The Banalization and Infantilization of Women Redux

... or once a troglodytesse lactation consultant, always a troglodytesse lactation consultant

I hate to say "I told you so" more than once in a month, but didn't I tell you just nine days ago that Sarah Palin was bound to flop because women are jealous of her? I did? Fine!

Now I came across a website (cum blog) of the "questions have been raised", "claims have been made" and "rumors ran rampant" sort where the attempt is made to "prove" that not Sarah, but her daughter Bristol Palin gave birth to Trig, the youngest Palin offspring. No link from me. Please google for "palin deception". There we have one (are we amazed?) woman who has bothered to register a domain to then lumber it with endless proof of how clever she is.

My husband and I are not "left wing bloggers," "conspiracy theorists," or otherwise fruitcakes. I am a childbirth labor coach, a published author in the childbirth field, and a lactation consultant; my husband is a physician who has, until this election, always voted Republican. So we're hardly coming from left field.

People hate to be found out about what makes them tick. Any catty old Ms. Stiletto Heel is adamant that she is not just a vile lump of jealousy, but really "cares" about some higher cause and every antisemite has "Jewish friends". What would YOU call a woman ("I am a lactation consultant...") who browses through virtual piles and piles of photos to gawp at another woman's breasts? A woman whom she doesn't know and will never meet? So Palin's doctor refused to make a statement? I realize that things are handled differently in America, but in Germany she'd be stripped off her licence as quickly as she could say "Sarah Palin" should she dare making a "statement". Maybe, just maybe, there are doctors in America as well who adhere to a minumum code of professional ethics? And there are no birth pictures? "OB floors routinely keep disposable cameras for families that might come in unexpectedly and not have one." Maybe the Palin family isn't into that sort of cute-ism? Maybe it took them some time to cope with the reality of a handicapped child?

No one is expecting to see explicit videos [Really not?], but just ONE spontaneous "family" photo of the Governor, looking a bit less perky than normal [That's the heart of the matter, isn't it?], in a hospital bed holding her new baby, surrounded by her family would have shut this entire thing down instantly.

Why the Palin family should want to refute such a preposterous claim, a claim not logically impossible but so improbable by any standard of common sense that it makes the mind boggle, is beyond me.

And no, this is not just one woman who has too much empty hours to fill, this is a big matter. Just go and google for "palin deception" or "palin lies". What a pity Google Trends does not deliver the sex of an online searcher together with his location and language. As it is, my theory of women as "the silly sex" sadly remains a theory, albeit a pretty credible one.

Ilana Mercer elaborates in an article with that title plus a question mark about women's cultural and scientifical achievements or the lack thereof:

In fairness, the legal emancipation of women only began in earnest in the 19th century—a situation that parallels the predicament of the Jews.
[...]
But where have women been since 1950? Over the last five decades women, who make up roughly 50 percent of the world's population, have claimed only 2 percent of the Nobel Prizes in the sciences. In literature, women have claimed only 8 percent. No woman has won a Nobel in economics.

During that period Jews, who comprise less than 0.5 percent the world's population, have claimed 32 percent of the Nobel Prizes for medicine, 32 percent for physics, 39 percent for economics and 29 percent of all science awards.

One possible explanation for this discrepancy: the alleged greater variability in men’s intelligence. The “Bell Curve” of their IQ distribution seems to be less bunched around the median IQ than that of women...

[...]

However, Professor Richard Lynn, co-author of IQ And The Wealth Of Nations, argues that men enjoy an advantage in average IQ—their median may be as much as five points above that of women...

The other popular but less credible explanation involves the equal-but-different approach to aptitude. Men are better at math, spatial and mechanical reasoning; women at verbal skills. Women’s mathematical reasoning might not be as good as men’s on average but women, according to this theory, make up for it with superior verbal fluency and artistic flair.

My following observations, if accurate, may simply be a matter of lesser intelligence, but I think there is more to it. As much as by a lower IQ or an "equal but different" (which has a painfully politically correct whining to it) status, women are, I think, held back by their inability to see things detached from their own point of view. If THEY haven't experienced it, it doesn't exist. If THEY have suffered it, it's the issue mankind has to tackle first and foremost. Their judgement is driven by personal likes and dislikes and they tend to be deeply jealous of other women. Of women who are, like Palin, goodlooking, healthy, happy and successful and they spend a lot of time, energy and intelligence -- time, energy and intelligence that could be used for more productive causes -- to change that. To the women not as lucky, they "relate". The Internet is full of it and the epithets "drama queen" and "attention whore" do not carry for nothing a female connotation. All this may be rooted in some primeval self-preservation instinct, but ... so?

The old troglodytesse is still alive and kicking, and most in those who consider themselves most refined.


Women DO.

"Sarah Palin's Lies" found at Lawrence Auster's View from the Right.