PrintJanuary 23, 2011
The Descent of Woman
For over fifteen centuries in the world touched by Western civilization, Christ's mother embodied the feminine ideal. During this time, the Virgin Mary's dignity extended to all women.
She inspired the arts and literature. Most importantly, she inspired mothers who in turn inspired their children to honor and respect femininity. The age of chivalry was a product of the veneration of women who modeled themselves on the Mother of God.
Such women behaved and dressed modestly. Not only did their modesty conceal their physical charm, it also masked whatever blemishes nature may have imparted. Most of all, free of physical distraction men attuned to the spirit appreciated the vastly more important and enduring qualities of their women. They understood true beauty: the beauty of the soul.
Contrary to current mythology, there were plenty of strong women throughout those centuries. However, they were invariably feminine women, who, like their model, derived their power from their feminine identity.
Mary's influence began to fade in the 16th century. Eventually in much of the West, she came to be regarded as just another woman. All women were depreciated in proportion to her waning influence.
Today, after another 500 years, femininity is all but extinct, a casualty of an insane frenzy to convince women they are equal to men. Of all the revolutionary zealots determined to expunge femininity, none yet seems to have discovered what women are supposed to be other than morphologically non-conforming men.
If there were an enemy bent on destroying all humanity, he would find no better place to start than by destroying femininity. Despite social pressures to the contrary, women will probably always form the next generation. "Liberating" young girls from a model of purity and docility to God and supplanting it with a burden of guilt, shame, and rage would breed mothers who would inevitably infuse their children with resentments and hostilities thereby creating a self-propagating blight sure to infect future generations.
If the attack coincided with a decline in religious belief that precluded the prospect of divine forgiveness, the potential for human devastation would be unlimited.
Is it a coincidence that so much of the ballyhooed "progress" women made in recent decades brings with it a yoke of unprecedented guilt? From the promiscuous youth enabled by the pill, to the near universal abandonment of their children to daycare, boomer mothers and their daughters already haul plenty of baggage. Adding the staggering number of women who have had at least one abortion, and it's no exaggeration to say more women today carry a greater burden of guilt and shame than ever before in history.
If there is one person to credit for all of this, it is the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger. Despite her disconcerting resume she remains a demigod in the pantheon of the left.
Few people in history were more blunt about their goals than Ms. Sanger. Fewer still lived to see them fulfilled as thoroughly as she. Sanger died in 1966 -- decades after she claimed for "rebel women":
"The right to be lazy.The right to be an unmarried mother.The right to destroy.The right to create.The right to love.The right to live."1
Elsewhere she declared:
The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.2
By the time Sanger died birth control pills had been on the market for six years. A few years later abortion was legalized in America. By 2004, 35.8% of births in America were out of wedlock. While it's still shocking, feminists today freely equate infanticide with mercy.
By any measure Sanger was an astounding success.
She entered the stage at the perfect moment. Women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were restive with their place in the world. When Sanger preached her gospel of sexual liberation, she found a ready audience.
Margaret Sanger was revolutionary. She was as comfortable addressing her friends as "Comrade" as she was cozy with Nazis. Her short-lived magazine, "The Woman Rebel" was an even more succinct statement of her purpose. More than anyone else, Margaret Sanger brought the sexual revolution to every man woman and child.
If we're lucky, Barack Obama's greatest contribution will be popularizing Saul Alinsky and his infamous book, "Rules for Radicals." By dedicating his book to Lucifer, Alinsky gave the game away. The human spirit of rebellion is the perfect echo of Lucifer's battle cry: "I will not serve."
Unlike small thinking Nazis and Communists who merely sought to transform nations, Sanger aimed at the revolutionary creation of a new race. Nonetheless, all three recognized their revolutions demanded disposing of the "unfit" and "undesirables." Today, the greatest difference between them is decades after the gulags and gas chambers closed, the institutions Sanger spawned are thriving.
There are about 46 million abortions a year worldwide, and 1.2 million a year in the US (2005). US abortions are disproportionately higher among minority women, with blacks accounting for 30%, Hispanics 25% and whites 36%. Even if we allow the dubious possibility that Sanger's eugenics were not intentionally racist, the results speak for themselves.
As hideous as all that destruction is, the wholesale corruption of women makes it possible. Girls promised Sanger's utopian fantasy of free love become women ensnared in web of guilt. The institutions Sanger fostered stand ever ready to dispose of their mistakes contributing to a death toll that outstrips her Nazi and Soviet comrades' combined score every few years.
Worst of all, not only did women ask for this, they demanded it as their right. You can almost hear the devil laughing at the irony.
Notes:
- The Woman Rebel, March 1914, p3. Not surprisingly, this is very difficult to find elsewhere on the web, the author posted it at www.jmahoney.net/Blog. It's required reading for anyone infatuated with feminism.
- Woman and the New Race, Brentano's 1920, p63, available at Google Books
Jim Mahoney contributes to American Thinker and blogs at www.jmahoney.net/Blog
