Charles Davenport: Women of enlightenment
If an all-male hockey team were to play a game against an all-female team, on which club would you place your 20 bucks? If you believe a male victory is a foregone conclusion, you need not apologize; you are neither a “misogynist” (one who hates women) nor a defender of the “patriarchy” (a male-dominated system). There is no harm in acknowledging reality, but potentially much harm in denying it.
The aforementioned hockey game is not purely theoretical. Two weeks ago, as chronicled by Ed Hardin, the all-male Hillsborough Chiefs took on the all-female Greensboro Hookers, and the result was about what most of us would expect: The Chiefs won, 7-1. The only real surprise is that the women avoided a shutout.
The reality of which I write, and which most of us acknowledge, is that men and women are not equal. I am not suggesting that one gender is superior to the other; only that men and women have different aptitudes and preferences, different roles to play. An efficient and orderly society requires the contributions of men and women alike.
Jessica Custer, state chairwoman of the Network of Enlightened Women (NeW), explains the matter succinctly, in refreshingly anti-feminist terms: “Men and women are genetically, socially and intellectually different. Their differences should not be ignored by an over-regulatory government. Sex differences should be celebrated and encouraged. Men should be encouraged to be men, and women to be women.”
Custer grabbed my attention last month with a feisty letter to the editor about Title IX, legislation which, she argues, “ignores the possibility that more men than women actually want to participate in athletics.” Custer also asserts that Title IX disregards “the differences between men and women and demands a quota system that favors one group at the expense of another.”
Because of Title IX, Custer writes, “Women’s teams suffer as untalented players join the roster for the sake of making quotas and a team loses its collective competitiveness.” The same argument could be applied, with far graver consequences, to police departments, fire departments and the military. Women (and minorities) are coveted tokens of the “diversity” industry at all levels of government.
If your house goes up in flames and 10 big, burly men arrive to fight the fire, will you impede their progress on the grounds that the firefighting unit lacks “gender diversity”? Of course not. In fact, you would probably be grateful that men, rather than women, were on the scene.
All of this strikes me as common sense, although some may consider it an “old-fashioned” or “antiquated” way of looking at gender roles. On a university campus, my philosophy would be called “misogynist,” or “patriarchal,” and possibly even condemned as “hate speech.” Happily, even at the modern university, there remain young women who embrace traditional gender roles.
The Network of Enlightened Women exists as a safe haven on campus for young ladies who recoil from feminist thinking. NeW, Custer says, “is dedicated to challenging the liberal status quo on campuses by embracing femininity and masculinity, valuing motherhood and families, rejecting the victimhood mentality that dominates feminism, and helping women engage their communities.”
NeW is a book club that was formed five years ago by Karin Agness at the University of Virginia. Its weekly meetings are designed to educate and teach leadership skills to young ladies Custer describes as “culturally conservative women.” In North Carolina, NeW is active at UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State and Meredith College, with plans to form a chapter at UNCG. (Interested students should contact Jessica Custer: Jessica@enlightenedwomen.org.)
North Carolina’s NeW chapters are co-sponsoring an appearance by Fox News commentator and author Mary Katharine Ham at Meredith College on Jan. 27. Ham will speak at 7 p.m. on the topic, “NeW Wave Feminism: Girl Power without Government.” The event is free and open to the public.
Charles Davenport Jr. (cdavenportjr@hotmail.com) is a freelance columnist who appears alternate Sundays in the News & Record.
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