Rebecca Rickett has a very interesting article in the new Square Two publication ( http://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleRickettGender.html ) regarding how society is forcing women towards androgyny. (and if I misrepresent what she’s written, I apologize in advance).

She suggests that the current feminist movement is wrong in the methods used to achieve good goals. Unintentionally, they seek to make women into men, which they can never really succeed at becoming.  We are not talking about women getting equal pay for equal work, but at the concept that women’s natural capabilities (reproduction, etc) are viewed negatively, while the competitive nature of men in business is now what is expected of liberated women.

The disdain that many have towards natural gender differences has been a major cause of shrinking birth rates in industrialized nations, as women hold off on having children until they are older (or never have them), seeing it as a hidden tax on their ability to be like men.

A secondary problem is that it confuses gender roles for men and children as well.  Having more competition, men must either become more masculine in order to compete against androgynous women, or more feminine in order to find a less competitive place that many women have walked away from. Neither of which is beneficial to society nor the norms of gender.

There are ways for women to have greater rights and responsibilities. However, Rickett notes that it is not by making men out of women, nor is it by confusing roles.  She compares it to a race among three nations, where the winning group has both men and women running as best each can, and carrying the weak along with them.
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The anger at what is happening to the United States is palpable. Debt rising, gas prices rising, bailouts to banks “too big to fail” who then have employees earning ten times more than middle-class houses cost, getting taxed to pay for out of control boondoggle waste and “entitlement” spending, caring more for illegal aliens than the safety of citizens. Can this craziness be stopped or is Egypt the new normal?

All of these problems ignited a firestorm. A large group of the voting public gathered together to form the un-organized Tea Party (Taxed Enough Already) movement. In 2010 the fruits of this tireless venture came in the form of taking over the House and coming close to doing the same in the Senate. Critics call them “obstructionists,” and true followers wouldn’t doubt that for a minute. They are proud of blocking the government from doing anything more at every possible turn. If it can be slowed down to a crawl, or outright stopped, then the next step would be turning back the economic doomsday clock.

Then something happened during the Republican fight for the right to run for the Presidency. They imploded and became insufferable. Instead of fielding the best and brightest, all the good ones stayed out of the fray. What remained was the B team. Instead of turning inward and asking why no one of respectable stature wanted in (a question that is hard to answer), they fought like Berserkers against the shadow enemy of Romney and the Republican establishment. Early claims aside, Obama and the Democrats became a second thought. They seemed to have lost their minds and in the process me as well. Continue reading →

In general I reject the 99 percent-1 percent divide, but it is useful to illustrate an important economic principle. That principle is: how do we truly give the most power to the 99 percent?

Taking money from the rich by force is a temporary measure that can easily create a new class of 1 percent and give no real power to the masses. This is easy to show: In 1915, the Russian czar and various Russian cronies had the majority of the wealth and nearly all of the power, and the 99 percent had nearly none. By 1935, Stalin and various cronies had the majority of the wealth and nearly all of the power, and the 99 percent still had none. So, changing bosses does not solve anything.

The real solution is to come up with a way to give the 99 percent the power. And it is the market that redistributes power best of all. In a truly free market, consumers have the majority of the power and the 1 percent live in constant fear of losing what they have. A truly free market — without government interference — empowers the majority.

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Lesson 17 is now available. It discusses Ammon finding the people of Limhi, the story of Zeniff and the beginning of Noah’s story.

http://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2012/04/book-of-mormon-lesson-17-seer-becometh.html

Read there / Comment here!