Concerned Women for America - Sacrificing Boys to Promote Girls

Concerned Women for America - FONT COLOR="#FF0000" CROUSE:/FONT Sacrificing Boys to Promote Girls

The premise of this month's article by Concerned Women for America examines the role of radical feminism, and its influence on the media, education, family and relationships. The article directly blames radical feminism for poor success rates of boys in education, professions, and relationships.  As a teacher, I have seen the push in education to encourage the success of young girls, especially in the area of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and sports. Please do not misunderstand me, I think fostering the development of young girls is important, but equally important is fostering young boys to become responsible men; one gender should not be forsaken for the other.  But, sadly, what we know to be true is that radical feminism aims to destroy authentic masculinity and femininity.

How many of us, who do not consider ourselves a party to this ideology, have allowed the lies of feminism to influence our thoughts and behaviors impacting our communities all in the name of "girl power"?

-She Said

Revisiting Old Projects with a Renewed Purpose

“Our problems can only be solved by people of character who actively and without apology take their beliefs into public debates. That includes Catholics. We need to be stronger in our public witness, not weaker. If we really believe that the Gospel is true, we need to embody it in our private lives and our public choices.” --Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia https://www.facebook.com/CatholicVote

It has been over two years since I posted on this blog due to various reasons, but I think I'll be writing more these days and with a great partner, my husband. I'm recently married and expecting our first child. I have discovered that children have a wonderful way of igniting change even before they are born. With that being said, I recently read this quote, and it motivated me to revisit old attempts at creativity and potentially good projects. I'm starting a couple new projects these days, nursery decorating and nesting. Similarly, revisiting this blog and the original idea I still find of value, even if it is just a writing exercise in sharing thoughts and ideas between my husband and me, it will be worth it. For now, I hope the wisdom of Archbishop Chaput speaks to you and those specific areas in your heart waiting for new life!

Spreading the Good News

Dear All,

It has been far too long since last I wrote, and I was inspired today to share with you all two worthy projects. One is a Catholic women's magazine called Radiant, and another is a new blog started this month called He Makes Beautiful Things. You must read the first entry, "He is Faithful".

I feel it is appropriate that I share with you these two amazing projects spreading the Good News especially in the month of May. I pray that more women are inspired by their love for Christ and with the help of our Mother Mary to continue to make known the good works of the Lord.

She Said.

Ash Wednesday Reflection

Are any of you tired? Not just sleepy or fatigued, but deep-down-to-the-soul tired? How about lonely, or hurting? Or like you just can’t catch a break? Or do you ever feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders? Have you known failure or inadequacy? How about the feeling of trying your hardest, with the best of motives, and then having others mistrust your intentions?


I’ve been there, and I’m sure most of you have too. Such is life on Earth. Sure, it’s punctuated by moments of joy and great blessings, but on the whole it can be pretty trying. Just think of all the people who can’t take it and seek escape in substances, addictions, counterfeit love, and feel-good ideologies. It’s tough down here, and the reality of that comes clearer with each year.

That’s why I like Lent. Perhaps it seems depressing to focus on the sorrowful and the painful. Perhaps taking on sacrifices seem just too much to ask on top of the daily weights we bear. To me, though, there is, at the heart of the season, a lesson of hope, and of joy. The joy is that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). And we are reminded that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16) What suffering have we known to compare to the cross? What loneliness is like the loneliness of separation from the Father, suffered by one who has been in full unity with Him since before time? What weight on our shoulders compares to the weight of all of human sin? What rejection have we faced to compare to coming to the world to die for man, and being rejected by the very ones for whom we suffer?

The stark contrast does not make light of our own struggles, but makes good of them. Just as the sufferings of Christ were not wasted, nor shall our own be so long as we offer them to Him, uniting them with His. It is a burden He joyfully carries, even amid the pain, and He carries it not in vain, but to a Glory our own senses cannot yet perceive.

Ash Wednesday is today. Let us enter into Lent with expectant hearts, bringing our pain, or suffering, and our sacrifices to lay at the feet of Our Lord as an offering to the only One who can make good of them, and the One who is dying to do so.

God bless,
David

Super Bowl Ads, Truth or Fiction?

With the recent Super Bowl advertisements finding humor in showing women emasculating men through dating and marriage, I am very quickly reminded of how far we have fallen in respecting human dignity thanks to feminism. As a woman, I was offended by these commercials, and I felt bad for men. At the Super Bowl party I attended, the men’s reactions were a mixture of those who found the ads funny, and those who seemed to accept it as shamefully familiar. One guy even commented that it’s taken him a week to get the feminine candle smell out of his apartment from his last girlfriend. His sarcastic remark came after we viewed the commericals with advertising campaigns claiming that men are completely “spineless”, and that they are truly dominated by women in marriage and dating, but in consolation, the muscle car is “man’s last stand”. Wow! What a depressing outlook for the present and future state of masculinity. I feel bad for these guys if in fact this is their reality. So, is it true, are men passively accepting female domination?

A reader from another blog seems to say yes and more. I came across an interesting question in the following article, The Feminization of Race. The reader asked, “Why have men allowed women to emasculate them?" Now this person posed a provocative question, because the question refers only to white men. If the reader seems to claim that black men have done a better job at maintaining their masculinity, is it a valid claim? By the way, it may be worth mentioning that the commercials seemed to predominately depict white men.

I'm not ignoring that the feminist movement and some women have done their part in destroying authentic differences between the sexes, because they have, but the article from the other blog brings up an interesting viewpoint. Have men allowed themselves to be emasculated? If so, why, and does race play an issue?

Thoughts of a Catholic Man

So, I’ve been rejected now about four times—three times it hurt pretty bad, really bad in fact. The basic pattern goes like this…I become acquainted with a girl…becoming friends, or “almost” perhaps. Then, I begin my familiar cycle of trying to “woo” this girl. I’m half expecting things to go awry as soon as things start. They feel awkward and I wonder whose fault this is…mine or hers? Hmm. Things keep going on awkwardly and I’m trying to analyze every single thing that she says to me. By the end, I’m thinking “what the hell was I doing?” You’re not cool enough, or funny enough, or popular enough for any girl to want to go out with you. They may say that you’re cute or funny, but all of these things are just superficial if you’re too incompetent or shy or “unsuave” to form any real relationship and they can sense this you see. There comes a time that things have unraveled to a point where even seeing them makes your stomach clench and is strong enough to make you want to avoid being within 200 feet of them at all costs. At this point you realize that you just have to empty your heart to this girl about how you feel—like she doesn’t know this already. You have this illusion that she’s somehow going to understand once you tell her how you feel, like something truly romantic would take place.


Then, what happens is, well…nothing. Nothing romantic takes place and the happy ending that you were praying for ends up being nothing more than a realistic disaster. She says that she “just wants to be friends”. You wonder if there’s any girl in this entire world that likes you for who you are, not just who you appear to be. You might cry to yourself a bit, ask God why the hell this happened, what the point of all of this was. You wonder how you can seriously discern the priesthood if you never even have the chance to discern marriage. It seems unreasonable that God would somehow force a man into priesthood if he takes away every opportunity to be with a girl. I thought I had free will right? How do I have free will if I don’t have the opportunity to decide if I feel called to be with this one woman.

From the past experiences, you know that time (and prayer) heals all wounds and you generally fade into an existence subsisting of seeing this girl and the clenching in your stomach slowly easing with each passing day. Eventually, you find yourself to be over this girl and starting to “like” another girl. You wonder how this situation would be any different from any other—I’m certainly no different…I think…than I was before. Is this girl any different? Is she interested in a relationship with me or just being a “friend” like every other girl is these days it seems. Aren’t good Catholic girls interested in good Catholic guys? It would seem easy enough. I mean, I live here at a dorm with beautiful girls who love God and want to grow holier. I love God and it would seem that the girls here would be attracted to guys who they knew would make them holier and would raise a family in the way that they knew was the right way to raise a family. It doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe I need to be a little less “infatuated”. Maybe I should be a little less “picky”. Maybe God’s telling me to stop worrying about finding a girl because I can be closer to Him in the priesthood.

It scares the hell out of me that it’s going to be one of these two options and neither of them seem to be pulling me so far.

Peace and Happy Advent.

Another different perspective...

Dear She-

A very interesting passage you have shared.  I will quote it again for those just tuning in.  "As a society we associate nurturing behaviors with weakness and our culture rewards strength. A man who is caring towards children is considered less masculine and so less valuable, according to his peers, as a member of society. This is where the tired cliché of "woman's work" turns on its head. Not that only women should care for children but that caring for children is a skill or capacity that is squashed in men from a young age. It is societal and until we begin to help boys grow up whole, we will never have men in younger classrooms."

I can't say that I agree entirely with the passage.  Here is my point of view.  I don't believe that society associates nurturing behaviors with weakness.  If that were so then society would necessarily be disparaging of women, as "nurturing" is something that is intrinsic to the nature of a woman, in as much as a woman is the primary nurture-giver in relation to her children.  I don't believe that our society (and when I say society I mean American society, and I assume that this passage intends the same meaning) views women as weak, so, this premise that society associates nurturing behavior with weakness must be a false premise.  I also do not believe that in our society a man who is considered to be nurturing is considered to be less valuable... in fact I believe that our society gives much recognition to men who are nurturing unlike many foreign societies in today's world where machismo and male domination are looked upon as the greatest of virtues. 

So in essence, I don't believe that the virtue of nurturing is squashed in young boys from a young age, I believe that it is simply never relayed to them effectively.  Now, I do believe that in our American society there does tend to be a squashing of many more naturally masculine virtues... but perhaps this is a different point of discussion.  You see, a good man, in my view, must have both...

-He