It's a Man's World, and It Always Will Be.

[Channman 2]

My mother was one of the first (2) women to be hired to work at NASA. My father would leave his job as a Salesmen in Newport News Va. and move the family to Houston, Texas so that he could support his wife in her new career. My mother worked in a Man's world, but never lost sight of her own dreams and or her first responsibility of being a Wife and a great Mom.

We can give our ladies great credit for doing some of the heavy lifting of raising the kids with help from dad and pursuing a career. But, surely, modern women are strong enough to give credit where credit is due...it is a Man's World...Right?

http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/16/its-a-mans-world-and-it-always-will-be/print/

[Andy9o8 0]

The author, Camille Paglia, is a very interesting person, to say the least. A lesbian (FWIW) who despises "mainstream" feminism; feuded famously with Susan Sontag; liberal in part; anti-liberal libertarian in part. (Although that's not nearly a complete synopsis of the sum total of what she is.)

Here's Wikipedia's bio of her. Interesting read, in its entirety:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Paglia

[Channman 2]

Andy9o8

The author, Camille Paglia, is a very interesting person, to say the least. A lesbian (FWIW) who despises "mainstream" feminism; feuded famously with Susan Sontag; liberal in part; anti-liberal libertarian in part. (Although that's not nearly a complete synopsis of the sum total of what she is.)

Here's Wikipedia's bio of her. Interesting read, in its entirety:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Paglia

Now I know the rest of the story...very interesting, and I find out she write extensively for Salon.com. I was reading several comments in which she provided responses to in an article, "Obama's Critical Moment Approaches" I was a bit surprised in her response and how gracious she answered those of differing views. Case in point

"The purpose of this message is to express my outrage at the frequent criticism of Sarah Palin for having gone to five schools before she graduated from the University of Idaho. What many of her critics fail to understand, or smugly disdain, is the reason she attended several schools. Sarah’s parents told their four children that they could not afford to pay their way through college, and if any of them wanted to go on to college, they must figure a way to pay for it on their own.

It is a towering credit to Sarah Palin’s ambition, courage and will to persevere that she acquired college credit hours when and where she had the opportunity and could pay for them and had the drive and guts to earn her B.A. Although a degree from the University of Idaho may not impress someone who attended an Ivy League school, having the title the University of Idaho on her sheepskin is certainly more elegant than, say, Southwest Wyoming State Teachers College.

Those whose parents paid their way through school evidently don’t appreciate what extra effort it took Sarah to acquire her B.A. But I do, because hailing from Galena, Kansas, the only Kansas town mentioned in John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath,” I know what it’s like to grow up poor, at least poor in relative terms.

It’s common for working-class youngsters who manage to go on to college to go to one school, as did I, for their first couple of years. In many cases, a kid will live at home while going to a nearby college. It irks me that smug, spoiled brats have the gall to criticize Sarah Palin for going to several colleges, because she didn’t flunk out of those schools — she was scratching and clawing to grab credit hours when she could.

Although I graduated from the University of Kansas very near, if not at the very bottom, of my class, I remain proud of the degree I earned, because it enabled me to wiggle my way out of the lower working-class. I busted my fanny to make it through school, working as a busboy at a tavern and as a waiter in a sorority house. But first I went to school at a small state college, Kansas State Teachers College at Pittsburg, near my hometown, before transferring to the University of Kansas to earn my B.A. from a school with a better reputation than KSTC’s.

My father was the youngest of ten children born to a farm family and probably never had a penny which he hadn’t earned by his hard labor. He chose to lease and operate a gas station in Galena, Kansas, until he’d earned enough to purchase the station from the oil company. Operating a gas station was his vocation for more than 40 years. In all those years, I knew him to take only one weekend vacation, when he and my mother drove to St. Louis to watch a Cardinals game.

Dave Livingston

Colorado Springs, CO

Thank you very much for your personal testimony. I too have been repulsed by the elitist insults flung at Sarah Palin in the massive, coordinated media effort to destroy her. Hence I have been thoroughly enjoying the way that Palin, despite all the dirt thrown at her by liberal journalists and bloggers, keeps bouncing back as if unscathed. No sooner did the gloating harpies of the Northeastern media think they had torn her to shreds than she exploded into number one on Amazon.com with a memoir that hadn’t even been printed yet! With each one of these amusing triumphs, Palin is solidifying her status as a bona fide American cultural heroine.

Yes, the snobbery about Palin’s five colleges is especially distasteful, given the Democratic party’s supposed allegiance to populism. Judging by the increasingly limited cultural and factual knowledge of graduates of elite schools whom one encounters working in the media, blue-chip sheepskins aren’t worth the parchment they’re printed on these days. Young people forced through the ruthlessly competitive college admissions rat race have the independence and creativity pinched right out of them. Proof? Where are the major young American artists, writers, critics or movie-makers of the past 20 years? The most adventurous and enterprising minds have gone into high tech. We’re in a horrendous cultural vacuum because our status-besotted education industry is geared toward producing not original thinkers but docile creatures of the system."

[ManagingPrime 0]

"...she thrives at being a bomb-thrower from the inside."

I think that statement sums her up pretty succinctly. I've been reading her with enthusiasm all morning... a sharp mind and a true humanist, you don't see that very often.

[wmw999 2,121]

She is interesting. But I disagree with some of her points. And, well, I did put myself through college (and a private one at that). So I can criticize Sarah Palin's attitudes and policies, without taking anything away from her go-getter-ness (she's seriously motivated, and she likes change).

As long as

men consider women to be the weaker sex

the worst thing you can call a man is a girl or woman

men expect women to look up to them

men make it clear that leadership is their right, which they can graciously share with women

then women who aren't of the look-up-to-them type are going to have problems.

There were things that I gave up in the career world for marriage and motherhood. I regret absolutely none of them, and I know that a married man most likely would not have had to give them up, because his wife would have been busy giving them up.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[ManagingPrime 0]

What points do you disagree with?

[Channman 2]

wmw999

She is interesting. But I disagree with some of her points. And, well, I did put myself through college (and a private one at that). So I can criticize Sarah Palin's attitudes and policies, without taking anything away from her go-getter-ness (she's seriously motivated, and she likes change).

As long as

men consider women to be the weaker sex

the worst thing you can call a man is a girl or woman

men expect women to look up to them

men make it clear that leadership is their right, which they can graciously share with women

then women who aren't of the look-up-to-them type are going to have problems.

There were things that I gave up in the career world for marriage and motherhood. I regret absolutely none of them, and I know that a married man most likely would not have had to give them up, because his wife would have been busy giving them up.

Wendy P.

Women in general, more so than Men seem to balance being married, a mother and a career women. I found that to be the case with my mom...as well as with my wife. I suppose the old saying, "Behind every successful man, stands a surprised mother-in-law" has an element of truth

[kelpdiver 2]

Channman

"The purpose of this message is to express my outrage at the frequent criticism of Sarah Palin for having gone to five schools before she graduated from the University of Idaho.

until today, I didn't realize this was a frequent criticism of her.

There's a hell of a lot of real ammo to use.

[wmw999 2,121]

The thing is that no one ever sees those women as successful in their own right -- because it's a man's world. They are successful in that world, but the one that "counts" is the one where you go to work and earn money and recognition.

"I'm just a housewife" is what many women who do that say. And, frankly, some men and women who work outside the home think exactly that -- "just a housewife."

It's wrong to automatically poke fun at the "incompetent man" (like Tim the Toolman Taylor). But as long as the fruits of efforts men are the most likely to produce are valued more highly than the fruits of the efforts that women are more likely to produce, then it's, yes, a man's world. And calling it that devalues women -- and that's the problem that I have with Camille Paglia. Not as much specific points, as her seeming understanding that of course it should be that way.

Consider dancing -- men are the leaders. But a woman's job is to make even the worst leader look good -- while she goes backwards. But she never gets to be the leader, even if that's what she's built for.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[christelsabine 1]

wmw999

....
But a woman's job is to make even the worst leader look good -- while she goes backwards. But she never gets to be the leader, even if that's what she's built for.

Look, and that's exactly where our fearless leader, Mrs. (Dr.) Angela Merkel, since today Germanys chancellor for 3rd round, decided:

Our new Minister of Defence is Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, mother of a bunch of kids (you'll need 2 hands to count them kids) - so now there are two female *leaders*, built for leadership - at least over here!

Men, watch out .....

dudeist skydiver # 3105

[Andy9o8 0]

kelpdiver

***
"The purpose of this message is to express my outrage at the frequent criticism of Sarah Palin for having gone to five schools before she graduated from the University of Idaho.

until today, I didn't realize this was a frequent criticism of her.

There's a hell of a lot of real ammo to use.

Agreed. It was used as but one of many pieces of evidence which, viewed in their totality, underpin a view that she's an intellectual lightweight and/or a flake. If one example is diminished on closer examination, the others still remain.