Women As Warmongers

What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice,
And all that's nice;
That's what little girls are made of.

I am the beneficiary of second-wave feminism, entering realms that, in the past, few women entered. I am also intellectually honest enough to acknowledge women have brought our unique demons through those open doorways. 

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I encounter "progressive" men who deny this reality with rhetoric that it is time for women to run the world, as men have certainly mucked things up. While these men revel in their enlightenment, for me, it is a cosmic pat on the head for being a "good little girl" where, by my sex, I am deemed part of a group made of sugar and spice and everything nice. 

Equating only pleasantries to women is to make us half-beings infantilizing us. But it is more than the condescension that is troublesome; their sentiments provide pathways for women, who are not so nice, to act with no accountability and with devastating consequences.

While the nursery rhyme assumes inherent differences between men and women, Herbert Marcuse, father of "Critical Theory" and grandfather of CRT, opined otherwise. For him, culture runs through patriarchal constructs. Traits associated with women, such as non-violence, fairness, and tenderness, are imposed social constructs. (Interview with BBC's Bryan Magee.) 

So when "My Fair Lady's" Professor Higgens lamented: "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" he did not understand that from Marcuse's perspective, women were men. They were just failed men. Critical Theory is at odds with the post-modernist belief that there is something called a woman. For them, a woman is constructed of words, feelings, and accessories that can be switched off and on in the same fashion as "Potato Head" figurines. For them, biology is a restriction to be transcended.

In the West, we currently ping pongs between both concepts, but of relevance here is Neo-Marxism. While Marcuse viewed feminine traits as fiction, he strategized that such fiction could advance Neo-Marxist principles. (Interview at minute 35.) In other words, he envisioned women as "useful" soldiers to carry out battles under the guise of compassion, tenderness, and fairness. 

Women and Physical War
A quote, perhaps from Lao Tzu, says a general who recklessly sends men to death will be haunted on his deathbed by their faces, but the general, who is reticent in doing so, will die in peace. History is replete with men sending other men to their deaths for heroic battles, for revenge, and for pure brutality. 

Now that women have joined their ranks, what will their deathbeds hold for pushing for physical war, overthrowing governments, and using civilians as cannon fodder, all in the name of advancing peace?

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley and Senator Elizabeth Warren, while on opposite political spectrums, both advocate for the US proxy war in Ukraine. Madame Albright infamously opined that the deaths of an estimated 500,000 Iraqi children were worth achieving US objectives. Hilary Clinton voiced a similar justification for the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya. Albright maintained there was a special place in hell for women who did not support Clinton's presidential run. 

One wonders if there is a special place for women who make hell on earth for others.

When Senator Warren wailed, "My body, My choice," in response to the Dobbs decision, she did so only for women, not men. Where is the "My body, My choice" for young men who must register with Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday lest they be a felon?

The forced draft ended with the Vietnam War, or so we thought. Between the rumblings in Ukraine and now the Middle East, this sacred pledge will be re-examined. Young men may, once again, be forced to experience the pain of battle by those who never will. Unlike video war games, their lives cannot be rebooted.

Cultural Wars
If there is a constant to human evolution, it is our ability to take inventions for good and transform them into weapons. Fire gives warmth, cooks food, and protects. It also burns villages and humans to ashes. Now, the tool of war is language in modern-day guerilla warfare. 

Objectives are camouflaged within words of compassion, fairness, and tenderness. When objectors attempt to reveal the tactics, they face an updated form of "When did you stop beating your wife?" The act of opposition incriminates, thus requiring collective punishment. ( See also Naomi Wolf’s essay on schoolmarm tactic to silence unruly questioners.)

Defund Police
Safety allows a woman to run a small shop, the elderly to take mass transit, or parents to walk with their children on the streets. Those on the lower economic spectrum pay the price for unpoliced neighborhoods. And retail and residents with means hire private security guards who often work for low pay and few benefits. How is this equity?  

School Closures and Equity
While all children suffered, children of lower economic levels suffered the greatest. A powerful teacher's union, headed by a woman, used school closures as a negotiating tactic to force employment demands. Essentially, it was bribery using vulnerable children as leverage. Education provides sovereignty of mind and options for work. What will happen to children who lack both? 

Climate Change/Tailpipe Environmentalism
An executive unveiled plans to transform natural gas lines into lines transmitting captured carbon. She noted how her 8-year-old son's class approved of this. Not discussed was the removal of affordable and, until recently, energy deemed "clean" for the environment. She spoke amidst shiny EVs. Reference that the batteries might include material sourced by children in environmentally disastrous methods was not included.

Lockdowns & Censorship
Former presidential candidate Senator Amy Klobuchar continues to spearhead efforts on censorship for health information and law professor Barbara McQuade opines that reasonable restrictions can be placed on First Amendment activity. Both stances should violate the Constitution, but now private rights are deemed selfish.

Culture Starts with Women

Traditionally, women headed the realms of child care, healing, and food gathering, all essential for human survival. Undoubtedly, women created the nuclear family as the original "company" marshaling resources for success. Thus, women have always been part of creating culture. The mistake is believing our history is contained only in books - books written primarily by men. That women's contributions receive scant attention in books is irrelevant. 

In the US, Thanksgiving is part of our culture. Current rhetoric argues it pays tribute to the atrocities against indigenous people. Grade School myths regarding a "First Colonial Thanksgiving" should not stamp out reality. It became a holiday to unify the country after the bloody civil war and was proposed by educator Sarah Joseph Hale. It continues to unify through grandmothers, nanas, and abuelas inserting their own heritage into this yearly family ritual. 

When I think of Thanksgiving, I think of my grandmother, raised in abject poverty and widowed young. Providing a Thanksgiving meal to extended family was her way of demonstrating that her family not only survived but thrived.

 Those memories are more meaningful than anything written in a book. To erase this holiday would be to erase the memory of women who sacrificed - not on the battlefield but in every other aspect of life. 

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.