Quickies: They Claim to Be Men’s Equals

     ...but demand all sorts of special conditions and exemptions:

     Mood swings, depression, tiredness, fatigue, irritability, anxiety, reduced cognitive ability, aggression, anger, sleep disorders and food cravings. One of the fun things about having a womb is that the aforementioned are simply considered par for the course. That's your lot. Sorry gals, but if you've got the temerity to be biological, then you're also going to have to suffer the psychological.

     The relationship between female hormones and mental health is a razor-sharp, gravel-scattered line to walk for a woman like me, because of course we should take the time to consider this shit. As Gloria Steinem argued in If Men Could Menstruate, were the bleeding tables tipped to the other gender, "Doctors would research little about heart attacks, from which men would be hormonally protected, but everything about cramps."

     (Link courtesy of InstaPundit.) The author, Nell Frizzell, has produced a perfect refutation of the notion of female mental stability. But the next two sentences, for me at least, are the blockbusters:

     We're not a second sex and this stuff is worth the investment of our time and attention, not to mention money. But as a woman who cries, cuts all her hair off and then realizes two days later as her gusset fills with blood that it was that pesky progesterone all along, I am extremely wary of painting women as somehow weaker as a result of our hormones.

     Clearly, Miss Frizzell wants it both ways. But she can’t have that. Either female biological cycles, at least before menopause, predispose a woman to flightiness, mood swings, and irregular fits of irrationality, or they don’t. In the former case, women should receive men’s tender consideration for their vulnerability and our firm protection from it. In the latter, they should get neither of those things – i.e., they should be held to the same standards as men.

     Neither set of consequences matches the demands of feminist activists.

     To me, this indicates that it is vital that women – at least women in the age band before menopause strikes – should have no vote, be barred from public office, and have no say in public affairs. It’s responsibility enough (and risky enough) to let them manage a household. If it can be established scientifically that at some time after menopause a women’s mental stability rises to equal that of a man, perhaps she could have the franchise, but not before!

     You, my Gentle Readers, should draw your own conclusions. But when you’ve done so, exercise caution about where and to whom you express them. Remember: as matters stand, she could abuse you physically and would probably get cleanly away with it, but should you lift a hand to defend yourself, you’d be charged with felony assault and battery.

     That’s the world we live in.