes, “I would never say no to children because I am sure it is an experience that would be amazing. Yes, I would like to experience parenthood, but not in the immediate future. It is not something I am actively planning to pursue right now.”
“De Rossi and Gregorini, 34, the fledgling musician stepdaughter of Ringo Starr, have been inseparable since meeting three years ago. In a candid interview, de Rossi was defiant about the infamous paparazzi shots that outed her, after she was snapped kissing Gregorini in a Beverly Hills alley. ‘I live my life the way I want to live it. I am certainly not going to modify my life just to suit the paparazzi.’” What Portia wants: kids with her girlfriend, eventually.
What Hollywood Women Want
Patrick Goldstein writes that Hollywood women want more female directors. “Women are hard to find, at least when it comes to directing a Hollywood movie. Last month, just down the street from Paramount Pictures, home of ‘What Women Want,’ was a billboard picturing Trent Lott’s head superimposed on an Oscar statuette, with the chilling message: ‘Even the U.S. Senate is more progressive than Hollywood. Female Senators: 14 percent. Female Film Directors: 4 percent.’ The brainchild of a feminist group known as the Guerrilla Girls, the billboard was aimed at highlighting the paltry number of female filmmakers.”
“Female filmmakers also point out that directing is particularly ill-suited to someone raising a family. ‘Being a movie director has historically been a male-oriented job — directors were always the daddy figure,’ says ‘Spider-Man’ producer Laura Ziskin. ‘It says a lot about a woman’s lifestyle choice that your peak career-making years are also your peak childbearing years. I directed a short film years ago and after spending six straight days leaving the house before my daughter was even awake, I thought, ‘If I do a movie, I’m going to miss four months of my daughter’s life. This is not for me.'” What Ziskin wants: to have kids and direct, but on her own schedule.
Feminism’s Left Us in a Fix
Virginia Haussegger writes that the promises of liberation have fallen short for an entire generation of women. “When I first outed myself in the media as childless and angry, a floodgate burst and a tidal wave of emotion and fury poured forth. The response in newspapers, on radio and on national television was overwhelming and kept me in a state of shock for weeks. ‘Meet Virginia, the woman some love to loathe’, was one headline. I was called everything from ‘petulant’, to ‘a brat’, to ‘shameful’.
“It wasn’t all bad. Some of the letters I received were utterly humbling in the compassion, humanity and gentle encouragement they expressed. But it’s the fury, naturally, that interested me the most. Why such venom? It would seem that even now, three long decades after the advent of second-wave feminism in Australia, we’re not allowed to question it. But it’s time. This is not about picking a cat fight – it’s far too important for that. It’s about trying to untangle some of the ‘mis-messaging’ feminism has allowed to linger, and is now partly responsible for getting us into the miserable fix in which many women find themselves: independent, successful, solid careers, nearing 40, childless, many partnerless and wondering what went wrong.
“[History Professor Marilyn] Lake suggests the Australian workplace is organised around the assumption the worker is masculine: independent, autonomous and free from domestic responsibilities. She’s right, and women have accepted it. Where’s the feminism in that? But perhaps the most important question for feminism right now is, has it been laid to rest? Is it over?
The Prime Minister certainly thinks so. ‘We are in the post-feminist stage of the debate,’ John Howard said. ‘I find that for the under-30s woman the feminist battle has been won.’ And the truth is, so do many young women.
“The fact that the workplace remains dreadfully family unfriendly; that many working mothers are guilt-stricken and expect to be discriminated against by employers when their dual roles conflict; that many young women erroneously think they can postpone having children well into the second decade of their busy careers; and that an increasing number choose not to have children at all, leads to some big questions for feminism. Has feminism as an ideology flopped? Has it let us down?…. [P]erhaps no one hung around long enough to check that the outcomes matched the promises of the rhetoric.”
Experience is a great teacher. It’s too bad about the deluded under-30 types. Their mothers could have easily told them the truth, but who had time to listen? What the under-30 women want: they want it all, their way, without having to make any concessions after choosing dual roles that conflict.
Pararescue Jumper
Emily Hummel, a junior at Perry Hall High School in Maryland, wants to be a pararescue jumper in the Air Force, but current regulations do not allow females to become PJs. Gregory Kane writes, “Who’s to say a woman who is a proficient swimmer now and can handle the other rigorous training of a pararescue jumper can’t be one? Granted, most women who tried would take the course and fail. But so would most men. What bugs Hummel the most is that she wouldn’t even be given the chance to fail. It was presumed she would fail, simply because of her gender. It’s a policy of gender bias the country’s women, through their taxes, get the dubious privilege of subsidizing. [We] ought to be asking why public tax dollars are paying for such flagrant discrimination against women.” What Hummel wants: to be an Air Force PJ, despite the regulations that prohibit it.
Allow Women in Combat
Ann McFeatters writes, “There is no way — no way — the modern military could function without women. Because we have an all-volunteer military, that is not even a debate anymore. Women are as vital in the Pentagon as the oxygen that defense chief Donald Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff breathe. The brass admits it. There is not one job women aren’t capable of doing. But, legally, women can’t serve in combat, and thus their options are limited.
“The best way to honor [military women] would be to remove the prohibition on women in combat. It’s an outmoded vestige of a bygone era that only hurts women who want to serve by keeping them from getting the promotions they should have a chance to earn. Ending the ban on women in combat roles also would do a lot to change the military for the better. For one thing, it would mean less sexual harassment; as many as two-thirds of women in the military have experienced some form of harassment. More female officers would squelch that climate.” What McFeatters wants: to ignore the realities of war and human nature and open all combat roles to women, thereby improving the military through decreased sexual harassment.
Summary
What (some) women want: a.) Ari Fleischer, b.) Their underwear back, c.) To have kids with their girlfriend, d.) More female directors in Hollywood, e.) A dual role as career woman and mother, but without any of the problems, concessions, or drawbacks that come with choosing both, f.) To be an Air Force PJ, and g.) To be allowed into all combat positions in the U.S. military.
Re: Ari Fleischer as the next Mel Gibson, who knew that a monotone, middle-aged, married, bald guy could become the hottest man on the planet? I can relate to getting your underwear back, no biggie. Re: eventually having kids with your girlfriend, this sounds almost normal, maybe even borderline traditional, until you realize that the issue is raising a family without a husband or father, on purpose. Let’s make life as difficult as possible, especially for the children.
Re: opening Air Force PJs to women, bad idea. This is an extremely demanding combat job. The school pipeline is well over one year in length. The attrition rate for males is about 80%, even higher than BUD/S for prospective Navy SEALs. Virtually every female applicant for this school would fail, thereby making it even more costly than it already is. PJs can’t be pregnant, but males don’t have that problem. The last thing the Air Force needs is female PJs. Shouldn’t happen, not now, not ever. GI Jane was only a movie. The realities of war are not to be taken lightly, especially by pundits with social engineering agendas masquerading as equality for women.
Re: opening all combat positions to women, more of the same. Ground combat is not fun, it is gore, shattered bones, missing faces, flying body parts, and sucking chest wounds. Ask any combat veteran and they will tell you the same thing: keeping women out of front line combat units is not discriminating against women, it is simply prudent and wise policy. The military exists for one reason and one reason only: to win wars. Gadfly pundits who think otherwise are seriously deluded and potentially dangerous.
Overall, it appears that under-30 women want things that: a.) they don’t have, b.) they can’t have, c.) they shouldn’t have, or d.) are mutually exclusive. Dare I say that once again the same themes appear: they want it all, their way, whether or not it is a good idea. The issues of sound judgment and making poor choices appear again, along with selfishness, a lack of personal responsibility, and a very unrealistic approach to life itself.
People in Hell want ice water, but that doesn’t mean that they get it.
Related Articles:
What Women Want: Who Cares?
What Women Want: Who Cares? (Part II)
What Women Want: Who Cares? (Part III)
What Women Want: Who Cares? (Part IV)
What Women Want: Who Cares? (Part V)
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”