Let's face it, we've been snookered.
They promised gender liberation, now we're becoming dependents of the
Nanny State. They averred no fancy for special treatment, now we have
affirmative action. They said they only wanted to give women a voice,
now we've got speech codes. They claimed to be for gender equality, now
boys are struggling just to keep up in school.
Why has it taken so long for us to catch on?
One of the tacit rules of the New Gender Order is that the opinions of
men don't count. "If white men were not complaining, it would be an
indication we weren't succeeding and making the inroads that we are" was
the remarkable admission once made by the most influential media mogul
in the country, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr, owner and publisher of the New
York Times.
Author Warren Farrell calls it the "lace curtain," the invisible hand of
editorial censorship that throttles the First Amendment rights of half
our nation's population.
It's like we claimed to be engaged in free and open debate, all the
while holding one of the parties gagged, blind-folded, and hog-tied. Or
if men were allowed to speak, it was made perfectly clear that they not
say anything that might force the delicate gals to resort to smelling
salts - remember l'affaire of Larry Summers?
But three weeks ago something snapped.
Michael Noer at Forbes.com wrote a column called "Don't Marry Career
Women." It was an advice column for eligible businessmen thinking about
making the plunge.
Predictably, the ladies reacted with well-rehearsed outrage, forcing
Forbes to run
a counterpoint by Elizabeth Corcoran, "Don't Marry a Lazy
Man."
True, some of Noer's facts could be disputed. Maybe he didn't qualify
his statements enough.
But Noer's article struck a deep chord with hard-working men whose
liberated wives had come to look askance at anything that might remotely
be called housework. And it resonated with the average Joes who put in
long hours on the factory line, only to come home and learn that he was
a member of the male oppressor class.
This time there would be no "Button up that lip, little man!" Within
hours the Internet was buzzing over Noer's apostasy as thousands of men
spoke out at Forbes.com, FreeRepublic.com, and other sites. All of a
sudden, full-throated debate became fashionable.
Remember this line? "I'm as mad as hell and I won't take it anymore!"
That rant won Peter Finch an Oscar for his role in the movie Network.
That pretty well sums up the attitude of many men and women who have
become disgusted with feminist-driven, government-enforced intervention
into the personal matters of private citizens.
For years, women like Christina Hoff Sommers, Wendy McElroy, Cathy
Young, and Phyllis Schlafly have been speaking out against government
intrusion disguised as female emancipation. Now their protest is ringing
through the land.
Take Doug Richardson of Detroit. He was forced to pay more than $80,000
in child support, even after paternity tests proved the child was not
his. Now he's waging a one-man campaign to expose the swindle and bring
the malefactors to justice.
In North Dakota, Mitch Sanderson got fed up with the raw deal that
fathers were getting in divorce court. So he started up the North Dakota
Shared Parenting Initiative. Then he quit his day job and combed every
hamlet and town in the state to get the required 13,000 signatures to
land his shared custody bill on the November ballot.
Some guys are willing to put everything on the line.
Like John Murtari of Onondaga County, NY. Murtari owes more than $60,000
in child support, an amount he couldn't pay because the figure was
calculated based on an income far higher than what he now earns. On July
31 he was sentenced to jail, triggering a hunger strike that caused him
to lose 29 pounds in just nine days. As of this writing his situation
remains precarious.
April 19, 1775, a rag-tag group of Minutemen waited in muffled silence
at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Mass. Within minutes they were
engulfed in a desperate fire-fight with the British regulars.
Soon the smoke cleared. That shot heard 'round the world marked the
first battle of the American Revolutionary War. It was the first
hard-fought step to freedom from government oppression.
Over 230 years later, state-sponsored tyranny has re-appeared in our
midst. And once again, a group of uppity men are willing to risk their
lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in the defense of justice
and family.
Carey Roberts has
been published frequently in the Washington Times, Townhall.com,
LewRockwell.com, ifeminists.net, Intellectual Conservative, and
elsewhere. He is a staff reporter for the New Media Alliance.