Hollywood and morality don’t really go together, yet somehow the media is full of moral preening from celebrities. Just like a fashion that goes in and out of style, Hollywood has causes du jour that are supposed to awaken America from her supposed capitalistic slumber.
Unsurprisingly, last week’s celebration at the Golden Globes was a display of vanity run amok. Of course, it was political. Of course, it was leftist. Of course, it was humorless. The highlight of the evening was Oprah Winfrey’s speech given upon the acceptance of the Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement in the entertainment industry. It lasted almost 10 minutes without any interruption, covering the whole gamut of identity politics: feminism and race relations all peppered with New Age gnostic vision as manifested through the Oracle, Oprah.
Naturally, the #MeToo movement was one of the main topics of Oprah’s meandering speech. It is no secret that one of Oprah’s causes has been what she deems the “betterment” of little girls, and it only made sense that she would use the opportunity of the #MeToo movement to promote that cause. Among many things she said in the speech, one of them particularly caught my attention: “…I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when this new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again.” It was as if Oprah lived for this moment, coming full circle, fulfilling her destiny which only she could have imagined and realized.
Apart from the obviousness of this Manichean proclamation—the certainty that evil (namely sex abuse and rape) can once and for all end—there is also another aspect of her speech that is far more real than any prophetic statement. Oprah spoke to the “little girls,” omitting any mention of the boys.
You may say “what is wrong with wanting betterment of little girls?” Nothing, of course! But men and masculinity have been under attack. Men are urged to apologize for their mere existence and for the simple fact of, well, being men. In the same way, boys are taught from early on that they have no worth or at least that they have less value than the girls. In both secondary and higher education, young men are suppressed while young women are encouraged to go into male-dominated fields simply because the fields are made up of men and they need more women.
This bizarre psychology and pedagogy is destined to destroy boys’ understanding of who they are. First, it is designed to destroy the regard they have for themselves. They are asked to see themselves as disposable (men, who needs ‘em! “You go girl!”) and worthless. We are playing with fire here. This kind of experience can manifest in a few ways among boys as they grow up: anger, depression, or anxiety. If we thought coping with overly exuberant male nature was difficult, what do we suppose we will get in trying to undermine it?
Boys, by nature, have the need to experience life outwardly rather than inwardly. By suppressing this very significant aspect of boyhood, society is creating both emasculated and very angry men.
Feminists are trying to “save” the girls but the stubbornness and inhumanity of feminism is hurting the girls by denying the boys’ existence. This may sound too obvious but we live in a society in which we relate to each other. Relationships, families, and communities are created out of these interactions. If we suppress one sex, then the other will have a skewed vision and understanding of that sex. As a result, the relationship between them is more likely to be destructive than creative. This, by the way, also applies to societies that suppress (or selectively eliminate) girls.
Just like any other ugly head of identity politics, feminism refuses to see boys and girls as human beings with their essence in common. People are not seen as individuals but instead as a series of collectives that can be used for the purposes of advancing ideology. If boys are told that they are existentially worse than girls, then their interior lives will immediately begin to deteriorate. Girls, on the other hand, will grow up in world that is not based on reality but on a manufactured and processed notion of excellence that has no basis in reality apart from the continued push for it. Should they ever manage to enact this reality, it will be one where standards are very low and success has no satisfactory meaning. Not being idiots, girls will understand and resent this at some point.
Ideology kills creativity and the human spirit. People like Oprah may think that they are engaging in spiritual warfare against male oppressors and that she is creating, ex nihilo, a new age of rule by women where everything is in perfect harmony. Not exactly. They are nothing more than ideologues who force a euphemistic equality of sameness. This is a dystopian reality where girls are mollycoddled, can do no wrong, and go completely unchallenged intellectually or morally. Conversely, boys are neglected, are always wrong, and if they show any intellectual force or physical might, they are quickly suppressed.
Our world functions, biologically and mythologically, on the principles of the masculine and the feminine. If one principle is neglected, favored, or is in the process of active destruction, then we can only expect an imbalance that will render men and women disoriented as they attempt to relate to each other.