The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Lena Dunham and the Politics of Vagina

Posted on | November 14, 2013 | 241 Comments

“If you’ve ever watched Girls or have been aware of the things Lena Dunham says, you’d see a portrait of narcissism and entitlement. …
“It is the idea that the women on the show are entitled to men wanting them. Despite any flaw — whether it be physical, emotional, or a lack of accomplishments — they are owed a relationship with a man. Based on this premise, any poor behavior or lack of interest in their appearance cannot be the cause of why he didn’t call back.”
— Amy Otto, Nov. 12

“Why is it that every single issue of Cosmo has a ‘how to masturbate’ article or a ‘how to have better orgasms’ article or some variation thereof? And why are these magazines in racks at the supermarket checkout line, so that the minute your kids learn to read, they’re confronted with cover-blurb headlines like ‘Super Sex Secrets to Drive Him Wild’? …
“If you’re not happy with your sex life, you’re not going to find the answer in Cosmo.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, June 28

More than a century ago, Karl Marx’s colleague Friedrich Engels first used the term “false consciousness,” a concept that was developed by later Marxist-Leninist thinkers to explain why the proletariat failed to respond to communist calls for violent revolution. Workers who did not share the Marxist sense of class struggle — who did not share the radical agenda of overthrowing the bourgeois state, abolishing religion and the market economy — were said to be in the throes of false consciousness. Opponents of Marxist revolution, it was said, were deficient in knowledge of the historical processes of material development, and therefore influenced by “myths,” including the belief that they might improve their condition under the existing industrial capitalist system.

What does this have to do with Lena Dunham’s vagina? Everything.

Dunham’s show is a sort of propaganda for postmodern feminism, and Amy Otto critically examines the tenets of this ideology:

So since the central conceit of feminism (that one is owed a man’s attention) cannot be questioned — yet results in women being quite incapable of sustaining a relationship — we must pretend that obtaining said relationship is no longer important. We wouldn’t want to dispute the tenets of feminism:

  • He should love you and put up with any behavior you throw at him.  Its “quirky” and not deranged that you question him about everything he feels at every moment.
  • You don’t have to be particularly accomplished or worthy of his time. Being a woman is enough. You go, girl!
  • You are as beautiful as a supermodel no matter who you are — and men who dare to seek out a woman of similar or slightly higher attractiveness are craven idiots. You deserve a man as handsome as you would like him to be.
  • If it’s something that females experience, everyone else should pay for it too.
  • Corporations purposely pursue “sexist” strategies to exclude 50% of the market. Society is so inherently sexist that profit comes after the deliberate exclusion of women.

I say all these things as someone who was fed this nonsense by our culture and who partially bought into it for years — years of being single I might add.

You should read the whole thing, because her point is that beliefs about sex and relationships — beliefs influenced by popular culture, including Cosmo magazine and TV shows like Lena Dunham’s Girls — have a meaningful impact on politics. This is why free-market advocates are mistaken if they think they can win the War of Ideas strictly by making libertarian arguments for economic freedom, while ignoring the so-called “social issues” that are involved in the Culture War.

Yes, there are pro-choice lesbians who embrace economic liberty, but when you start examining electoral demographics and opinion polling, you find a strong correlation between the bourgeois lifestyle (marriage, religion, property) and the bourgeois belief system. Anyone who has examined exit polls understands that the “gender gap” could more accurately be called the “marriage gap” or the “religion gap”; disadvantages for Republicans among women voters are mainly a function of whether women are married and attend church regularly.

In 2012, 53% of married women voted for Romney, whereas 67% of unmarried women voted for Obama. While the published exit poll data did not correlate gender and church attendance, we do know that those who attend religious services weekly (whether male or female) voted 59% for Romney, whereas those who never attend church voted 62% for Obama. Those who believe that abortion should always be legal voted 76% for Obama; those who believe abortion should always be illegal vote 79% for Romney.

‘Giddy, Sex-Starved and Desperate’

There are some who look at data like that and draw the incorrect inference: “Social issues are hurting Republicans! The party is too beholden to the Religious Right!” But ask yourself this: Do the irreligious, the unmarried and the pro-abortion voters otherwise support the Republican agenda? Or, as I believe could be demonstrated — if sufficiently detailed data were available — is it the case that support for economic freedom is strongly associated with the bourgeois values represented by poll data on marriage and church attendance?

And don’t you think Democrats know this?

Annica Benning says this controversial ad for ObamaCare “portray[s] women as giddy, sex-starved and desperate”:

Amy Runyon-Harms, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, defended them, saying: “People get upset when you portray women as independent.”
That is interesting — independence can now be defined based on sexual promiscuity?
In fact, the underlying message is not independence, as government-funded birth control doesn’t convey any form of personal independence, certainly not financially.

But that’s just it, see? Democrats want women to be “independent” from men — i.e., unmarried — so that they will then be dependent on government. And if these allegedly “independent” women are “giddy, sex-starved and desperate,” they’ll eventually need a scapegoat to blame for their miserable loneliness: Blame the oppressive patriarchy! Blame “corporate America”! Blame Republicans!

Defining “independence . . . based on sexual promiscuity” not only undermines marriage, but it also (a) results in women being infected with diseases, for which they require medical treatment, (b) creates demand for legalized abortion, and (c) fosters unwed motherhood, with more children growing up in poverty. The propaganda of Lena Dunham thereby helps grow the Democrat Party coalition.

And what about basic Judeo-Christian bourgeois morality, which Engels derided as “false consciousness”? It’s not just about sex, you know. The strongest possible condemnation of the liberal Welfare State can be summarized in four words: Thou shalt not steal.

It is fundamentally wrong to demand that government give you “free stuff” you have not earned, paid for by the taxes of people who work hard for their money. Amy Otto notices the “narcissism and entitlement” in Girls, which we might also call simple selfishness.

An irresponsible, self-centered attitude — Veruca Salt demanding, “I want it now” — is really what contemporary feminism is all about. Disassemble the ideological infrastructure, get past all the elaborate pseudo-intellectual rhetoric, and feminism is about the avoidance of responsibility: “Bad things happen to me because . . . sexism!”

It’s like the lazy young hippie punk with no skills who nevertheless refuses to take a “dead end job” at a fast-food restaurant because he’s not about cooperating with The Capitalist System, man.

‘A Culture of Complete Anarchy’

The same bourgeois morality that discourages sexual promiscuity also encourages hard work, thrift and honesty. Values matter, and the values upon which the American republic was founded were not the values celebrated by Lena Dunham’s Girls.

If America is to endure, to find the strength of will necessary to recover from the disastrous policies of the Obama administration, it will need a faith powerful enough to inspire courage. Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle has a few words:

Rather than moral absolutes governing what’s right or wrong, Driscoll said that there’s a general view that people should be true to themselves — that they should essentially stand by their feelings and desires.
“We’ve shifted from a worldview where there is a God who makes laws, and they apply to you, to whether or not there is a God it does not matter — ‘I don’t recognize any laws external to me. The only thing that guides me is my own internal convictions,’” he said. “Authority has shifted from external to internal, from God to me. And what you end up with is not a discussion of morality but a defense of personality. And that’s the world we live in.”
Driscoll believes that there is “a culture of complete anarchy in the name of tolerance and diversity.”
“One in four women sexual assaulted, one in six men, people that are sexually addicted, sexually assaulted, sexually abused, rampant debt, broken families, suicidal,” he told TheBlaze. “The number one category of prescription medication is antidepressants. Somebody’s gotta stand up and say, ‘This ain’t working — we gotta try something else.’”

If we are heading toward “a culture of complete anarchy,” why? Because we have rejected “a God who makes law,” so that the law is whatever we want it to be, including a law that compels insurance companies to let you stay on your parents’ policy until you’re 26, including a law that compels pro-life Christians to pay taxes used to fund abortion and contraception for irresponsible women who don’t want to pay for the consequences of their degenerate lifestyle.

The Politics of Vagina — the “narcissism and entitlement” celebrated in Lena Dunham’s Girls — is defended by feminists for the same reason ProgressNow Colorado promotes “independence . . . based on sexual promiscuity.” Democrats know who votes for them and why, and they know that “a culture of complete anarchy,” without morality or religion, will yield more votes for Democrats.

Of course, this culture will also destroy America as we know it, but destroying America as we know it is what Democrats are all about.




 

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

 

 


Category: Abortion, Culture, Feminism, Marriage, Religion, Sex

Comments

241 Responses to “Lena Dunham and the Politics of Vagina”

  1. Paul Hacker
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:01 am

    So does all of this explain Hillary and Bill?

  2. argumatronic
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:01 am

    This is why I wish libertarians wouldn’t reject SoCons out of hand. Lena Dunham and the Politics of Vagina http://t.co/z0vUsmwzut #tlot

  3. Denton Salle
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:06 am

    Wait. Dunham? sexy? I wouldn’t hit someone like that dead drunk. She’s physically unattractive but then the personality come in and we’re reaching coyote ugly,

  4. Nick Farrinaci
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:11 am

    The society that the Pastor is talking about is summed by the phrase “nothing is true; everything is permitted”. In other words, extreme nihilism (along with narcissism) that destroys social fabric and remaining social capital this culture still has. All declining culture lose the basic faith in their own core values before outside reality comes crashing down upon them.

    This is coming from someone who is not religious, but we are fools if we pretend values don’t matter.

  5. Wayne Swanson
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:15 am

    I think Karen Straughan is far sexier than Lena Dumbass.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/girlwriteswhat

  6. Sex, Soma, and Slaves | Jaskology
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:17 am

    […] All of this has happened before. But must all of it happen again? […]

  7. Micha Elyi
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:20 am

    As a friend of mine has put it, the Sexual Revolution is over, and men won.
    –Dana

    Good luck finding a sober friend, honey.

    The so-called Sexual Revolution, like Feminism, has always been an intramural war of female against female. Men have been caught in the crossfire but because they are considered disposable, men are dismissed as collateral damage.

  8. Micha Elyi
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:25 am

    Correct answer: “No, your butt makes your butt look fat.”

    (No female deserves unconditional love unless she’s willing to give it.)

    P.S. Somewhere close to “Hints don’t work” on the list of Things Men Wish Females Could Understand is “Don’t ask the question if you don’t want to hear the answer.”

  9. Montgomery Draxel
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:27 am

    No, the correct answer is “Look, a squirrel!” and then when she turns to look, you run out the nearest door.

  10. kentercat
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:37 am

    Dunham reminds me of a number of other ugly women under 40 who are alone, messed up, fat, and desperate for attention. They can’t be pretty, so they go for trashy. They get bi and kiss other girls at parties to get men to look at them twice. Anything, ANYTHING, to be regarded as being as sexy as the nice and much more pretty girl who doesn’t have to lift a finger or uncross her legs to get attention. This is Dunham’s and other ugly women’s way of pretending they are “as good as” by being much worse than.
    It’s stupid, pathetic, infantile, dysfunctional, and completely idiotic. It’s also human nature, or at least feminine nature, though there are plenty of douchebags who are just as guilty of it.

  11. kgbudge
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:48 am

  12. DANEgerus
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:50 am

    ‘Girls’ a portrait of narcissism and entitlement http://t.co/BmnfikQTNz owed a relationship

  13. Guest
    November 15th, 2013 @ 12:54 am

    Gah! No! I haven’t had any since God was a kid and there isn’t enough alcohol in the world to entice me into her bed.

  14. Jason Lee
    November 15th, 2013 @ 1:02 am

    Democrats are determined to destroy the American family and all the ancillary institutions that support it. Brilliant job connecting all these dots this way, RSM.

  15. Fifty Ville
    November 15th, 2013 @ 1:19 am

    Take a look at this. This is Girls from the point of view of the other half of Lena Dunhams’ one night stand.

  16. Armistead Farquaharson
    November 15th, 2013 @ 1:27 am

    Or as the old Aussie Softdrink ad showed, the proper response is “Well, yeh, but at least it draws attention away from your face.”

  17. Fifty Ville
    November 15th, 2013 @ 1:27 am

    And a big, fat Oy!

  18. mouell
    November 15th, 2013 @ 1:29 am

    I find it hilarious that younger and healthier folks like Sandra Fluke, champions of Obamacare, will now get to pay and addition $200 per month in premiums, so as to receive $12 dollars per month in free birth control pills….. Bwahahahahahaha…..

  19. norathorn
    November 15th, 2013 @ 2:02 am

    Lena Dunham and the Politics of Vagina http://t.co/s9VZCkAIdh

  20. Scott Anderson
    November 15th, 2013 @ 2:51 am

    No honey, your butt makes your butt look fat.

    One of these deadpanned, and you’ll never get the question again.

    Totally worth the one night of sleeping in your car.

  21. Friday news and opinions | Walla Walla TEA Party Patriots
    November 15th, 2013 @ 3:18 am

    […] Lena Dunham and the Politics of Vagina […]

  22. Girls and boys going out to play | Law of Markets
    November 15th, 2013 @ 3:34 am

    […] A fascinating article by Stacey McCain on the moralities of our age. This is how the article ends, edited to limit outraged sensibilities, mostly my own. But a very interesting and sober read from start to finish. This is the finish: […]

  23. Adjoran
    November 15th, 2013 @ 4:35 am

    It’s rather crude to keep referring to “Lena Dunham’s vagina.”

    Better to call it by its affectionate nickname, “Smegmara.”

  24. Lee Reynolds
    November 15th, 2013 @ 5:24 am

    This is what EVIL looks like folks.

  25. Lee Reynolds
    November 15th, 2013 @ 5:40 am

    Sad thing is, Dunham isn’t ugly. She’s no Adriana Lima, but she’s not unpleasant looking.

    Then again, it doesn’t matter how adequate a girl’s looks are if she FEELS ugly, and few things are more destructive to a person’s sense of self than a toxic value system.

  26. Lee Reynolds
    November 15th, 2013 @ 5:40 am

    So it was with Rome and so it is with us.

  27. Lee Reynolds
    November 15th, 2013 @ 5:42 am

    The worst generation?

    Nay, the worst is yet to come.

  28. Lee Reynolds
    November 15th, 2013 @ 5:54 am

    Not every guy cares about boobs.

    Check out Krysten Ritter sometime. Board member of the itty bitty titty committee. Also a walking cure for impotence.

    Back in my single days, I’d have crawled on my hands and knees over broken glass doused with battery acid for a chance with a girl like that.

  29. Lee Reynolds
    November 15th, 2013 @ 5:57 am

    You’re right.

    Problem is, those who attempt to address the social issues do such a bad job of it that they literally create more leftists.

  30. Lee Reynolds
    November 15th, 2013 @ 6:02 am

    The men’s rights movement is the sexual equivalent of the black panthers, who were no better, and generally far worse, than the KKK type groups they were a reaction to.

  31. Lee Reynolds
    November 15th, 2013 @ 6:05 am

    Every talk with a woman is implicitly a conversation about your relationship.

    This is why guys “don’t communicate.”

  32. Lee Reynolds
    November 15th, 2013 @ 6:05 am

    A big part of Ray Charles’ success with women over the years is that he never had to answer that question.

  33. Lee Reynolds
    November 15th, 2013 @ 6:08 am

    That’s right up there with “explain to me why I shouldn’t be offended.”

    These guys don’t know the difference between subjective opinion and objective reality.

  34. John Pryce
    November 15th, 2013 @ 6:36 am

    I am one of those irreligious, unmarried, pro-choice individuals who voted for Romney, and who is a capitalist and an Aristotelian all the way down.
    But I agree with you, most of my… well, I won’t call them “kin”, most of them aren’t like me. A disturbing number of Marxists.

  35. LarsonianInst
    November 15th, 2013 @ 7:33 am

    The intersection of social mores and free market economics: http://t.co/UEdFq07zvP

  36. xbox361
    November 15th, 2013 @ 7:38 am

    Be true to your self, like Ghengis Khan. He followed his Muse.

  37. Feminism is a product of the political Left
    November 15th, 2013 @ 7:49 am

    […] […]

  38. j Ray
    November 15th, 2013 @ 8:23 am

    Proof that liberalism (feminism) is a mental illness.

  39. freddy the fixer
    November 15th, 2013 @ 8:48 am

    This is a simply brilliant post. You need to write a book, because it would be a best seller. You framed the spiritual war that is being waged on women perfectly.

  40. Bob
    November 15th, 2013 @ 8:49 am

    As soon as you quoted Mark Driscoll, you lost me. Come on Stacy. You know better than that!

  41. CaptDMO
    November 15th, 2013 @ 9:01 am

    “…creates demand for legalized, “free” contraceptive abortion, on demand!

  42. chuck4prez
    November 15th, 2013 @ 9:06 am

    Lena Dunham and the Politics of Vagina http://t.co/uD2MWS53jA

  43. Dagnabbit_42
    November 15th, 2013 @ 9:21 am

    Hey, right there with you…sort of.

    I mean, okay: Married guys joke about this, and that’s fun.

    But why don’t married women joke in the same way about how they’d better keep their husbands happy, if they know what’s good for them?

    Say that, and it comes out sounding like some fat slob in a sleeveless t-shirt, right?

    But that’s in error. There is such a thing as a healthy, non-abusive marriage in which the wife desires to please her husband and would be sheepish about it if she didn’t. But our culture — and now I am including the churched & bourgeois culture — does not allow its expression. There is no vocabulary for it. There are no cliched jokes like that about “She Who Must Be Obeyed” to refer to one’s wife. The thing exists, but Newspeak has made it vanish down the memory-hole.

    Yes, there’s a significant difference between the churched & bourgeois value-system and worldview, and that of the coddled punks and twits. But if you imagine for a moment that the churched & bourgeois value-system and worldview hasn’t largely been co-opted by the world’s system and view, think again.

  44. Bandit
    November 15th, 2013 @ 9:45 am

    At least they know their target audience – brain dead bros and hos looking for handouts

  45. LadyLiberty1885
    November 15th, 2013 @ 10:06 am

    Lena Dunham and the Politics of Vagina : The Other McCain http://t.co/LWJqMD5TBm #MROTD #THIS

  46. Mark81150
    November 15th, 2013 @ 10:25 am

    Speaking only for myself, I think this is where the old fashioned morality of romantic true love come into their own.. a good man with a loving wife, needs never stray, because he simply cannot see anyone desirable aside from the woman he’s committed to. You just don’t want any other woman..

    Maybe why women who aren’t supermodel perfect can attract and keep forever men who care for them, take care of them, is they accept that it’s not always about self.. not about the feminist collectives plans..

    but about one man, one woman, and each putting the other ahead of their own desire.. color me an old romantic, but a good woman is worth any sacrifice,.. so maybe that Dunham girl should take a tip from her grandmother’s time..and start building that character. Her’s.. not her boyfriends.. because if she is so lacking in good qualities she’s not worth fighting for, what’s the point?

  47. submandave
    November 15th, 2013 @ 10:28 am

    I have to speak up for my local Kroger; they have a board that covers the Cosmo, leaving only the title visible. That sure made me feel a lot better shopping with my young daughters.

  48. Rick Caird
    November 15th, 2013 @ 10:52 am

    For a while, it has been clear that as formal religion wanes, their is nothing really replacing those teachers of morality. If there are no teachers, there is no cultural morality and it becomes a free for all. Cosmo will never reach more than a small subset of our population. So we end up with conflicting moralities sprinkled among a huge number of subsets. Chaos ensues.

  49. ElliePTweet
    November 15th, 2013 @ 11:08 am

    Politics of “independent” women. Why Democrats eagerly undermine families. http://t.co/B4DP2wUBio

  50. screwtape1a12
    November 15th, 2013 @ 11:35 am

    RT @LadyLiberty1885: Lena Dunham and the Politics of Vagina : The Other McCain http://t.co/LWJqMD5TBm #MROTD #THIS