Tea at Trianon: The Flyover Women

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

Thursday, July 15, 2021

The Flyover Women

From Carrie Gress at The Federalist:

Adherents of radical feminism are five decades into a powerful campaign that seeks to shape the way American women think. Politics, fashion, Hollywood, academia, and media propagate a singular vision of womanhood, relying on savvy use of optics, messaging, and even make-up. These radical feminists have done a remarkable job of silencing or sidelining their critics.

Ironically, whether they know it or not, feminists’ unspoken premise insists men are superior to women and women must become like them in the pursuit of equality. Therefore, to be equal, women must be able to eliminate the consequences of sex, like men, and rid themselves of unborn children through unrestricted abortion. Abortion is the crux of most women’s policy issues and is at the heart of the greatest political divisions in the United States.

What we will never see in the splashy pages of Vanity Fair, for instance, are the many happy women who buck the feminist narrative, loving, nurturing, consoling, clothing, cleaning, and adoring their numerous children without trying to live like men. From Maine to Hawaii, these are the women who have opened themselves up to the dramatic and self-sacrificial love required when one person truly loves another. They carry children in their wombs, their arms, their hearts, their minds.

They know the preciousness of a tender embrace from small arms, a little face learning to offer kisses, the peppering of questions from a curious child, and the dig-deep challenges of teenagers—sometimes all in the same hour. Some know the struggle of children with broken bodies, or broken minds, or both. And some know the gaping hole that will never be filled when a child or children are lost. But among them all, there isn’t a single regret in bringing another soul into the world.

While the Huffington Post just announced that “Child-free women are having a bit of a moment in the media,” one wonders what they think the last 50 years have been.

Fly-over women are the moms and daughters and wives and sisters and friends the media overlooks because they are religious or frumpy or don’t have sexy day jobs. They are considered uneducated doormats. Their bodies are often tired, hair not always perfectly coiffed, and nails rarely manicured. Their homes may not be camera-ready, their meals probably aren’t gourmet, and talking points aren’t ready on their tongues. But mostly, the issue is that they don’t believe in abortion and they do believe in the sanctity of marriage. (Read more.)