The Roar That Has Become a Whimper

                     The Roar That Has Become a Whimper

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 2/4/18

            Helen Reddy’s 1971 song, “I am Woman, Hear Me Roar,” was a huge hit.  It rallied feminists and warned men that they had better watch out.  After all, a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.

            Oh, the halcyon days of the 70’s when women were rising up.  I was working amongst a terrific group of hardworking women who, although they liked the song, often altered it by saying, “I am woman, I am tired.”

            The 60’s were actually the decade when women began to trumpet their declaration of independence.  But a declaration is just that: a declared statement of intent.  It was the 70’s that brought the parades, protests, shouting, and the flinging of bras.  They also brought us Ms. Magazine, the National Organization for Women (Jerry Falwell was kidding; N.O.W. didn’t stand for National Order of Witches), the Equal Rights Amendment (which failed to pass in Congress), and the legalization of killing unborn babies (Roe v. Wade).

            For four decades, now, women have roared.  Not all women, but certainly those who are members of the National Order … I mean, National Organization of Women. Though dwarfed by the conservative Concerned Women of America, N.O.W. has, of course, enjoyed the affection of the media and the Democratic Party.

            But why has the roar turned into a cry for help in the last 12 months?  Well, because the times they are achanging.  Again.  Sexual freedom and women’s liberation aren’t what the radical feminists thought they would be.  Men are still men, and some of them are savages.  Radical feminists have gone from “Hear me roar” to “Help! Abuse! Assault!

            Please follow this line of thought so that you don’t misinterpret it.  Women who are disrespected, mistreated, or assaulted should say so.  They should roar.  Whatever happened to the burning slap of yesteryear across a man’s face?  Long before Helen Reddy, Gloria Steinem, and the N.O.W., Barbara Stanwyck, Susan Hayward, Lana Turner, and other women of film showed females how to respond to aggressive men. You stand your ground.  You say something.  Right then.   Not years later.

            Yes, Stanwyck, Hayward and company were actresses, but art is the imitation of life.  In their movies men were still men, women were still women, and women were strong.  Even movies reflected this.

            Ironically, women’s “liberation,” or what is called liberation, has weakened women.  Liberalism’s and Hollywood’s devotion to sexualizing the nation has come home to roost, and women aren’t helped by it.  “Free love” hasn’t been free after all.  Those who from the beginning opposed the avalanche of “sexual freedom,” abortion on demand, pornography, nudity, and ill-anchored sex education were called prudes and Puritans.  They were ridiculed by an increasingly secular culture.

            But consider what the Sexual Revolution has brought us.  That which was supposed to be liberating has become counterproductive and oppressive.  Even men who would never flirt or hit on a woman have been affected by it.  Who would have thought the day would come when real men (those who treat women as they should be treated) would have to walk on egg shells around the women with whom they work, fearful of accusations?

            Did women, when they entered into traditionally male workplaces, think they would not get attention?  Did men, seeing all around them the changing sexual dynamics, not realize that one day simple chivalry would bring an allegation?

            The root word of civilization is civil which means the opposite of savage.  In the last 12 months a long list of savages from the entertainment world, sports, and politics has made the news.  Their accusers, instead of viewing bad conduct for what it is – disregard for female virtue – call it “disrespectful of our dignity.”

            No, no.  The savages, or those who are actually guilty of sexual assault, were taking advantage of women.  A New York Times editorial recently declared that all of the allegations piling up against men are the result of “the brutality of male sexuality that can only be tamed by the realization of complete equality between the sexes.”

            Good grief!  Savage men behaving savagely and the solution is – still! – equality of the sexes?  No, the solution is a Lana Turner slap and some old-fashioned morals.  The solution is to see sexual chaos for what it is: the result of abandoning traditional views of sexuality.  There is no equality of the sexes.

            The New Morality hasn’t worked.  It has produced the Old Immorality, brutes, and no doubt, a few lying women.

Roger Hines

1/31/18