GKC Corner
I'm often startled to see how many G.K. Chesterton people I see on the web. This last weekend, I was reading Touchstone, and I saw one of its contributors, Lydia McGrew, blogs at "What's Wrong with the World," which, of course, is a tribute to Chesterton's famous book by that name.
I'm glad I dialed it up. It's a heady blog, with lots of good stuff and contributors, including Francis Beckwith and Edward Feser (who I encountered awhile back in this highly critical piece about Murray Rothbard, which, though I like Rothbard, ought to be required reading for every budding anarchist). Based on my initial review, it appears to have libertarian streak, Catholic with Protestant proclivities, and little or no sympathy for Obama's efforts to re-shape American in his mental image (see e.g., this summary of the Obama healthcare bill).
The New Man Hermaphrodite
In response to my post two weeks ago about my son's disinclination to serve at Mass, a reader sent along this great piece from The Telegraph: Have you turned your man into a hermaphrodite?
If you require your partner to take the kids shopping for new ballet kit, take his turn at doing the laundry and make sure the fridge is stocked with Petit Filous, then you are effectively domesticating him to the point where his own instincts ”“ to protect and provide in the broader sense ”“ wither away, and, with them, any desire to put up a shelf, relag the boiler or do anything that might fall into the category of man's work.
And as for a thrilling sex life, forget it. He probably has a headache ”“ again. Alarming figures from Relate, the counselling and sex therapy organisation, reveal a 40 per cent increase in married men who are perfectly capable of having sex, but no longer want to. The mooted reason for this chronic loss of libido among men between 30 and 50? Changing roles for men and women in the workplace and the bedroom.
"The unfashionable truth is that men and women are different," says Kaye, author of The Divorce Doctor, who works with couples trying to save their relationships, as well as couples and individuals who are set on splitting up and want to do so amicably.
"Male and female employees might be interchangeable in the office, but at home, couples ”“ and women in particular ”“ need to acknowledge, respect and indeed celebrate their differences, otherwise men feel sidelined and retreat into themselves."
That last part seems crucial for double-income families, but I'm not sure how people pull it off. I have good friends who seem to pull it off just fine, though. For me, given my seven kids, it's easier if my wife and I simply divide things along traditional gender lines. The fighting decreases and the efficiency increases.
Related: I have long refused to attend wedding or baby showers. My wife threw a baby shower for my nephew's wife this last weekend, and my kids were kind of curious why no guys were going. I told them that it's a "chick thing," and they were fine with that explanation, but I took it one step further: "And if anyone ever says, 'Yeah, but the stuff the wife receives at the shower is for both spouses, so shouldn't he be at the shower too,' you should immediately concede the point . . . and then make sure the wife goes to the office with the husband on Monday morning. After all, the husband's earnings are for both spouses, too. Shouldn't she be there with him?"
The point, of course, is ludicrous, but my kids seemed to appreciate it. In our culture, the gender lines have been hopelessly blurred and we're seeing the effects. Once the lines aren't blurred anymore, I'll attend showers. I don't mind being counter-cultural, but I hate being dead . . . and dead things, GKC pointed out, flow with the stream. When the stream is something as nauseating as gender bending, I won't flow with it, much less drink from it.
