Thursday, February 13, 2014

Dude, she's still a princess

Charles Blow fails to realize that he's admitted to a failure of fatherhood:
One day when my twins, a boy and a girl, were about 7 years old, we were out running errands.

We left one store and headed for the car. I entered the driver’s door, my son got in the front passenger door, but I noticed that I didn’t hear a rear door open and close.

I looked around to see that my daughter was still outside the car — her arms crossed, one hand clutching a little green purse made of stiff paper — staring disapprovingly at the door.

I rolled down the back window and asked, “What are you doing?”

She responded, “I’m a princess, and princesses don’t touch doorknobs.”

Having no idea where she had gotten such a notion, I was equal parts amused and irritated by it. I said, “Get in the car, sweetheart.” She repeated her refusal.

This was now a standoff.

So, I started to inch the car forward as if I was going to leave without her. She jumped in the car in a huff: “Why didn’t you open that door for me, Williams?”

“Who is Williams?” I asked.

“You,” she said. “On TV when people have servants they’re always called Williams or something like that.”

I had had enough. I turned in my seat and explained to her that, yes, I did call her my princess, and although I loved her dearly, I would not pamper her. I told her that her value and worth were not in what men would do for her, but in what she could do for herself. I told her that in our family, as in life, she would have to be self-sufficient and self-reliant, and that included deigning to touch doorknobs, or in this case, car door handles. And I told her that if she ever called me Williams again, she would be punished.

Williams disappeared into the ether.

Now my daughter is a high school junior, a great student who often makes the honor roll, and a championship fencer who is ranked No. 2 in the country in her age group and weapon. She wants to go to college and study to become a doctor.

She has blossomed into the self-assured, self-sufficient and self-reliant young woman I hoped she’d become, and she now rails against, and writes about, gender bias and gender stereotype. But she still likes to carry a nice purse. Some things never change.

When I think of my amazing young lady going off into a world where there is still a gender-pay gap, it makes me furious.
So, his daughter is about to go off to university, where women are coddled and men are punished for the crime of being male, and he's already preemptively outraged by the fact that she might get paid less if she decides to work fewer hours than her hypothetical male counterparts.

Then again, perhaps she'll get lucky and hook up with a lazy, unemployed guy with a prison record who is content to live off her salary. That's a model that is not exactly unheard of in the Black community, after all. Won't that be empowering!

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Male feminists are the worst kind.

Laguna Beach Fogey said...

Maybe it's just me, but I like to imagine a slightly different conversation:

"If you don't touch that doorknob, the back of my hand is going to touch the side of your face. Now get in the f****** car."

"Yes sir."

Dexter said...

Self-sufficient and self-reliant, eh? She's in high school, so my guess is that she lives at home and is totally dependent on her parents, and will be for at least four more years. So what exactly do "self-sufficient and self-reliant" mean in this context?

Mustang Mike said...

Curious, what is the correct response?

Anonymous said...

They can't have it both ways. You can't have fathers having authority over their children, and also eliminate the "gender pay gap." The two things come from the same underlying reality. Give women equal pay and say in the workplace, and you get rid of fatherhood, as we've already seen to a large extent.

Anonymous said...

Just noticed this: she "often" makes the honor roll, and she wants to be a doctor? When you don't make the honor roll, that means some C's, right? In my day, B-C students didn't set their sights on medicine. Does being female give her that much of a -- oh wait, she's black too. Never mind.

Cluttermonkey said...

You know what they say right?

Die beste Freude ist die Schadenfreude.

Miguel D'Anconia said...

What a dildo head. Hey dillweed, the gender pay gap is for men. In the professional ranks thanks to affirmative action (or "diversity") BS, women with the same level of experience, qualifications, etc. are usually paid more than men. This jack wagon needs to eat a fist.

Bob Loblaw said...

They can't have it both ways. You can't have fathers having authority over their children, and also eliminate the "gender pay gap." The two things come from the same underlying reality. Give women equal pay and say in the workplace, and you get rid of fatherhood, as we've already seen to a large extent.

The gender pay gap is a myth. If that's enough to end fatherhood, then fatherhood is over.

Anonymous said...

Just noticed this: she "often" makes the honor roll, and she wants to be a doctor? When you don't make the honor roll, that means some C's, right? In my day, B-C students didn't set their sights on medicine. Does being female give her that much of a -- oh wait, she's black too. Never mind.

You actually don't need to be that bright to be a doctor anymore. In fact, it might be a strike against you. I know so many people I would never have thought were doctor material become doctors. As long as you are pulling a 3.25 in high school you could become one if you wanted to put in the effort.

Way back in my high school you made the Dean's list if you had a 3.5 semester GPA with no Cs, oh and just to make sure it wasn't a fluke you had to back it up with a cumulative 3.25 GPA.

The black thing always has me curious. I mean sure they should be glad their daughter gets to go to an Ivy league, but can they really take pride in it.

Eric Wilson said...

Lol. Fencing? What an Uncle Tom.

Salt said...

Well, if she's a doctor she can sew his low riding trailer pants "up".

Tommy Hass said...

It amazes me how people with an IQ over 80 could actually believe in a "pay gap" in the manner it is advertised. Hell, I think you're doing it a disservice by linking it to fewer hours worked Vox. The far more obvious and unassailable argument would be that they take piss-easy jobs that justifiably pay less. For example, how many women work for the construction of record breaking sky scrapers?

The "pay gap" means that the average male full-time worker earns more than the average female worker. What they don't tell you is WHERE they work. This claim is morose right from it's inception. To not target it in this manner would be, well, inefficient.

Californio_6th_ gen said...

This is the same guy he scorns criticism of Obama - you know, the same Obama who pays the women at the White house a significantly LOWER amount of money. (look it up). Maybe Mr. Blow's daughter can get a job working for Obama - the honor itself should eliminate the sting of receiving less money than the White, Ivy league insiders.

Dexter said...

I also hear that White House staff are treated like shit, so the young Ms. Blow would get to see what happens when blacks have power over other blacks.

ZeitgeistX said...

I hope he has a son too, to balance out the bias that he feels for his daughter. I have a son and a daughter. I fear for his future more than hers. I have given her a reasonable background in philosophy and its branches so that she can know the elements of a "good society", and to know the true nature of men and women. Mr. Blow is suffering from a false idealism because he hopes for a world that will be biased towards his daughter. I teach my children the idealism of Aristotle and the Bible, along with a healthy dose of Machiavellian realism. Only in this way can they have a balanced approach to the world. Mr. Blow has only taught entitlement and privilege to his daughter, and as an African-American father, he carries the victim mentality of the Civil Rights movement and thus senses that his daughter faces a double tyranny. We know however, that this fear mongering is a fabrication of those who wish to tear down the strong rather than constructively empower the weak.

NateM said...

Don't date a girl who travels " More right than the author even knows. This hamster just went full Chris Benoit.

"But for every flaw on her skin, she has an interesting story to tell."

Which he will will be annoyed by while he's trying to flirt with a more attractive, less weather beaten woman. Monuments may look impressive from ages of exposure to the elements, but you are not Thomas Jefferson, and nobody gives a shit.

"Her soul craves for new experiences and adventures."

Read:cock

" She will be unimpressed with your new car and your expensive watch. She would rather climb a rock or jump out of an airplane than hear you brag about it."

Which she will be so uninterested in, she will no doubt tell you. Until you jam an ice pick into your ear for the sweet relief of silence.

"he is a freelancer. She makes money from designing, writing, photography or something that requires creativity and imagination."

What exactly she doesn't know, as she has no discernible talent that has any market value. Wait, is being a camwhore creative?

"Don't waste her time complaining about your boring job. "

I mean, unless you make all that money that escapes her in her utterly languorous existence of seeking momentary thrills over actually developing a life.

"Her days are ruled by the sun and the moon."

read:tingle

There's more. I just shoved my thumbs into my eye sockets at this point to scour the stupid from my face before it set in.

Anonymous said...

Self-sufficient and self-reliant, eh? She's in high school, so my guess is that she lives at home and is totally dependent on her parents, and will be for at least four more years. So what exactly do "self-sufficient and self-reliant" mean in this context?

It could mean what Ayn Rand called a "self-sufficient ego": confidence in one's own worth, judging oneself by one's own standards rather than according to what others think. I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt on that.

NateM said...

"Self Sufficient ".

Aquinas Dad said...

" I told her that her value and worth were not in what men would do for her, but in what she could do for herself."
Both false, of course.

Desiderius said...

"judging oneself by one's own standards rather than according to what others think."

Those are not the only two options.

Joseph Dooley said...

"self-assured, self-sufficient and self-reliant young woman"

Me, me, me!!

Anonymous said...

Daughter is a junior in HS and he is worried about her future fictional pay gap? What a 'tard. He should be worried that she gets pregnant in the next 6 months and never makes it to college. Or that she will choose to throw his money away learning something stupid at a HBC so she can get the "whole college experience". or that she will drop out after 2.5 years because she got a reputation and now she can't show her face at school.

Dexter said...

It could mean what Ayn Rand called a "self-sufficient ego": confidence in one's own worth, judging oneself by one's own standards rather than according to what others think. I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt on that.

You're going to give him a pass on a stupid, nonsense definition of the terms self-sufficient and self-reliant? The man is a professional writer and should not get a pass on using the English language incorrectly. (Oh wait I forgot he is black and correct English is raciss...)

That aside, he is certainly NOT teaching her to judge herself by her own standards rather than according to what others think. He is teaching her to judge herself by the Leftist standards and according to what the other members of the Leftist mob think. In other words, to be a good member of the rabbit warren.

Natalie said...

@Nathaniel - Date a girl who travels because she'd rather watch a sunrise in the mountains and have sex in a tent than blow money on an overpriced spa weekend :D

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