In an op-ed in Britain’s Guardian, Jessica Valenti of NARAL and its BushvChoice blog quotes a line she read in The Dawn Patrol from my upcoming book where I say, “when you become chaste, you’ll notice for the first time that women who have sex outside of marriage don’t really appreciate men.”
To that, Valenti says, “Don’t get me wrong, reviving romance sounds great, and if you want to hold out on sex, more power to you. But can you really base a movement, a revolution even, on the idea that women’s life goal should be marriage?”
Yes.
As usual, G.K. Chesterton has the perfect reply — writing in 1920:
“In plain words, there is clearly something wrong in the calculation by which it was proved that a housewife must be as much a servant as a housemaid; or which exhibited the domesticated man as being as gentle as the primrose or as conservative as the Primrose League. It is precisely those who have been conservative about the family who have been revolutionary about the state. Those who are blamed for the bigotry or bourgeois smugness of their marriage conventions are actually those blamed for the restlessness and violence of their political reforms. Nor is there seriously any difficulty in discovering the cause of this. It is simply that in such a society the government, in dealing with the family, deals with something almost as permanent and self-renewing as itself.”
What, no mention of Jessica’s work at Feministing, Dawn? Too scared to link to a place where women might actually have their eyes opened to the world? No, best to stick to scary words like NARAL, which I’m sure you’ve told your readers stands for the Naughty And Racy Association of Ladies.
Anyway, in the op-ed, Jessica absolutely annihilates the modesty movement, something Dawn repeatedly blahs about on her blog. For example:
Another retrogressive aspect of the modesty movement is its disconcerting message that women are responsible for men’s behaviour. The notion of dressing modestly comes at least partly from the idea that men can’t control themselves; by telling women that they have to dress a certain way to quell men’s desires, modesty advocates are sending a clear message that the onus is on us to control men’s sexual – and possibly violent – actions.
Any discussion of that, Dawn? Nope. Just the out-of-context mention of Jessica questioning a statement in Dawn’s book.
Naturally, Dawn feels unequipped to respond to even the most chopped up version of Jessica’s argument, so Dawn falls back on a quote from G.K. Chesterton, also known as this guy:
Hi ladies! I’m here to tell you all about how to live your lives because I know best, uh-hee-hee-hee! Why, I’m sure you’re all zoomin’ around in fancyfangled flyin’ moto-carriages and discussing the merits of the suffrage movement with Martians by 2006, but I bet not much else has changed since 1920. If’n you want to be a revolutionary, make sure you settle down with a nice man, because only the married can affect real change in this ol’ society we got cookin’.
[settles deeper on his haunch, leans over to whisper]
I, uh, should probably mention that the ol’ quote a’mine Dawn Eden saw fit to gussy up for her digitalibrated web-o-site was also a smidge out of the context. You see, I lead off the next paragraph thusly:
Anyhow, it is found in practice that the domestic citizen can stand a siege, even by the State; because he has those who will stand by him through thick and thin – especially thin.
So it turns out that I am arguing only that a _man_ can be a revolutionary so long as he has a family behind him to do all the non-revolutionary chores like washboardin’ his britches. I’m afraid you ladies weren’t exactly the ones I was talkin’ about. Oh, sure, I mention Irish women dumping hot water on their evicters as a sign that the whole family can defend itself, but, as you can see above, when it comes to shakin’ the sheet of society in the wind, that’s a man’s job, and he needs you to be takin’ care of the ol’ homestead — but not as a maid, you see, more as a, um, a junior partner. A silent one. That way, he can go about changin’ things in this world. For himself.
Oh, and did I mention that, while I dislike the ol’ Hitler, I agree that there’s a “Jewish problem?” Uh-hee-hee-hee! Good idea to quote me, Dawn. I’m barely outdated, prejudiced, and sexist at all!
The sad thing is, I think Dawn knows as well as you do that the boys whose love and approval she wants so desperately wouldn’t let her into their clubhouse. I think she honestly thinks that’s the way things should be; that she’ll finally feel happy and fulfilled once she can get a Real Man to make a Real Woman out of her.
Saddest shit I’ve ever seen.
Wait, wait, wait…Dawn is uncritically citing Chesterton…as a witty riposte to the suggestion that her “chastity movement” may be oh, a tad out of touch with the times?
Irony just imploded on itself.
jp, it did that a long time ago. We are talking about Dawn Eden, remember? Irony doesn’t exist anymore. This is just par for the course.
AUGH. just read that amazon blurb.
seriously, for once and for all: wtf is with Jewish folks who convert not just to neoconnery but fundamentalist Christianity? Howard Phillips (big Reconstructionist guy) was born Jewish, too. David Horowitz isn’t a christofascist, but damn they sure do seem to like him. and then “Dr.” Laura going first one way and then t’other.
and then people from the same camp have the gall to call out people on “antisemitism” or “Bad Jew No Biscuit” for not being sufficiently supportive of their insane knee-jerk support for Israeli ubermilitarism.
Listen up, My People. The neocons and theocons are *not* our friends. They mainly only support Israel because they have…plans. Some of the wackier ones involve the conversion and/or Casting Into The Fiery Pit with all the other unsaved. Unless you follow Dawn and come to Jeebus, that is, I suppose. Laura Ashley prints an’ all. oyyoyoy.
Are the pats on the head and assurances that we’re gonna kill all the bad Muslims, don’t fret, *really* worth it?
GK Chesterton was a leading Catholic figure from the 1920s. Who could have possibly predicted he’d have some anti-semitic comments up his sleeve?
Btw, that was not an anti-catholic remark, simply an acknowledgement of the realities of the pre-VII religious world.
Auguste clearly drank the Israeli Haterade.
Belledame, one of Dawn’s weird “why I’m a catholic” posts invovles her describing her confusion over the concept of someone hating her for being jewish despite the fact that she wasn’t a practicing jew at the time.
It’s one of those things: on the one hand, jews are stereotypically supposed to be smart and capable and not dumb as posts.
On the other hand, Dawn Eden.
Someone will always come along and confound the stereotypes.
I guess in that regard I should thank her, then.
“Dear Deranged Woman/Emily Howard Role Model/Dish Detergent: Thank you for boldly defying this particular stereotype of Our People. And I completely understand your choice in this regard: one never knows when the Spanish Inquisition might make a comeback.”
[...] She also makes huge, embarrassing, gignormous mistakes all the time. Like quoting GK Chesterton to defend _women’s rights_. Or, as she does today, making someone else’s case for them: At the core of the left-wing bloggers’ animosity towards chastity is, I believe, an uneasy awareness of what a culture that values marriage — by which I mean so-called traditional marriage — does to their lifestyle. [...]
ha; thanks for linking to my piece! i didn’t even know she blogged about it…i try to deny that she even exists. that’s too funny. she hasn’t blogged about me often, but when she does, it’s always in the “she kills babies!” context.