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Thursday, December 21, 2006
(2:18 PM) | Stephen:
Pure Genius

Via TBogg, Mary Grabar, writing for Townhall.com, has a column that begins,

After watching The View and following the inane statements made on the program, I’ve come to the conclusion that it really is true what Aristotle, Saint Paul, and John Milton said: Women, without male guidance, are illogical, frivolous, and incapable of making any decisions beyond what to make for dinner.
I'm not sure about John Milton, maybe he did say that. I've read most of Nicomachaen Ethics, but I don't remember very much, and I understood hardly any of it. But weren't the ancient Greek philosophers members of MAMBLA - Mediterranean Area Man-Boy Love Association?

St. Paul has proven difficult for many reasons, not least of which is what some of his letters say about women. But he never said what Grabar accuses him of saying.

Anyway, I just don't understand this type of thinking. Not when it comes from a man, and certainly not when it's a woman spewing it out. I was going to call it "self-loathing," but then I had images of Sanpete writing in the comments, "She probably doesn't think of it as self-loathing, etc. etc." So, ok. But it is a really low opinion of herself, not just the women on The View or Hillary Clinton.

The thing is, I can't stand The View either. It is silly, shallow and irritating. There is in fact very little intellectual content on it. Of course, it's a group of entertainers sitting around talking. I don't think that Bill Maher's shows have all that much going for them intellectually. In fact, massive amounts of brainpower are conspicuously lacking on most of television, radio, the movies and music. We don't pay these people to be smart, we pay them to entertain us. This is true of our news programs as well as our sitcoms and daytime talk shows.

That Grabar would use the lack of mental prowess on the part of The View's participants - or at least, the characters they present to us - as a jumping off point for indicting all women as stupid is, of course, much more illustrious of her own character and mental faculties than anyone else. Lowering the level of discourse below that of The View is quite an accomplishment. Perhaps her husband should set her straight and ensure that she doesn't write more columns like this, or at all.

After a quick Googling: Grabar has a Ph.D. And I can find no mention of her husband. Interesting that she was able to earn a Ph.D, unless it was some sort of handicapped women-only degree that isn't too taxing on the female brain. More interesting that her husband is not more prominent in her bio and various online information about her. Since he is the one who allows her to do all these silly things like earn degrees, write and teach, his benevolence and mentoring should be cited as much as possible. If this stuff is just coming from her without the input of a man, why should we take her seriously?



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