“The typical American woman, of whatever age, height, weight, race, color, creed, or walk of life, is a profoundly confused creature.”

A manifesto worth reading from Francis Porretto at Eternity Road.

As I wrote in the comments, I think Porretto paints his "typical American woman" with a caricaturist’s brush, and he really should call her the "typical well-educated, upper-to-middle-class American woman…"  but he makes accurate points about certain social pressures.  Here are some he cites:

• The female horror of aging.
• The female fear of male infidelity and sexual caprice.
• The numerous publications marketed solely to women, all of which promote some consumption- or glamor-based approach to achieving love and happiness.
• The endless lists of products pressed upon women for beauty or glamor enhancement, all of which carry a subliminal message.
• The pressures upon women to emulate male sexual aggressiveness and male proclivity toward polyamory.
• The pressures upon women not to have children, against all the urgings and needs of their bodies.
• The insistence by various cultural elements that, despite women’s yearnings for male companionship, support and protection, "a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" — that women owe it to themselves to be independent of men, and that any compromise on that "ideal" is a form of self-betrayal, and the betrayal of the female sex.

The synergy among these pressures could unhinge any woman. That we have as few female lunatics and child murderesses as we do speaks to some hidden reserve of endurance in the American woman’s psyche.

Domenico at Bettnet (h/t) calls the post "thought-provoking."  I always think that is a bit of a cheat, when you don’t say what thoughts are provoked (much like "evocative" — what does it evoke?  or "progressive" — to what end is it progressing?)   So when I agree with Dom I’ll say what it provoked in me:

—  I have to be careful when I read stuff like this or it makes me feel very smug that I got married and decided to stay home with my kids.   Smug = not good.

— He’s really fortunate that the conversation with the "female colleague" he describes — the one where he tells her "It’s all I can do to keep my hands off you"  — didn’t end in a charge of sexual harassment.   (I believe his account of the conversation, which is not a harassing conversation, but ooooh, he’s lucky he didn’t get in trouble for that.)

— Do I look at sexily- or downright-immodestly-dressed, attractive women with "unconcealed resentment?"  I saw this one woman yesterday when I was out with my kids — it was 45 degrees outside and she was wearing a midriff-baring top and a cutoff skirt with a hem that grazed the lower curve of her buttocks.  Her friends were wearing fleeces and jeans.  She must have been freezing.  Silly girl.  Hm, does that count as resentment?

Read it and tell me what you think..