Page 81 – Asking The Right Questions To Stimulate Critical Thought

Make fatherhood a man’s choice!

by Clayton Craddock • November 5, 2013 • 0 Comments

(Credit: Kasia Bialasiewicz/Shutterstock)

The burden of pregnancy will never be fair. Child support can be — but men need to have a chance to opt out

BY ANNA MARCH, THE WEEKLINGS salon.com

An excerpt from THIS article

Over the past fifteen years, some feminists have argued that ending the current child support system is an important social issue. In the October 19, 2000 issue of Salon,Cathy Young argued that women’s freedom to choose parenthood is a reproductive right men do not have but should. Her article, “A Man’s Right to Choose,” identifies abortion rights and adoption as options that allow women greater sexual freedom than men when a sexual encounter results in conception. While there are alternatives to parental responsibility for women, for men, “in the eyes of the law, it seems that virtually no circumstances, however bizarre or outrageous, can mitigate the biological father’s liability for child support.” Kerrie Thornhill’s article “A Feminist Argument Against Child Support” in the July 18, 2011 issue of Partisans picks up this point, arguing that where birth control and safe abortion are legally available, choosing a sexual encounter should be a different choice than choosing to be a parent. She offers a three-step replacement for the current child support system. First, Thornhill writes that “when informed of a partner’s pregnancy, a man should get a single, time-sensitive opportunity to choose fatherhood.” Second, by accepting, a man would assume all the responsibilities of fatherhood, but by declining he would legally be no different than a sperm donor. Finally, she suggests that for low-income families, state-funded child support should exist. In her article “Is Forced Fatherhood Fair?” for the June 12, 2013 edition of the New York Times, Laurie Shrage echoes Kerrie Thornhill’s sentiment when she opines, “In consenting to sex, neither a man nor a woman gives consent to become a parent.” She argues that if one believes that women shouldn’t be penalized for sexual activity by limiting options such as birth control, abortion, adoption, and safe haven laws (laws that provide a safe space for parents to give up babies), then men’s options shouldn’t be limited either. These writers all point out that motherhood should be a voluntary condition. Shrage and Thornhill agree that the construct that fatherhood after birth is mandatory needs to change…..

….Additionally, lack of access to abortion doesn’t mean we should be unfair to men. We need to stand by women’s reproductive freedom, no matter what choice a woman makes. And a woman who wants a child needs to be prepared to support that child even if the biological father is not willing. I don’t believe that we will ever have true reproductive autonomy until men are offered the option, as women are, to opt out. We will never have full reproductive autonomy if we continue to put an asterisk next to “my body, my choice” and add the footnote “but if I decide to have a baby, pal, you have to pay…….”

…..My point is not to wave the flag for “men’s rights.” Most of the agenda of the “men’s rights” faction, which strikes me as largely a backlash against feminism, is intellectually weak and pains me. Rather, my point is that from a feminist standpoint, revamping child support is good for all of us. It removes social stigma from mothers who want to abandon their parental rights. We must be rational and fair and stop saying that differing biology means this can never be fair. It is better for children, it is better for women and men, and it is better for feminism. The burden of pregnancy will never be fair, no, as only women can get pregnant and they must solely face the physical burdens of pregnancy and abortion or birth. But while pregnancy can never be a truly equitable burden, child support can—and should—be fair….

Fatherhood

‘I was ambushed by the Twitterati feminists who in actual fact hate women’

by Clayton Craddock • November 4, 2013 • 2 Comments

An excerpt from THIS article:

Rather than campaigning to help women, feminists today are more likely to be picking fights on Twitter, or dressing up petty grievances as proof of rampant ‘sexism’. And, needless to say, these devotees of ‘equality’ believe you can’t be a feminist unless you’re Left-wing.

Some 100 years after Emily Wilding Davison threw herself under a horse in the name of equality, isn’t it perverse that those who would wish to subjugate me are the firebrand feminists who pit sister against sister, denying my view credence? How ironic, I thought, as I scrolled through my Twitter feed, that those who claim to champion women want to bully me for saying I don’t believe in a cause they have bastardised.

As a university-educated woman who combines a fulfilling career as a journalist and broadcaster with my role as a homemaker for my husband and four children, I have better things to do than spend my days mirthlessly lamenting the lot of women, which is what most feminists seem to do.

Indeed, what the sour Lefty Twitterati won’t admit is that all the great battles on which feminism was founded have been won – including political representation, and equality in education, the workplace and other areas of public life.

What’s left is an ugly vacuum occupied by those who will only let you join the sisterhood if you agree to pander to a petty hunt for signs of oppression. Look no further than the campaign by The Women’s Room, who railed against the Bank of England for the lack of women on our bank notes, citing this as evidence of discrimination.

Spectacularly pointless, surely? An emancipated, financially independent woman couldn’t care less whether Jane Austen is emblazoned on a tenner. I don’t: I just care that I’m being paid enough of them.

Today’s feminists appear to be living behind a smoke screen of their own construction, blind to the reality of female achievement in the 21st century, when girls outperform boys at GCSE and in further education. Around 20 per cent more girls make it to university than boys.

Today’s so-called sisters also refuse to accept that women are wired differently to men – that many see becoming a mother as the crowning achievement of their lives. Who can argue with the female executive who, after delivering her newborn, decides to give up the office and stay at home? I think today’s glass ceiling is largely self-imposed, perhaps the result of many deciding to leave full-time employment to put family life first.

Fatherhood

Are Men Really the Bad Guys Holding Women Back?

by Clayton Craddock • November 1, 2013 • 1 Comment

A quote from THIS article. By Kathryn Sollmann- The Huffington Post

‘After investing as much as $250,000 in tuition, why would fathers watch proudly as their daughters graduate from college, and then expect them only to work for a year or two before exiting the workforce to raise a family?

Why would these same fathers feel that their daughters are not entitled, through hard work and accomplishment, to an equal opportunity of building a lucrative and rewarding career?

Why would the vast majority of husbands who have experienced economic downturns — those who have suffered their own job loss or watched others struggle with unemployment — discourage wives who want to work and believe that only one income is a wise long-term financial strategy?

Where are the men who feel that any company is justified to pay a young daughter less than her male counterpart for an entry-level job?

Which men think it’s OK for their well-qualified wives to be passed over for a promotion or a raise because she’s not one of the guys?

No, I don’t think the vast majority of men are willingly standing in the way of women in the work world. I do think, as Marche says so insightfully: “Today, men and women are not facing off on a battleground so much as stuck together in a maze of contradictions.”

In that maze of contradictions, I believe women are held back by the misperception that they are not welcomed or valued by male colleagues (read Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s new book to see how so many successful women have male sponsors) — and by the universal lack of understanding about gender differences, complementary work styles and diversity. Women share in the responsibility to collectively move their gender ahead-there can’t be a wholesale blaming of men for sputters and stalls.’

Fatherhood

50/50 Divorce Payouts Are Robbery

by Clayton Craddock • October 29, 2013 • 4 Comments

People are waking up to reality.

Read an excerpt from THIS article:

Lady Deech, a crossbencher given a life peerage by Tony Blair in 2005, said: ‘The notion that a wife should get half of the joint assets of a couple after even a short, childless marriage has crept up on us without any parliamentary legislation to this effect.’

She added: ‘It is no wonder that England is the divorce capital of Europe and out of step with other European countries.’
Women who expect equality at work should not suddenly be treated as kept women when they divorce, she said in a public lecture at Gresham College, an independent educational institution in London.
Lady Deech said the law should be reformed to discourage ‘quickie’ divorces.

‘It is far more difficult to terminate those other pillars of a stable life, employment and a tenancy, than marriage.’ She added: ‘It seems to be an unspoken political decision that attempts to make divorce more difficult are totally unacceptable.

‘Any other situation that is known to harm children, sometimes not nearly as much – for example school food or paedophilia – attracts legislation and extensive public campaigns without dissent.

‘But even when public debate focuses on the plight of single parents and their children, the fact that over half of them are created by divorce and separation is overlooked.

‘It is astonishing that no government seriously considers divorce as an issue while expressing anxiety about single parents, their children and society’s health.’

Fatherhood

The Barry White Effect

by Clayton Craddock • October 25, 2013 • 1 Comment

I found an interesting article on the Huffington Post called: “Deep-Voiced Men Are More Attractive To Women, At Least When It Comes To Hooking Up”

I think it’s very simple. Men with low voices tend to be better endowed. Whether or not we are consciously aware of this fact, that deep voice is sexy because it sounds like the ultimate biological MALE.

This translates to a sense of being physically safe and protected, coupled with a powerful libido. Women know this type of man possess the ability to catalyze the most fulfilling sex life.

Subconsciously, women understand that the men with these characteristics are going to be very highly in demand because so many women will be drawn to them. Most of the men with deep voices know what power they have in the resonance of their voice. These types of men generally have options, so they can be picky when it comes to finding a mate.

So it seems like it’s a question of which wins out: a woman’s pleasure-seeking hormones or her idealism? The luckiest, most fortunate women pair up with a Barry White voiced man who’s monogamous.

Have a voice that sounds more like James Earl Jones than David Beckham’s slightly squeaky one? You’re in luck: a new study suggests women are more attracted to guys with a low-pitched voice when it comes to short-term flings.

But don’t go altering your voices just yet, guys: The study also suggested that women perceive men with deep voices as being more likely to cheat on them.

The study, published online in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, offers insight into how human voices evolved and how we choose our mates.

“Until now, it’s been unclear why women would like the voices of men who might cheat,” said Jillian O’Connor, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. “We found that the more women thought these men would cheat, the more they were attracted to them for a brief relationship when they are less worried about fidelity.”

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

by Clayton Craddock • October 24, 2013 • 2 Comments

Here is a quote from an interesting article:

“Men and women are, in fact, equally likely to be survivors of emotional abuse.”

“For male victims, the tendency of our culture to downplay emotional abuse as merely a “bad relationship” comes out in full force. People don’t believe that emotional abuse is abuse, and they don’t believe that men can be abused, and when the two combine it releases a storm of victim-blaming bullshit. They should just get over it. They should stop being upset. They’re whiny pussies for caring about this so much. God, why does this bother you, are you a fag or something?”