Jane Ward is a Professor of Gender Studies at The University of California. A lesbian, she has written a book entitled “The Tragedy of Heterosexuality.” Her main thesis appears to be that Men and Women don’t fundamentally like each other and that heterosexual relationships exacerbate inequality. The implication, of course, is that there is nothing “natural” about such relationships. Her utterly non-scientific narrative is fraught with the sort of generalizations and stereotypes that are the stock and trade of the political Left yet she is allowed to teach it at the university level as a source of some apparent value.
I must confess that I have not, nor do I intend to read her book, but as far as I can ascertain Ward is utterly unaware of both the power and nature of the attraction that binds heterosexual Men and Women together. This is hardly a subject that can be illuminated in a few paragraphs. But the currently trendy notion that Men pursue Women primarily to satisfy their carnal urges is a gross simplification of the facts. Are there jerks out there who are ruled by their penises? Of course. But if I am anything close to a “normal” heterosexual Male, I can say without a shred of doubt that Men find Women enchanting in a myriad of other ways and that, in spite of the hypotheses of books such as “The Beauty Myth,” that includes the vast majority of Women rather than just those picture-perfect icons celebrated by the czars of Hollywood and High Fashion.
That some Men objectify Women for sexual purposes while some Women objectify Men for economic reasons, is not a reflection of the inherent vileness of Heterosexuality but rather of the moral frailty of the entire species. That a significant number of Women continue to give priority to their roles as Mothers, roles which they clearly find fulfilling, is not a product of the “oppressive” nature of heterosexual marriages, but of inclinations imposed by Nature itself. Hence the fact that, in spite of the claims of Ward’s book, hundreds of millions of straight couples across the face of the planet are and appear to have always been in mutually enriching relationships throughout history! Do we not have the right to ask if her perspective is the product of some unresolved personal resentment of the heterosexual majority rather than a genuine interest in the Truth? Indeed is the sense of Victimization relentlessly cultivated by the Left not a serious impediment to real self-awareness?
The urge to demonize Heterosexuality because some heterosexual relationships are toxic is of the same merit as the notion that the Wealthy are all Capitalist pigs who have profited from the oppression of the poor or, as the Obamas keep telling us, that all White people are Racists whether they know it or not. Such is the level of the logic emanating from “progressives” in these Post-Rational days!
While I believe the Binary Gender Paradigm to be the Evolutionary Norm, no rational individual would ever think of judging another in terms of their sexual orientation. It’s simply not relevant to one’s worth as a human being. But given the absurd reverse discrimination that has taken possession of the Left, Ward is actually teaching her students that being biologically “normal” is somehow an abomination! If it seems unfair that I am using one of an apparently extremist view to demonize an entire political movement, you might want to consider just how much distance there is between her views and those of Nancy Pelosi who has effectively banished the use of Male/Female nouns and pronouns from the House of Representatives.