USA – Prawn of the Patriarchy

No new posts for many months – why?

Greetings and thanks to followers and/or supporters of this blog. Some of you might have noticed the lack of new posts for the past six or more months, and wondered if I had grown disinterested in the issues addressed herein …

Well, let’s flash back to December 2017. Imagine yours truly and family sitting in a Ford Mustang convertible parked on the side of the road in California. Though it was winter we had the top down and had pulled over to put some warm clothing on, or some such thing.

Sounds pretty cool huh?

Well yeah, but then an unlicensed/uninsured drunk slammed their car into the back of ours whilst they were barrelling along at highway speed. Both cars were write-offs. I have no memory of this, nor of the next couple of weeks of my life. The next thing I was aware of was sitting up in bed in what I thought was a bizarre looking motel room (who chose this place anyway?)

This was in fact the second hospital I had been admitted to by that stage. I learnt that I had been talking for a few days. I wish someone had taped that stuff … it could have been the meaning of life or something very insightful (joking). I was also told that I had been helped/taught to do everything beyond simply breathing. It was like someone had pushed a reset button on a laptop, and I was coming back online.

This unfortunate change of plans meant goodbye to our plans for a special Christmas dinner in Vancouver … and a whole lot more.

Anyway everyone survived, and luckily I was the only member of our family to receive more than cuts and bruises. So it would seem that god kept me alive to continue this blog. Either that or I was just lucky. But that doesn’t sound as profound so I’ll go with the former.

So my head’s been kind of fuzzy and I forgot all my passwords, and you could say that we’ve been rather tied up with medical, insurance and legal matters (unbelievably, only just winding up in August).

And updating this blog was one of the things that suffered.

OK, so what’s to learn from this episode?

1. Holidays can go from dreamy to nasty very quickly, so enjoy them while you can
2. Purchase travel insurance! And get it from a reliable provider. If we had not had travel insurance then this episode would have cost us more than US$300,000. Oh, and be sure to provide your partner with details at the start of your holiday, as it’s too late once you’re unconscious
3. Don’t anticipate getting compensated quickly, don’t expect the process to be easy, and don’t expect to cover all your costs. Our travel insurance claim took over five months to resolve (and was surprisingly time-consuming) and the court case took about seven months.

California has a Victims of Crime compensation process but it won’t address loss of personal property (and in our case for example, the rental car we were driving, and which was destroyed, was considered personal property). Even if the judge orders “restitution” as part of the sentencing process, as happened in our case, unfortunately there is no guarantee you will receive anything … let alone, anytime soon.

Apart from my family not being seriously injured, the only other good news was that the attitude of police/first responders and staff of the relevant District Attorney’s office was consistently respectful, helpful and positive.

Drive safely folks.

The 2017 Women’s March, Women’s Strike & other anti-Trump protests

As you are no doubt aware, in November 2016 the American people chose a new President. He’s a bit different from the previous one, and some people aren’t too happy about this. Piers Morgan provides further context in his article entitled:

Memo to millennials, that awful feeling you’ve got is called losing. It happens. If you want to know how to win, stop whinging for a bit and learn some lessons from Trump

In this post I have thrown together a few snippets concerning the troubling, unproductive and all-too-often violent leftist/SJW/feminist response to the democratic process …

Some related articles:

Women’s Marchers Say Pro-Lifers Can’t Be Feminists

Limo torched in anti-Trump protests belonged to Muslim immigrant who faces £80,000 bill

Commentary: After assault by inaugural protesters, a call to redefine nation’s character

Women’s March featured speaker who kidnapped, raped and tortured a man (with related Reddit discussion thread here)

Feminists should face their own flaws, not sneer at Melania Trump

Ann Widdecombe Calls Women’s March ‘Pathetic’ on Good Morning Britain (video)

College Professor Exposes Women’s March on Washington (video)

Dear Daughter: Here’s Why I Didn’t March For You by Mary Ramirez

Women’s march: #ButItsAboutEquality! by Hannah Wallen

White Women behaving badly by Janet Bloomfield

More divisive that Trump by Corrine Barraclough

About the organisers/speakers & celebrity hangers-on:

The celebrities shown here loathe Trump because of how he objectifies women

What others thought of the Women’s March and preceding protests:

Tangible outcomes of the Women’s March:

And after the Women’s March came the Women’s Strike on 8 March 2017:

A Day Without Women, A Defamation of Men (8 March 2017)

Meet the terrorist behind the next women’s march (25 February 2017) See related Reddit discussion thread here.

Women’s strike could be coming and history tells us what will happen by Jane Gilmore (8 February 2017)

Pray men never take a day off by Janet Bloomfield (18 September 2013)

Men’s studies = bad/negative but Women’s studies = good/positive

Regarding men’s studies

Firstly, let’s begin with details regarding all the men’s studies centres in Australia: <sound of crickets>

Now, picture this if you will … the University of South Australia considers establishing a number of new courses related to men’s health and well-being. Feminist writer gets wind of this and writes an article dumping on the idea (see articles listed below, and be sure to look at the readers comments). The University gets scared and back-pedals at 100 mph. Bye, bye, men’s studies course – which would have been an Australian first.

Conclusion? Clearly every university should have women’s studies courses because they are a wonderful and necessary initiative. Mens studies courses should, however, be opposed on the basis that they are redundant and wicked and can only serve to foment misogyny and advance the cause of the patriarchy. (Oh, and the same goes for student clubs/associations that focus on men’s issues.)

The solution? For feminists? Obstruct the creation of men’s studies courses, whilst (to avoid accusations of one-upmanship) rename women’s studies centres as gender studies centres. But there was no sudden move to jointly address male issues. No, they simply carried on exactly as before with an overwhelming gynocentric focus interspersed with the occasional message from some male feminist ally such as Michael Flood. Note the example here as to how well this new approach works out.

But back to what happened at the University of South Australia, a story which is told in the articles linked below and in accompanying readers comments:

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/lecturers-in-worldfirst-male-studies-course-at-university-of-south-australia-under-scrutiny/story-fni6uo1m-1226800150348

http://www.avoiceformen.com/allnews/university-of-south-australia-pulls-plug-on-male-studies-program/

http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/paul-elam-vs-michael-flood-on-male-studies/

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/concern-over-stifled-debate-on-male-studies/story-e6frgcjx-1226807161232#

http://guardianlv.com/2014/01/mens-rights-course-controversy-in-australian-university/

http://judgybitch.com/2014/01/14/male-studies-we-dont-need-male-studies-because-reasons/

University of Sydney Board blocks formation of men’s group (26 September 2014) Also addressed here, here and here, and with an even more patronising article about the proposal here

University: Lads, blokes and jocks not welcome (7 October 2014)

Resurrected from the void: video of feminist opposition to the Simon Fraser University Men’s Center (12 October 2014)

And as for overseas examples of Men’s Studies Centres? Well these tend to feature the examination of men and masculinity through the feminist lens. This article talks about one such place, the Stony Brook University ‘Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities’.

Regarding women’s studies

Let’s now have a look at a listing of women’s studies centres in Australia that were in existence when I first uploaded this post*:

Australian National University – Gender Studies M.Phil and Ph.D in Gender, Sexuality and Culture Australian National University – Gender Relations Project Centre for Research for Women (4 Australian universities)Edith Cowan University – Women’s Studies Major Flinders University of South Australia – Women’s Studies Programme Graduate Diploma in Gender and Development and an M.A. in Women’s Studies Macquarie University – Women’s Studies, Gender and Sexuality Program MPhil and PhD in Women’s Studies, Gender and Sexuality Monash University – Centre for Women’s Studies and Gender Research M.A. and Ph.D in Women’s Studies; Masters Qualifying Program University of Adelaide – Gender Studies M.A. and Ph.D. in Gender Studies University of Melbourne – Gender Studies M.A. and Ph.D in Gender Studies University of New England – Women’s and Gender Studies M.A. and Ph.D. in Women’s and Gender Studies University of New South Wales – Women’s and Gender Studies Program M.A. (By Research) and Ph.D. in Women’s and Gender Studies University of South Australia – Research Centre for Gender Studies University of Sydney – Department of Gender Studies MPhil and Ph.D in Gender Studies University of Western Australia – Women’s Studies M.A. and Ph.D. with concentration in Women’s Studies University of Wollongong – Master of Arts in Women’s Studies M.A. in Women’s Studies Victoria University – Gender Studies

(*It is likely that this list will be out-of-date by the time you read this, i.e. there will be even more of these courses out there)

Women’s Studies and Diversity: Where Are the Men? (23 December 2016)

University students doing courses on topics such as rape and misogyny are ‘to be given deadline extensions to help them recover from the upset of lectures’ (28 November 2016) UK

Undoing insularity: A small study of Gender Sociology’s big problem, by Charlotta Stern (Econ Journal Watch, Vol 13, No. 3, September 2016)

Oh, Academia: The best and worst of gender studies papers (28 June 2016)

Apparently my school needs a Women and Gender Studies program “Because two thirds of our student population are female” (6 February 2016) Reddit discussion thread and linked article

What Women’s Studies Teaches (15 January 2016)

How Gender Feminism became the new Creationism (18 December 2014)

Gender bias and science (16 December 2014) Ireland

Shut Up, because Rape (2 October 2014)

Womens and gender studies in Ireland and beyond (16 August 2014)

University shuts down women’s studies centre after ‘How to be a Lesbian’ controversy (19 May 2014) Don’t miss the humorous readers comments

Nordic countries defund gender ideology (12 March 2013)

Why do so few men take gender studies courses? (20 November 2012)

You can’t deny it: Gender studies is full of male-blaming bias (14 September 2011)
10. Myth: Women’s Studies Departments empowered women and gave them a voice in the academy
Fact: Women’s Studies empowered a small group of like-minded careerists. They have created an old-girl network that is far more elitist, narrow and closed than any of the old-boy networks they rail against. Vast numbers of moderate or dissident women scholars have been marginalized, excluded and silenced.

(Essential reading: everything by Camille Paglia; Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge–Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women’s Studies; and Christina Hoff Sommers–Who Stole Feminism? How Women have Betrayed Women)

The Girl Hunt: Urban Nightlife and the Performance of Masculinity as Collective Activity (2007) An example of the great stuff produced by those working in the field of gender studies.

And some news from North American, Canada and the U.K

Professing feminism : cautionary tales from the strange world of women’s studies (1994) USA

Wyoming Senate Votes To Defund Gender Studies Program At University Of Wyoming (1 March 2022)

Only University Men’s Officer in U.K. Forced to Step Down After SJW Harassment (26 October 2018)

Hungary bans gender studies from universities (10 August 2018)

Camille Paglia Says that Women’s and Gender Studies Departments Should be Defunded (18 October 2017)

College Gender Gap: Women Earn More Degrees AND Get Special Treatment (31 May 2017)

Public university gave $296,498 to gender equity, LGBTQ centers — $0 to Students for Life: suit (18 May 2017)

University students union blocks move to set up Men’s Rights group (16 May 2017) UK

All-Female Social Groups May Keep ‘Gender Focus’ for at Least Three Years (29 March 2017) USA

Barbara Kay: A man who’ll stand up for the rights of other men (and boys) on campus and in society (21 March 2017)