Don't Mention the Mythological Clock!

Feminism is so muddled:

The theory that women have a natural urge to have babies is one that’s got a long and ignoble sexist history, and it was used to explain away women’s sexual urges without men admitting that women and men’s sexual urges are more alike than different. I see no reason to think recent incarnations and warning stories about the mythological “biological clock” should be treated as anything other than an effort to Other women, to spring men of responsibility for caring equally for children, and to justify denying women equal access to education and employment under the theory that they’re a bundle of hormones that aren’t subject to the same rational thought that men have.

Since when did the urge to have babies become ... irrational?

Link via David Thompson.

Comments

[Snake Oil Baron]

"Since when did the urge to have babies become ... irrational?"

I don't know about rational or irrational but as far as leftists are concerned, they certainly should not be breeding.

[Laura(southernxyl)]

1 - Funny how the urge to have sex is innate, but the urge to have a baby is a cultural construct. Do these people think there's no cultural push for sex? Girls don't have all kinds of stupid ideas about what they have to do to get/keep a boyfriend? Boys don't have stupid ideas about how real men act and what they should be getting from those girls?

2 - If the urge to have a baby is cultural, how come women who buck culture enough to be lesbians go through ART to have babies? How come Ricky Martin paid a surrogate so he could have those twins? How come people adopt when they can't have their own, and how come people who don't or can't have babies sometimes treat their pets like their children?

3 - The fact that some women don't want babies is proof of nothing. Some people, men and women, aren't that interested in sex. It's a normal variant. We're not all stamped out of cookie cutters.

4 - The "biological clock" refers to the fact that a woman's fertility declines really fast through her 30's. It's not that women can't get pregnant in their forties - some can - it's that any particular woman would be foolish to put off having babies, if she wants them, past 35 or so, thinking she'll be able to get pregnant at any time. It IS biological. It's NOT a construct.

Where do you find these people, Isaac?

[Isaac Schrödinger]

"Where do you find these people, Isaac?"

They just keep popping up on the blogs I read.

It is odd that they prescribe to such foolish views. I understand that they hold quite different opinions on issues but these people reject simple, observable facts.

Whether it's physical strength or the quotation marks around the biological clock, they tend to find oppression and sexism where none exists.

Why? A sorry symptom of super-affluence would be my best guess.

[Alex]

I think you're misreading his argument. As far as I can tell, all he's arguing is that there's no evidence to suggest that women have some innate desire for children which men lack.

Male or female, we all have a biological imperative to have sex, and many of us also have a desire to have children. The sexual imperative is certainly biological, the desire for offspring is at least partly - if not mainly - social. There's no evidence to suggest that women have a stronger desire for children than men, or that their desire for children contains a larger biological component than the same desire in men.

[Fetiche Nouvelle]

Men do have a desire for children -- at least, the men I've known do -- but women's urge in that direction is stronger and more central to the female mind. Take it from a woman who can't bear children.

The arguments against this observable fact run from inane to ludicrous. Maybe we can't yet explain this difference between the sexes to our complete satisfaction, but as my beloved has said, there was a time when we couldn't explain how the Sun came to be, but it was still up there shining on us.

No explanation for sex differences will ever satisfy the gender-war feminists. The world has to conform to their preferences, and they'll rant and rave until it does...which means forever.

[Alex]

"Take it from a woman who can't bear children."

How exactly does that qualify you to lecture me about what men feel?

[Fetiche Nouvelle]

Don't talk like an idiot, Alex. There's an oversupply at the moment, so you're unlikely to get much attention. Instead, try talking to a few thousand childless adults about what's most important to them. Ask them what they spend their discretionary income on -- then ask them how they'd most likely spend an extra $10,000 if it magically appeared in their bank accounts. Gathering and utilizing information of that sort happens to be my trade.

Then try talking to a few hundred women whose bodies won't support gestation, and ask them what they think is their most important shortcoming. Ask them how they'd spend an extra $10,000. You might learn something.

As for what you or any other individual might personally feel, please remember that aggregate patterns are frequently dotted with individual exceptions. So you can't disprove the statement that "Men are on average taller than women" by producing a six-foot woman and a five-foot man.

[Mike T]

How exactly does that qualify you to lecture me about what men feel?

It qualifies her last statement, which was that women tend to have it more strongly on her mind, especially barren ones.

[Mike T]

Whether it's physical strength or the quotation marks around the biological clock, they tend to find oppression and sexism where none exists.

Why? A sorry symptom of super-affluence would be my best guess.

A better explanation is that they are losers and use politics to explain their failures.