Tea at Trianon: HeforShe

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, October 13, 2014

HeforShe

Oh, spare us. I wish movie stars would focus on their acting and stay out of politics. Or if Emma Watson was going to say something on the behalf of women, I wish she would have begged for help for the women and girls kidnapped by ISIS. To quote:

Watson's speech was out of place, as she apparently recognized: “You might be thinking, 'Who is this Harry Potter girl, and what is she doing speaking at the UN?' And, it’s a really good question. I’ve been asking myself the same thing.” A sweet, unassuming delivery from a brave, polished young actress is not enough to hide the unoriginal and problematic themes for both women and men within the address. Since it was delivered as if these themes had never been discussed before, and since it is given so much credence by U.N. Officials, Youtube watchers, and pundits, it is worthwhile to examine it against long-standing discussions on the matter.

“A real conversation must let men talk not only about feminist-approved topics," Young demands. Bringing this theme to the table as if it were revolutionary, without referencing any historic male efforts, suggests that it has not yet been done, or that it has been done ineffectively until Emma Watson and the U.N. did so. Extending “a formal invitation,” to men to join the discussion is not only trite and a bit patronizing, it is also unnecessary.

Men don’t need an invitation. Let’s extend that much to both their intelligence and their history.
One man, for example, already presented the idea to the U.N. nearly a decade ago: “My word of thanks to women thus becomes a heartfelt appeal that everyone, and in a special way States and international institutions, should make every effort to ensure that women regain full respect for their dignity and role.” That man was Pope St. John Paul II, in his June 29, 1995 “Letter to Women,” issued prior to the United Nations Fourth International Conference on Women, held in Beijing.

Institutions which have endured the test of time and the purification of fire have something to say on the matter. “In this vast domain of service, the Church's two-thousand-year history,” said the late pontiff, “for all its historical conditioning, has truly experienced the 'genius of woman.'”

Complementarity might be at the root of Watson’s speech, but we wouldn’t know it, and neither would she. Her lack of deference to older, wiser contributors to the discussion makes a truly new contribution impossible. Several good points are hinted at in the brief speech, but lines of logic are ambiguously glazed over, nullifying and ignoring the gravity of their potential fruition and ultimate importance. In fact, she ends up on a different path than the one on which she started. And then doesn’t tell us how she got there. (Read more.)