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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Women and Voting

This following section of a review (and critique) of GK Chesterton included a section on politics, where he discusses my favorite author's approach to women in that field.
Now this is certainly not a position you will find is represented in today's politics (even the reviewer goes on to note that the these sexual differences are environmentally produced and are not genetically determined). But I suppose it is often helpful to review and stretch ourselves with old questions.
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G. K. Chesterton, a Criticism By Cecil Chesterton

In another text, I recall that he also finds the prospect of women fighting in battle to be quite disagreeable. However, he found it disagreeable because of their strength, not because of their weakness (a modern excuse). He thought that the attachment of women to an object of desire was so strong and so obsessive that women in battle would be fanatics and absolutely uncontrollable (this tells us something about his expectations of war as well).

3 comments:

  1. I find this repulsive to read. I disagree. I think that stating just on gender is narrow minded. To put women as all the same is weak, and I feel sorry for him for not meeting a woman with a brain.

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  2. Thanks for the comment, Kat. I was waiting for someone to yell. It's a healthy thing to do at times.

    I tend to agree with him that there are quite essential differences between men and women, but I strongly doubt this is one of them. Basically, I think he gave women too much credit. He thought that women were above the common fray that politics required and that they wouldn't be interested in such silly play things.

    I'd also have to disagree with your disappointment that he met no women with a brain. He might've said that women "understand everything except three things", but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he followed that up by saying that men understand only those three things. I can't seem to find, however, the essay it was written in, so I can't look it up to confirm.

    I appreciate the comment, though. I think it's helpful for me to think through things I disagree with from the lips of a man I find easy to agree with.

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  3. I wonder too if it's because he saw home life as much more "real" than politics. We tend to see politics as the central aspect of our lives, where he saw it as a necessary sidebar, whereas family, food, home, songs, art, and imagination filled his center.

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