tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077809256320470141.post6816663400499137092..comments2023-12-25T01:24:48.957-05:00Comments on Republic of Gilead: Bill Bennett Talks to James Dobson About Abstinence, Feminists, GaysAhabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675629709031865432noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077809256320470141.post-8051099777644869162011-12-24T14:53:24.431-05:002011-12-24T14:53:24.431-05:00Wise Fool -- Whether she was actively discouraged ...Wise Fool -- Whether she was actively discouraged from using the word 'abstinence' or not, I cannot say. I do think that the belief that heterosexual married families are better than other types of families is an outdated and homophobic idea.<br /><br />Paul -- To be fair, Dobson and Bennett did defined masculinity in some positive terms (i.e., responsibility, courtesty), but unfortunately that doesn't erase their anti-feminism and homophobia. Healthy masculinity should not be reactionary.<br /><br />Pinkpackrat -- I think the Religious Right as a whole longs for a bygone era. Whether it actually existed as they imagine it is debatable.Ahabhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14675629709031865432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077809256320470141.post-8890753355485865262011-12-24T09:29:01.435-05:002011-12-24T09:29:01.435-05:00I had caught broadcast during the section about El...I had caught broadcast during the section about Elayne Bennett which you highlight above. I couldn't figure out why "abstinence" would be a forbidden word. Any guesses on that Ahab? If that is true, and if her program is as successful as Bill suggested, I could see the potential that that command is politically motivated. There could be an ounce of truth in Bill's statement.<br /><br />But it is funny that they don't understand why she shouldn't be allowed to say one type of family is preferred over another, and why they would even feel the need to do so. How long will they persist in the homosexuality-is-a-choice delusion? Unfortunately, I think it will be for about another decade before they rescind that position.TWFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06016277303703254572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077809256320470141.post-28612096244772631762011-12-24T08:39:08.274-05:002011-12-24T08:39:08.274-05:00It's always interesting when a neoconservative...It's always interesting when a neoconservative proposes to educate the public on what it means to be a man.<br /><br />That said, one problem I have with petite spirits like Bill Bennett and James Dobson educating folks on masculinity is that they seem unable to define what it means to be a man except to define it in reaction to something -- such as in reaction to feminism or to homosexuality. It makes me suspect they don't know what they're talking about.<br /><br />There is nothing really intrinsic to conservatism that prevents someone from being a man. It's just that today's conservative leadership -- unlike the conservative leadership of past ages -- are little more than whiners in the mode of a Dobson or a Bennett.<br /><br />Rudyard Kipling was in many ways as conservative as they come. Yet he seems to have been much more of a genuine man than today's reactionaries. His poem, <a href="http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/if.html" rel="nofollow">If</a> is good advice to either gender on what it means to be a genuinely adult man or woman.Paul Sunstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02462598852553696040noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077809256320470141.post-41014816081459845102011-12-24T05:00:35.560-05:002011-12-24T05:00:35.560-05:00Seems to me that Bennett and Dobson are longing fo...Seems to me that Bennett and Dobson are longing for a world that no longer exists.... a world in which men feel good about themselves at the expense of women and gays are locked firmly in closets and teenagers don't have sex with each other. That world has been gone since the 1950's and perhaps never really existed even then.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09600365870806305125noreply@blogger.com