The Darwinian Dead End: Feminists Subtract Themselves From the Future

Posted on | May 23, 2014 | 79 Comments

“To live for the moment is the prevailing passion — to live for yourself, not for your predecessors or posterity. We are fast losing the sense of historical continuity, the sense of belonging to a succession of generations originating in the past and stretching into the future. . . .
“Narcissism emerges as the typical form of character structure in a society that has lost interest in the future.”
— Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (1979)

Earlier today, I mentioned Amanda Marcotte’s revulsion toward motherhood — “this homicidal impulse, this horrifying hatred of the mere thought of having babies” — as symptomatic of the mental illness that inspires much of feminism. Meanwhile, Melissa Langsam Braunstein calls our attention to still more symptoms:

Many adults can’t stand kids. The tragic thing is that some of them are already parents.
In honor of Mother’s Day, feminist website Jezebel scoured anonymous social media site Whisper for posts from parents who regret procreating. One parent shares, “I love my kids so much . . . but I regret having them every single day.” Some Whisper mothers miss their pre-kid social lives and others bemoan their post-birth bodies. There is also this incredibly jarring admission: “I hate my son. I didn’t want a boy. I wanted a girl.”
I can’t imagine ever saying anything like that. I’m thrilled I’m having a second girl, but having experienced a miscarriage last year, I’m over the moon to simply be carrying a healthy baby. . . .

Read the whole thing. Of course, no sane person can imagine saying such things about their children, but these are feminists, eh?

The swirling vortex of modern madness that makes some people envision a future of cannibalism manifests itself in other ways. Or maybe you didn’t hear the news about the Miley Cyrus tour.

“Every time you get in your car, you’re going to hear my fucking song on the fucking radio, you piece of shit. That’s right. And then I’m gonna take all my clothes off, I’m gonna sit on a big, giant dick . . . and then I’m gonna hold the record for the most-watched music video on Vevo . . . So then — you know, you can tell a lot about a person — I think you can tell how big their dick is by how much confidence they have usually, and if I was a dude I’d probably have a really big dick, ’cause I feel really good about myself now. So I’m gonna tell those motherfuckers that broke my heart — particularly one — to suck my fat dick and to enjoy hearing this song for the rest of your life.”
— Miley Cyrus, May 10

This obscene tirade — accompanied by Miley’s use of the, uh, interesting stage prop — was widely interpreted as a denunciation of her ex-fiancé, Liam Hemsworth. But let’s face it: Miley has been having a public nervous breakdown for the past year or so, and this was just her latest psychotic episode. Although she’s getting paid quite well to indulge her exhibitionistic perversion, one must wonder if her acts of self-degradation are somehow a cry for help.

Psychologically healthy people don’t do such things, and the unraveling of Miley Cyrus’s broken mind — she apparently no longer has any sense of personal dignity — is painful to watch. But this is just popular entertainment “in a society that has lost interest in the future.”

Sex is naturally about the future.

Procreation is the biological purpose of sex, after all, and as the Contraceptive Culture encourages us to have unnatural sex — to thwart the natural purpose of sex — it also disconnects sex from love, marriage and parenthood, so that sex becomes a meaningless recreation of no more ultimate consequence than a video game.

Like the pornographic career of “Belle Knox,” the weirdly sexualized performances of Miley Cyrus in some sense express the inherent nihilism of what sex becomes when it is treated like a commercial commodity, a leisure amusement or — as with Miley’s “suck my fat dick” gesture — a competitive sport with winners and losers.

Feminism encourages and celebrates this meaningless kind of sex, telling women that motherhood is oppressive and that abortion is therefore a “right” essential to women’s “liberation.” At the pro-abortion feminist Web site RH Reality Check, Chanel Dubofsky commemorated Mother’s Day with a rant about the “childfree” lifestyle:

Mother’s Day is a great time to remind ourselves that language matters. We already know this; the difference between a “baby” and a “fetus,” between “reproductive rights” and “reproductive justice,” among other terms, are vital to pro-choice politics and the movement. Corporate media outlets misfire with regard to language all the time, and this has created a deep sense of confusion between the terms “childless” and “childfree.”
Recently, in a piece for The Telegraph, writer Sarah Rainey featured actress Helen Mirren discussing her decision to not have children, and the implications of that decision for Mirren and for other women like her in a society obsessed with having children.
“Motherhood holds no interest for me,” said Mirren.
She is referred to in Rainey’s piece as “childless.”
Here’s the problem: While “childless” means the condition of being without children, it implies that everyone who does not have children would like to have them. However, being “childfree,” like Mirren — and like me — means that one does not want to have children at all. . . .
As a woman who’s childfree, I’m not experiencing reproductive challenges. I’m not waiting for the right partner, or enough money, or the perfect geographic location. I don’t feel like something is missing from my life because I don’t have children. I don’t want to have kids. . . .
The experience of not wanting children in a world where women are defined by their reproductive desire and potential — where women are expected to structure their lives around babies — is very different than being a woman who would like a baby or would like to be a parent some day. . . . A cisgender, straight woman who doesn’t want a baby is transgressive, subversive, pathological, a perpetual mystery to be solved.

Certainly, we should not encourage feminist lunatics to procreate. If Chanel Dubofsky wants to become a Darwinian dead end — to subtract herself from the future — far be it from me to attempt to dissuade her from embracing her own extinction. She thinks she’s being “transgressive” and “subversive”? Whatever. Her delusions of significance are of no consequence, but it’s important to recognize that this is just another symptom of feminism as a mental disorder.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

Category: Abortion, Contraceptive Culture, Feminism

Comments

79 Responses to “The Darwinian Dead End: Feminists Subtract Themselves From the Future”

Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 23rd, 2014 @ 11:57 pm

Funny how things work themselves out!
RS
May 24th, 2014 @ 1:52 am

A sense of history, of place, of belonging: those things are becoming ever more rare in our society. I know I sound like a broken record on these threads, but inevitably the cause in fact is the same. History, place, and belonging are things which implicate traditional marriage and the family. For Progressives, those two institutions must be destroyed, so that the State has everyone’s undivided loyalty and affection. Small puzzle pieces combine to form the big picture. The “child free” may think they are satisfying only themselves, but in reality, they place themselves at the mercy of the State when they approach their dotage. Where then will their loyalties lie?
RKae
May 24th, 2014 @ 1:58 am

Wrong. So wrong. So utterly, utterly wrong.

If the left is going to lose by abortion and hatred of procreating, when exactly is this dwindling of theirs going to start?

It’s not just biological entities that are subject to “Darwinism.” Ideas also evolve. Ideas also play “survival of the fittest” by 1.) spreading their seed, and 2.) stopping the opponent from spreading his seed.

The left’s IDEAS are winning the evolution game. They do a far better job of propagating their ideas, and killing or humiliating the opposing idea.

This whole notion that the left is not procreating, so therefore their ideas will die is complete nonsense. It’s destroyed by the clear fact that the left has been aborting for half a century and… what? We have Obamacare. We have Hillary on deck. We have people losing their careers for believing in traditional marriage.

They are NOT “subtracting themselves from the future,” because ideas don’t spread genetically, and it’s ideas that win or lose.

We now have gay marriage! They took an idea wherein procreation is biologically impossible and made it the dominant idea! If that doesn’t show you that having babies is a lame way to spread ideas, then I don’t know what to say.

The left took control (fair and square!) of nearly every culture-shaping avenue of communication – TV, journalism, theatre, movies, psychology. Using those avenues, they can spread their ideological seed and stop the opponent from doing so.

They realize that it’s IDEAS that need to do the “survival of the fittest” thing, not biological entities.

Go ahead and have kids. The left will ideologically take them away from you with the hypnosis of culture.
RS
May 24th, 2014 @ 2:31 am

Re: your last paragraph.

True, if, and only if, we let them. Some of us have withdrawn our children from that culture. We sacrifice to send our children to institutions which acknowledge God and His Grace; which refuse to accept the banishment of the Transcendent from discussion. Unfortunately, too many good people would rather have newer cars and larger houses. They would rather replace furniture or redecorate a bathroom, than do what is necessary to rear their children in an environment which fosters Faith and Obedience to God-ordained directives. Too many of us pay lip-service to fighting the Culture Wars, but refuse to do what’s necessary to be victorious.

The reason is that discussed in the post. Selfishness and Narcissism does not only exist in the minds of the Progressive Left which denies the biological and Biblical imperatives of reproducing and rearing children to the Glory of God. It exists in those of us who would rather spend our money on expensive toys and vacations than our children’s education; in those of us who outsource our children’s education to those who would have them deny God, Marriage and Family.

But most won’t do what it takes. We’d rather have the accouterments of a successful, middle class life and hope that our kids, somehow, without example or sacrifice on our part turn out OK.
Matt_SE
May 24th, 2014 @ 2:31 am

Chanel Dubofsky’s quote is quite the trove:

“Corporate media outlets misfire with regard to language all the time…”
Implying that there is a “right” way to speak and a “wrong” way. STFU, you fascist moron.

“…a society obsessed with having children.”
A society “obsessed” with having children would have an average birthrate of 40 children per thousand. Instead, the U.S. has 13 per thousand; not enough to keep up the current population.
Not quite the “barefoot and pregnant” of yesteryear, is it?

This narcissism/nihilism is why Democrats have to keep importing brown people. Somebody has to keep having children.
Matt_SE
May 24th, 2014 @ 2:33 am

Yep. Looks like we’re gonna have to go Amish.
RichFader
May 24th, 2014 @ 2:45 am

Miley’s stage toy? Hoppity Hop: Adult Edition. Maybe they could mold a metal-colored ring handle onto the shaft. Incidentally, I’d argue that Satan’s second greatest trick, after convincing the world he didn’t exist, was getting the world to refer to porn and sex toys as *adult* entertainment.
Kirby McCain
May 24th, 2014 @ 8:19 am

And there’s the woman who killed her three kids in California. She should be sterilized No prison babies.Lots of fan mail from Amanda.
willyz
May 24th, 2014 @ 8:28 am

RT @rsmccain: “The swirling vortex of modern madness …” http://t.co/bFOSHaar6h Starring @MileyCyrus http://t.co/vxfJpCajoX
davidjacksmith
May 24th, 2014 @ 8:30 am

RT @rsmccain: “The swirling vortex of modern madness …” http://t.co/bFOSHaar6h Starring @MileyCyrus http://t.co/vxfJpCajoX
in4m8ionman
May 24th, 2014 @ 8:35 am

RT @rsmccain: “The swirling vortex of modern madness …” http://t.co/bFOSHaar6h Starring @MileyCyrus http://t.co/vxfJpCajoX
Cactus Ed
May 24th, 2014 @ 8:45 am

Ah, so the problem is not so much that the left will ‘raise’ our children, but that they’ll be stupefied by that cognitive aberration known as political correctness.
No1Important00
May 24th, 2014 @ 8:45 am

RT @rsmccain: “The swirling vortex of modern madness …” http://t.co/bFOSHaar6h Starring @MileyCyrus http://t.co/vxfJpCajoX
maniakmedic
May 24th, 2014 @ 9:09 am

I hate to agree, but I do. We’re watching our society commit wholesale suicide and many with children are uselessly tut-tutting while their children become entitled monsters. “My precious little snowflake would NEVER do that,” they say, completely oblivious that their precious little snowflake has been doing it for years. Nobody – including the right – seems to want to parent their children anymore. Their children might think they are uncool!

I realize having no children myself (being unmarried, it seems like something I should probably avoid for the time being) means I can’t have an opinion, going by the standards of the abortion vagina clause (“if you don’t have a vagina, you can’t have an opinion about it”), but not being a blind idiot even I can see major problems with what parents are doing nowadays with regard to raising their children. There seems to be a pervasive idea that showing kids you care involves letting them do whatever they want. I’m not sure how else to explain parents who let their kids backtalk them and run wild all the time. (If I acted like many kids do today in front of their parents my dad would have backhanded me across the room and I’d never have been allowed to leave the house.)

Of course, the opposite is in fact true; while you don’t want to turn your kids into functional copies of North Koreans (unable to make decisions because their decisions have always been made for them), you have to provide structure. Sometimes that means telling the precious snowflake “no.” It also means holding back on giving them things like entertainment centers in their rooms and smartphones until they have shown they can be trusted to do the right thing. And if they screw up, letting the punishment fall on them instead of jumping to protect them from the consequences of their actions. It means making them live up to a standard that you set and not giving in when they throw a tantrum, whether they are two or fifteen.

Don’t get me wrong, even not having kids I know it’s difficult to do. And that some kids will never get it, no matter how hard you try. But I’m willing to bet the vast majority of kids would rise to the challenge and would develop the logical reasoning capabilities to realize they were taught how to suceed in life by taking charge of themselves instead of giving control to somebody else. If that were to happen, the left could scream about abortion, inequality, homosexuality, the environment, and whatever other pet cause they use all they want, but it would be summarily ignored or dismantled by people who can actually think for themselves as opposed to people who celebrate thinking for themselves when they are really just parroting a party line they got from some bitter feminist professor.
Isaac T
May 24th, 2014 @ 9:24 am

I figure at this point it’s a race between Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber to see which one self-aborts first. On their current track, I can’t foresee anything but a senseless OD from drugs or a terminal car wreck for either of them. Five years, tops.
McKinleyPitts
May 24th, 2014 @ 9:51 am

The Darwinian Dead End: Feminists Subtract Themselves From the Future http://t.co/J1jRaMQk1A
richard mcenroe
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:02 am

That’s why they’re doing their best to inject their neurosis into the school system and public consciousness.
trangbang68
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:28 am

When I lived in Alabama, there was a subgroup of low rent, often obese, often tatted up girls omnipresent. They were “white trash” or “wiggers” hanging out with the loser males of the various tribes.
That’s Miley in spades, a stupid degraded little skank with zero dignity or self awareness. She’s a role model to no one with a shred of class.
trangbang68
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:32 am

Dude, you need to get out more. Everybody’s kid is not a self important twit with no respect. Plenty of fine young people and good parents.
Dana
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:44 am

Lindsey Lohan, who is was a very talented actress has set a very low bar/high threshold for self destructive behavior, and it seems as though Miss Cyrus looks upon that as a personal challenge. We’re not sure if her hospital stint was rehab or not, but I s’pose that’s almost a rite of passage for the glitterati these days.

Miss Cyrus hasn’t quite reached Miss Lohan’s benchmarks — a lesbian affair would help to close the gap, though — but she’s young, and still has time.
maniakmedic
May 24th, 2014 @ 11:25 am

I never meant to come across as thinking all kids are that way. But it is a trend that even conservatives aren’t immune from following. Even my sister’s kids are morphing into monsters, and we were certainly not raised that way ourselves. I see a lot of good kids at church. But I’m finding more often than not that I’m seeing kids who think the world owes them a trophy just because they showed up.
FenelonSpoke
May 24th, 2014 @ 11:32 am

Miley Cyrus stands in need of prayer-for salvation, for reclamation, for restoration to what God intended her to be.
disqus_YLxrfx8d7j
May 24th, 2014 @ 12:04 pm

Childless and childfree? How about fruitless and barren? I like barren myself, and in Miley’s case she is barren in several ways.
Ethan0078
May 24th, 2014 @ 12:39 pm

RT @rsmccain: “The swirling vortex of modern madness …” http://t.co/bFOSHaar6h Starring @MileyCyrus http://t.co/vxfJpCajoX
Josh_Painter
May 24th, 2014 @ 12:43 pm

RT @littlebytesnews: “@commonpatriot: via @rsmccain: The Darwinian Dead End: Feminists Subtract Themselves From the Future http://t.co/ijRA…
RKae
May 24th, 2014 @ 2:05 pm

Of the kids in the youth group at my church, not one of them will stand for traditional marriage. They are loudly gay-friendly.

The church now faces caving to gay marriage or having absolutely no congregation 10 years from now.

We can mock political correctness all we want, but it’s winning.

In the ’60s our parents laughed off the hippies and ecologists as fringe nut-cases. Those nut-cases now actually have the upper hand in cultural discourse.
maniakmedic
May 24th, 2014 @ 4:12 pm

It’s becoming a problem in the LDS Church as well. Though church leadership has been very clear about God’s stance on homosexuality and its severity as a sin (see: The Proclamation on the Family and numerous talks in recent years), there seems to be a growing number of members – particularly youth – who think it’s time we “got with the times” and allowed gay marriage. And there is at least one pro-gay organization in SLC that will not take the hint, constantly bugging church leadership for dialogue even though church leadership’s answers never change. It’s like clockwork: at least once every year they push the church to recognize gay marriage and the church says, “sorry, ain’t happening.” And around and around we go.

I’ll be interested to see how many of the youth leave over this. Many people have used it as an excuse already (I think it was last year that a whole bunch of people got together and renounced their membership in solidarity with the gays).
_NCPatriot_
May 24th, 2014 @ 4:19 pm

The Darwinian Dead End: Feminists Subtract Themselves From the Future http://t.co/5p6pEobcvb
The diseased mind of feminism (NSFW) | Critical Mass Politics
May 24th, 2014 @ 5:30 pm

[…] From Robert Stacy McCain, read it all here. […]
Ms_Rachel
May 24th, 2014 @ 7:34 pm

The Darwinian Dead End: Feminists Subtract Themselves From the Future http://t.co/mtvy0Tr4B3
thatMrGguy
May 24th, 2014 @ 8:40 pm

The Darwinian Dead End: Feminists Subtract Themselves From the Future http://t.co/FMfGXF4YCb
From Around the Blogroll | The First Street Journal.
May 24th, 2014 @ 9:14 pm

[…] Robert Stacey Stacy McCain notes the self-destructiveness of feminism. In their selfish promotion of childlessness, they are pushing their own extinction. […]
William_Teach
May 24th, 2014 @ 9:31 pm

Of course, what Miley will soon learn is that attendance at her concerts (pre-recorded and lip-synced) will dry up, and venues won’t be interested. Her base fans, teen girls, will be restricted from attending by their parents, who will refuse to drive them there and pay the high cost.

The Tubes originally did this pseudo S&M type stage show (along with other amusing stuff, that was mostly pg rated). Of course, unlike Miley, it was live music and for adults. Interestingly, “She’s A Beut
dicentra
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:32 pm

Of course, no sane person can imagine saying such things about their children, but these are feminists, eh?

You can’t rule out that these commenters are lying about having kids at all. The port side of the Internet is rife with people who value authenticity & ideology but not truthfulness, so they have no problem posing as regretful parents to make a “truthy” point.

I have no doubt that Marcotte hates motherhood more than I hate broccoli, but I’d take the other assertions with a grain of salt.
dicentra
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:35 pm

Of all religions, the LDS church is the LAST one that can accept gay marriage, because we teach that
(a) marriage/family is the only earthly institution that persists into eternity and (b) those whose marriages persist into eternity will be breeders, rendering same-sex marriage an impossibility.

It would be cruel to accept SSM in Mormonism because such a marriage has zero chance of enduring past death.
douglaswcooper
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:37 pm

Darwinian Dead End: Feminists Subtract Themselves From the Future http://t.co/bKdMgJQ6yw Thanks, girls. #tcot
Gringao
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:40 pm

As Mark Steyn aptly noted, the future belongs to those who are in it. That these deranged harpies are removing their genes from it can only be viewed as a positive thing.
dicentra
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:41 pm

The left’s IDEAS are winning the evolution game.

Because their ideas are rooted in adolescent yearnings, untempered by experience. Conservatives tend to play stern adult to the Left’s rebellious teenager, and in that scenario, the teen always sees the adult as mean and unfair, not as wise and reasonable.

As Mark Steyn has pointed out, modern adolescence is prolonged into the 30s by college and beyond if you stay there or in the left-wing bubble (non-profits, gubmint jobs).

Furthermore, prolonged prosperity affects a society the same way an astronaut is affected by null gravity — bone and muscle mass is inevitably lost because there is no resistance, no gravity, nothing to strengthen oneself against.

When the dollar crashes, we’ll be plunged into a circumstance wherein which these spoiled, coddled brats will have to adapt or die. I don’t actually look forward to it, but God does have a nasty habit of yanking us back hard when we get to this degree of corruption and superficiality.
dicentra
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:46 pm

Given that she was a child TV star — with a father who decided to be her pal instead of her dad — she sounds like someone much sinned-against, perhaps even sexually abused. That kind of angry exhibitionism in women is often a reaction to sexual exploitation at a young age.
emersonushc13
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:48 pm

I have never knowingly heard a Miley Cyrus song. I don’t listen to music on the radio at all. She too shall pass, sadly to be replaced by someone else just as long-term meaningless.
dicentra
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:49 pm

They are removing their genes but not their intellectual progeny, and THAT is the tragedy.

The harpies could always give birth to children who reject their mothers’ idiocy, like Saffron on Absolutely Fabulous, but these women are instilling their sickness in the next generation in greater numbers than they could ever literally give birth to.
formwiz
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:49 pm

In its own weird way, this is good.

The Lefties are clearly aborting themselves out of existence, leaving the rest of us to rebuild the country.

It’s one of the reasons Chuckie Schumer feels it necessary to import 30 million slaves from Mexico. It’s the only way what few Lefties there are can retain power.
SineWaveII
May 24th, 2014 @ 10:56 pm

You got it wrong. Their “ideas” aren’t winning the evolution game. They are temporarily ahead in the propaganda war with the help of the dying “news” media. The “news” media is selling what few shreds of credibility it has left to prop up the democrat party for a few more years. In the end there is only one thing that will always win every information war – reality.
maniakmedic
May 24th, 2014 @ 11:15 pm

I agree. But logic doesn’t have a place in today’s world.
WorstPresident
May 25th, 2014 @ 12:03 am

The Darwinian Dead End: Feminists Subtract Themselves From the Future http://t.co/AKWrsV4uN4
PuzzlePrivateer
May 25th, 2014 @ 12:13 am

Darwinian Dead End: Feminists Subtract Themselves From the Future http://t.co/1Dv4nsdboH
louis_wheeler
May 25th, 2014 @ 12:58 am

Other people’s money, the Left sustains itself with it.

What happens when the government is broke in the next financial debacle? When the bureaucrats are laid off because there is no credit and taxes are meager and the Left’s institutions close?

How many of the Left are there? Can they support their programs without tax money? The Geo. Washington University’s Battleground poll places Democrats or further to the left at around 26%.

The Left’s main centers of influence are in decline. Hollywood has reluctantly been forced to make religious or conservative movies, lately, to survive. The Left’s culture is so old hat and boring. The Media and TV are being replaced by alternative news and YouTube. The Educational Establishment is doing a horrible job. Look at all the dead broke, debt ridden, jobless graduates.

You think this is inclined to convert Christians into Leftist?
DeadMessenger
May 25th, 2014 @ 2:00 am

Re: Miley pic: bet Liam Hemsworth is real glad he dodged that bullet.
DeadMessenger
May 25th, 2014 @ 2:23 am

You make a valid point. In my church, I’m seeing kids moving away from liberal ideas, and in fact, see a lot of teens and young adults who are more conservative than their parents. The majority, I’d reckon. They’ve seen what liberalism has wrought, and they don’t like it. Frankly, they like the thought of a life without shame. As St. Augustine said, “The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.”
Scott Anderson
May 25th, 2014 @ 2:33 am

Chanel will want kids when she’s 46. She’ll have some. They will be robbed of a perent who is vigorous enough to parent them.