What's up with this guy?

Thanks to Ed at Dispatches for the head's-up about this article in the World "Nut" Daily. I love the method of how this article unconsciously appeals to a slightly sympathetic reader, since it shows a typical method of justifying a bigoted viewpoint by saying upfront that what follows is not a bigoted viewpoint. (Just like what that foul-mouthed Oklahoman legislator did the other day.)

Here's how I read the piece (with parenthetical comments):

Women are more depressed than men. Why? (Based on this opening rhetoric, I'm sure you're about to construct a strawman that you will easily destroy.)

I have a radio show. I've talked to many women about men-and-women issues on that show. I've informally counseled women over the years, and I've come to my own conclusion as to the root of female depression: feminism. (<-- Note the entrance of the strawman argument.) Before I continue in saying how bad I think feminism as a concept and a social movement is, I'd like to state that I'm not against feminism. Okay, now that I've made that completely empty gesture which puts me on the record that I'm not against feminism, I'll start bashing feminism. I'll start the bashing out softly by stating that the accomplishments of feminism - all good, mind - are unrelated to increased rates of depression in women. Feminism is - at the same time - good and depressing for women.

However, feminism increased women's expectations, which I wrote about in my book - here's a shameless plug. Having unfulfilled expectations leads to depression. Having fulfilled expectations does not lead to happiness, since having your expectations fulfilled only serves to undermines gratitude. (Funny how this sentiment seems to evoke derogatory statements like 'ungrateful b*tch,' but that must just be coincidence.)

Women in the past only had the expectations of house, husband, and home, and therefore were satisfied. But feminism undercut that satisfaction by letting women know that there was more to life: a career. (What about "a real life", "personal independence", and "demanding equal treatment for equal work"?)

I'm going to shamelessly plug my radio show now to let people know that depressed women in their 30s and 40s call in pining for the "good ole days." Now I'm going to generalize from these depressed women outward to the whole population by stating that most women would likely find house, husband, and home more fulfilling than a soul-sucking career. Just look at poor Lisa Nowak: her extreme jealousy only proves my point. (And Pranger wants us to think that her mindset can be extrapolated to the psychology of half the country? Pu-leez!)

I'll begin to tear down my strawman construct of feminism by stating as reasonbaly as I can that women and men need different things. Now I'll continue by the unvalidated claim that women need personal relationships to be happy, but not career work, while men need both work and personal relationships to be happy, and a man who can't give a good answer to, "What do you do?" feels a greater sense of emasculation than a woman could ever feel. Virtually no woman's identity is dependent on what she does for a living. (What is this guy on?) Men also work more hours than women, and are therefore superior, since I don't consider work in the home to be real work.

Women are disappointed with their jobs because they expected too much from work. Feminists promised a 50-50 split of household work (I don't recall this as a promise, but rather as a goal/demand of society), but this promise is usually an empty one, because men work outside the home, not inside it. Men don't have to change. It's women who must revert to the 1950s when they had only to live contentedly in the house, waiting for their husbands to return.

But this isn't the only reason women are depressed. There are more! Tune in later to read my inane driveling.

Yeaugh.