Tea at Trianon: The False Coin of 'Christian' Feminism

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

Friday, June 17, 2022

The False Coin of 'Christian' Feminism

From Church Militant:

All feminist theory does, in fact, harken back to a common nucleus. According to Rory Dicker, feminists of every stripe want to "liberate women from the constraints and oppressions caused by patriarchy, a social system in which men rule" (A History of U.S. Feminisms [Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2008], 8). And as Carol Hay writes, "If there’s one theoretical concept that's central to feminist philosophy, it's oppression" (Think Like a Feminist [New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2020], 31). Not just any oppression, mind you. Hay makes quite clear that patriarchal oppression is the feminist's bête noire, raging that the world's social institutions — e.g., the family, the workplace, religion, culture and media — "unfairly disadvantage women while unfairly privileging men" (ibid.). The essence of feminism, it can thus be said, is the desire to upend the rule of men over women; to "smash the patriarchy," as the barren purple-haired viragos are fond of chanting. It is an ideology designed to "free" women and to usher in sexual equality.
The problem is, patriarchy is part of the divine plan and absolute equality is not. And that's why there is no Christian feminism. Let the modern egalitarian take heed of Pope Pius X's exhortation that "women in war or parliament are outside their proper sphere, and their position there would be the desperation and ruin of society; woman, created as man's companion, must so remain under the power of love and affection, but always under his power." Let him be mindful of Pius XI's admonition, in Divini Redemptoris, that "it is not true that all have equal rights in civil society. It is not true that there exists no lawful social hierarchy." (Although, it would also behoove many "Trad" men, who I fear do straddle the line of genuine misogyny, to simultaneously keep close to their hearts Pope Francis' remonstration that "women have much to tell us in today's society; at times, we men are too machista [chauvinistic].") (Read more.)