Enslaving Women - Not Just Fundies

The liberal blogosphere has finally caught onto the dirty secret - all politics is gender politics, actually politics of anxious masculinity. Here are some good articles/posts about this:

The Fundamentalist Agenda
http://www.uuworld.org/2004/01/feature2.html

Strengthening Marriage to retain the White House and re-enslave women
http://seetheforest.blogspot.com/2004_12_01_seetheforest_archive.html#110262369177395037

Fundies And Facists
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/001778.html#001778

Evolutionary Theology
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2004_12_05_digbysblog_archive.html#110226934277166780


All those are fine, actually great posts. They get one thing wrong, though, and it is a big thing. They ascribe the anti-woman movement to the Religious Right movement only. It is NOT! It is the underlying animal impulse of all conservatism - the very core value of conservatism. Homophobia comes right out of it. Racism comes right out of it. Anti-environmentalism comes right out of it. Gun ownership comes right out of it. Patriot Act came right out of it. Waging constant wars comes right out of it. Every damn conservative "value" can be traced straight back to the guys' fear of women, fear of sexual incompetence, fear of being perceived feminine, and fear of lack of control in dealing with women. It is fear of being weak. All their macho posturing is just a cover for a deep insecurity about masculinity. And it is a result of upbringing - Strict Father begets Strict Father. I have written repeatedly about this. More I think about the Lakoffian scheme, more I parse the details away and mysoginy is the only thing that remains. More I read other stuff (Ducat, Parenti, Frank), more I see that sexism is the essence of conservative worldview. Everything else is just a logical outgrowth. Read some of my older longer posts on the topic, e.g., :

http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/2004/08/moral-politics-in-context-of-history.html

http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/2004/08/definition-semantics-and-future-of.html

http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/2004/08/gay-marriage-and-marriage-tax.html

http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/2004/09/moral-order.html

http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/2004/09/bush-is-girlie-man.html

http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/2004/09/nurturant-is-not-coddly.html

http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/2004/10/femiphobia.html

http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/2004/10/links-ignorance-faith-fear-of.html

http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/2004/11/two-americas-past-present-and-future.html

...and others.