|
Jewish World Review Sept. 15, 2000/ 14 Elul, 5760
Marianne M. Jennings
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
WELL, LA DE DA. Little Gloria Steinem was a bride last week. So many
comedic lines, so little column space. Was she registered for the Lorena
Bobbitt steak knives? Abstinence got old at age 66? The Oklahoma wedding
was held at the home of Ms. Steinem's friend, Wilma Mankiller. There's the
stuff of romance novels: An Okie wedding at the Mankiller Bed, Breakfast and
Feminist Wedding Chapel.
Yes, the Katharina of our times, the shrew herself, who eschewed marriage
as an inequality, (In response to questions about her longstanding
relationship with Mort Zuckerman, she replied she would "never" be "legally
married" and equated it to "death") found her soul mate in David Bale, a
male, which seems to be a source of irritation among NOW comrades and the
tourism industry of Vermont. Mr. Bale, 61, is on his third soul mate,
marriage-wise.
Ms. Steinem is an irritating activist, cut from the same cloth as Jane
Fonda. They are icons for women and causes despite the fact that their lives
have been a perpetual adolescence. Like inexperienced 16-year-olds with
issues and attitudes, they weave their ways through social movements, fads
and hairdos never once pausing for reflection on the wisdom of the ages nor
comprehending the damage their feckless values and antics cause to
institutions they will eventually embrace. They are clueless bimbos
protected by a false mantle of revolution and adulation of social deviants
who see them as justifications for doing whatever their little hearts desire.
Completely self-absorbed, they trot through life wreaking havoc. When their
misguided follies dawn on them, they will offer the ditz's words of regret,
"Never mind!"
Ms. Steinem did a stint as a Playboy bunny and railed about its
wretchedness. There were those of us who had already gleaned, from
discussions with parents, business travelers and street walkers, that
trotting about a club serving drinks while clad in spike heels and a ¾-length
tube top might not be pleasant or fulfilling.
Ms. Steinem met the new Mr. Steinem at a pro-abortion rally, a cause she
ranks as the cornerstone of civilization. Many of us figured long ago that
taking the body from a state of reproduction to one cleansed of all moral
responsibility by suction and dismemberment might not be good for the body or
soul. Recent studies presented at the American Psychological Association
document the psychological damage abortion causes young women. For years the
studies on the relationship between abortion and increased breast cancer risk
have been suppressed. When the truth about abortion's damage is permitted to
surface, what will Gloria et al. do? Feign regret?
After a decades long journey, Mrs. Bale, or is it Ms. Steinem-Bale? Or is it
still Ms. Steinem? Mrs. Gloria Rodham Bale?, assures us that what she meant
all along in her Ms. musings and NOW activism was, "We're at an age when
marriage can be chosen and not expected. Marriage is also much more equal
under the law. . . . I'm happy, surprised and one day will write about it,
but for now, I hope this proves what feminists have always said --- that
feminism is about the ability to choose what's right at each time of our
lives." This from the woman who had this diddy read at her 50th birthday
party:
Here are a couple of birthday wishes
Would that be the happily married Nancy Reagan and Phyllis Schlafly? Mrs.
Bale has redrafted her principles of feminism for her current whim. After
driving women into sexual promiscuity, children into lives of insecurity and
often violence because of the lack of fathers in homes, and placing a pox
upon women who chose marriage and family, this rampallian now tells us,
"Never mind." If she tries to adopt a child at age 66, I shall campaign to
eliminate women's suffrage.
Mrs. Bale would have my respect if she reflected thoughtfully, upon
getting hitched, something that those of us who outgrew adolescence before
Social Security kicked in already know: women and men need marriage and are
better off as man and wife. The Bard understood this principle in penning
his play about Katharina's taming. In common law England women were nothing
more than chattels, but still fulfilled in marriage, and not as bitter
spinsters with smart mouths.
It's a shame that in between books, lectures and other forms of
self-righteous nagging, that Ms. Steinem-Bale didn't chat with a few folks
other than NOW groupies. We could have filled her in on the benefits of
marriage for women. Sometimes we old wives have the answer. It's just that
Ms. Steinem cost us our credibility for years. Now, as it were, she joins
us. She's one old wife, eh? As for her proposed book on marriage? Forget
it! We've had the manual on marriage, happiness and fulfillment for
centuries. We Biancas didn't need the shrew's conversion. We can dust off
our marriage primer and bring it back into the light of day for the heartless
wench is wed and now blesses
09/09/00: Why rich folk don't bother me none
|