French
authorities imposed on students ridiculous books such as Daddy Wears a
Dress. It would have been comical if the following years would not have
been so tragic. What, in fact, wrecked these French illusions was Islamic
terrorism. The
only enemy these French élites knew were patriarchal privileges, since for them
"domination" comes only from the white male Europeans.
Obsession
with gender is a convenient distraction to avoid facing matters that are more
difficult and less pleasant. If the West will not commit itself to preserving
Western societies and values, it will fall. And its extraordinary progress will
be blanketed over by darkness, along with all those gender rights.
Welcome
to the progressive "next frontier of 'liberation'", where the most urgent question in Western democracies is
"genderism"
North Carolina was
subjected to a year of being boycotted, until it withdrew its transgender
bathroom law. Last month, the National Union of Teachers in Great Britain asked the government to teach
children as young as two new transgender theories. New York recently presented
the first "trans-doll".
American universities are wracked with hysteria over the correct use of neutral pronouns.
Even National Geographic, instead of writing about lions and elephants, started
covering the "Gender Revolution". One of the first announcements of
Emmanuel Macron, as the French President-elect, was that he would appoint
officials from a "gender
equal" list.
What
does it mean that this gender mania is permeating every corner of Western
societies and culture? According to Camille Paglia, the contrarian feminist, it
is a sign of the decline of Western civilization. In her new book, Free
Women, Free Men, she writes:
"Civilizations
have gone through recurrent cycles. Extravaganzas of gender experimentation
sometimes precede cultural collapse, as they certainly did in Weimar Germany.
Now as then, there are forces aligning outside the borders, scattered fanatical
hordes where the cult of heroic masculinity still has tremendous force".
She then
asks: "How has it happened that so many of today's most daring and radical
young people now define themselves by sexual identity alone? There has been a
collapse of perspective here that will surely have mixed consequences for our
art and culture and that may perhaps undermine the ability of Western societies
to understand or react to the vehemently contrary beliefs of others who do not
wish us well. Transgender phenomena multiply and spread in 'late' phases of
culture, as religious, political, and family traditions weaken and
civilizations begin to decline".
It is
not a coincidence that this obsession with gender grew out of Western culture
during the 1990s, the decade of peace and prosperity before 9/11. The decade
was free of any existential angst, consumed by the Monica Lewinski scandal and
dominated by Francis Fukuyama's "End of History". According to Rusty Reno,
editor of First Things, gender ideology is a symbol of our epoch of
"weakening", pointing to a globalized future "governed by the
hearth gods of health, wealth, and pleasure". The high priests of this
ideology, however, did not take into account the rise of radical Islam.
Before
the French cities of Paris, Nice and Rouen came under the assault of jihadist
groups, the French Socialist government had just one cultural priority: the
"ABC of gender equality". The name came from a controversial program that
France's women's rights minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, had launched in 500
schools.
After
approving same-sex marriage, the French government apparently thought it also
had to promote a cultural revolution. According to Education Minister Benoît
Hamon, who failed miserably in the recent presidential elections, schools are
"a battlefield".
Half the pupils boycotted "gender
theory" lessons. Then French authorities imposed on students ridiculous
books such as Daddy Wears a Dress. It would have been comical if
the following years would not have been so tragic. What, in fact, wrecked these
French illusions was Islamic terrorism.
The
effect on Western culture of this gender ideology is the rejection of the
critical spirit combined with a "kitsch appeal to sentiment against reason." The same gender-obsessed culture refuses to see the
burkini as an Islamist tool, and instead turns it into a symbol of human rights.
The consequence is that the jihadist threat is perceived merely as an
unacceptable disruption of Western lifestyles. Europe risks to losing all its
historic gifts: human dignity, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion,
freedom of expression and its colossal culture.
The
erotocratic French élites were not prepared for what turned out to be the most
severe terror assault since 9/11. France, obsessed with the "ABC of
equality", was caught off-guard and ready to be disarmed when terrorists
attacked it during the day that celebrates equality. In France, there was simply no public resistance to sharia
law and jihadist ideology. Intoxicated with the obsolescence of identity, the
only enemy these French élites knew were patriarchal privileges, since for them
"domination" comes only from the white male Europeans.
The
presidency of Emmanuel Macron has already been hailed by gender activists.
"Macron is like a breath of fresh air in this country," said Natacha
Henry, a writer on gender issues, at the New York Times.
"I think he won because he didn't do any kind of macho performance, and
that's what we need."
Anesthetization
by an obsession with gender rights further seems to have become a fixture of
countries after terror attacks. Soon after jihadists targeted Spain in 2004 and
forced it to withdraw troops from Iraq, the Socialist government of Jose Luis
Zapatero embraced the titillation of gender ideology, including gay-friendly "diversity" training at elementary schools. The "Zapatero Project"
was based on the "scorn of nature, reinvention of what is human,
exaltation of desire". Former U.S. President Barack Obama's years were
also marked by an "obsession"
with transgender rights. Obsession with gender is a convenient distraction to
avoid facing matters that are more difficult and less pleasant.
There
is a saying that civilizations can be destroyed from within, rather than by
armies from without. If the West will not commit itself to preserving Western
societies and values, it will fall. And its extraordinary progress will be
blanketed over by darkness, along with all those gender rights.
According
to Camille Paglia, "a purely secular culture risks hollowness and,
paradoxically, sets itself up for the rise of fundamentalist movements that
ominously promise to purify and discipline". Such as -- name it -- radical
Islam.
Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is
an Italian journalist and author.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10347/gender-culture-decline
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