Another post in the series on the feminist men. As you have probably noticed, I have a keen interest in history, especially history of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The more I learn, the more I understand that the roots of our modern problems go back at least to the Victorian times, and that includes feminism, too. It has become fashionable to solely blame women for feminism, while a lot of feminists have been men.
One would ask why did they choose to surrender their authority to women? The answer is simple, by doing so, they hoped to avoid the traditional male responsibilities of providing for one's family and fighting in wars, however, as the story I'm going to tell you shows, their feminism was a bad defence in the times of trouble.
While reading about the Easter Rising in Ireland, I found a very interesting story of a feminist man called Francis Sheehy- Skeffington, who suffered for the sins he hadn't committed.
Francis was a feminist, a pacifist and a writer. He was born in 1878, in the times of Queen Victoria, and though a Victorian, he was thoroughly modern in his ideas. In fact, he just as well could have been a modern Western liberal. You have probably noticed his unusual hyphenated surname. It's not because he was an aristocrat, but because when he married, he took on his wife's name. According to Wikipedia, Francis was an ardent proponent of women's rights, and organised a campaign for the female admittance to the Dublin University.
Though feminists tell us that all women before 1968 were always chained to their kitchens, the wife of Mr Sheehy-Skeffington was an exception, since she not only continued to work after her marriage, but was the primary breadwinner as well. While she taught school, her husband was busy campaigning for women's rights, not only in Britain, but also abroad, in France and USA.
Francis was against fighting in wars so in the beginning of WWI he campaigned against recruitment for which offence he spent 6 months in prison. When Easter Rising began in 1916, Francis as a pacifist stayed home, while his wife went to the barricades. Francis wasn't a bad man really, he tried to prevent looting and helped a wounded British soldier, but all this didn't save him. He was arrested as an insurgent sympathiser, and speedily executed without a trial.
His wife never suffered anything for her illegal activities and was even offered a pension by the British government for the unlawful killing of her husband, which she refused. By some reason, I found this story peculiar. Makes me think of a proverb, whistling girls and crowing hens (and male feminists) always come to some bad ends.
If you are interested, read the whole story of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington over here.
I don't know; I suspect a lot of men gave up, when faced with their own wives demanding the vote, etc., to have peace in the household, following the mindset of 'just let her have what she wants, and she'll be happy, and life will be peaceful', not realizing that if in fact they resisted, their wives would actually respect them more in the long term.
ReplyDeleteAs for war, I don't think the draft is a good idea, nor do I like the mindset that whenever one's state calls for men to enlist, that men should automatically do so. The state often fights in pointless, meaningless wars that just end up in a lot of men getting killed for little gain - the War of 1812, for instance, here in North America, didn't do anything other than consolidate already agreed-upon territorial claims; with the treaty that ended the war, there was no net change of territory (both sides had conquered some, but ended up turning it back over), and so a lot of fine young men died for naught, practically speaking. I think if you have a volunteer force, who want to fight, rather than men being conscripted or shamed socially into fighting, you'll end up with more willing soldiers and less desertions, and will ultimately have a better armed forces, better positioned to win wars. Of course, states picking and choosing wisely which wars they will engage in, and perhaps aiming to avoid war as much as possible, following Christian, Just War principles, etc., may gain more respect for the government and the military, and lead more men to voluntarily enlist, if the cause appears just.
Will, I agree about pointless, meanigless wars, however, in every society on Earth defending the commonwealth and fighting in wars has always been a man's responsibility. Opposing a particular unjust war isn't equal to being pacifist.
ReplyDeleteFeminism is a misleading word since it suggests that it's something uniquely for women, while there were male feminists and female traditionalists, what I'm attempting to show with the post above. Francis didn't give up because he was a hen-pecked husband, he had been a feminist from the very beginning and found a wife who went along with his ideas.
I'm sure that when our men will become men again, women will fall in line, so to speak:)
And yes, a volunteer army is probably a better solution, however, one thing I noticed is that when Cold War was officially over and draft was abolished, the army right away became much more politically correct, so I don't know. I don't think that several months of basic military training for young men of 18 is really such a bad idea. At that age, they'll probably enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteCertainly, fighting in wars is men's responsibility; women in active combat roles has been disastrous; see Jessica Lynch and Lynndie England in America, for example...
ReplyDeleteWars of defense are almost certainly always just ones, unquestionably right and proper for men to enlist in, generally. Other wars, I generally find more questionable.
I think the problem with the army going too PC, is simply a matter of bureaucratic infestation; that is, typical leftist and feminist values infiltrating into the military realm, over time, which was likely inevitable once feminism and leftism had gained such sway...
I do recognize, as you rightly point out, that we've always had our feminists, both men and women, amongst us, from at least Victorian times onwards, if not earlier (Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, wanted the American constitution to declare legal equality of the sexes).
Indeed; America lost its sense of purpose since the end of the Cold War, and has been adrift, making its military subsequently prey to the machinations of the social engineers, hence women and gays in its ranks; and now chaplains for atheists...
ReplyDeleteNot only America, unfortunately!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I think most of the West, alas...
ReplyDeleteWe seem to need an enemy to keep functioning properly:)
ReplyDeleteHmmm, maybe that's by design; after all, as Christians, we have the world, the devil, and the flesh, as constant enemies... :)
ReplyDelete