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Isaac Willour #transphobia #wingnut blog.acton.org

We know what women are. They don’t. Now what?

“Nature always tells us the truth, even if we don’t want to hear it.” So begins the latest cinematic offering from the Daily Wire, What Is a Woman? The documentary is stirring up controversy with its sarcastic cultural analysis and skillful showcasing of extreme social absurdity. Conservative political commentator Matt Walsh’s dry style of comedic narration carries him from a therapist’s office to the halls of American academia to the Women’s March to Kenya and back, all in a quest to answer the seemingly simple question, What is a woman?

Many elite figures in America’s major institutions, including those dedicated to science, academia, and therapy, are either unwilling or unable to answer simple questions about basic biology. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the perspective Walsh brings, it’s hard to argue that his point—that this state of affairs is odd, to say the very least—isn’t made in a persuasive fashion.

In contrast, Walsh travels to the Masai tribe in Kenya, where questions about gender and a “man trapped in a woman’s body” are greeted with incredulity and mockery by local tribesmen.

It also exposes examples of ethically questionable research performed in the name of gender theory, such as Money’s experimenting with the sex reassignment surgery of David Reimer, a man raised as a girl after genital mutilation, who committed suicide at 38 after undergoing the surgery

So … “What is a woman?” Answers run the gamut from “I don’t know” to “Marry one and find out,” the latter provided by renowned author and psychologist Jordan B. Peterson. In the end, Walsh returns to his home to ask his wife the film’s titular question, to which he receives the answer “an adult human female.” The case the documentary seeks to make is simple: left-leaning Americans can’t even say what a woman is, including academics and therapists. They’re so unwilling to answer that question that they’ll encourage dangerous medical treatments for young people with gender dysphoria. Meanwhile, these Kenyan tribespeople can answer it without hesitation and seem not to care about gender theory. How absurd is this contrast?

Joseph Sunde #fundie blog.acton.org

[From "Work is a gift our kids can handle"]

The abundant prosperity of the modern age has brought many blessings when it comes to child-rearing and child development, offering kids new opportunities for education, play, and personal development. Yet even as we celebrate our civilizational departure from excessive child labor, we ought to be wary of falling into a different sort of lopsided lifestyle.

Alas, as a day-to-day reality, work has largely vanished from modern childhood, with parents constantly stressing over the values of study and practice and “social interaction” even as they insulate their children from any activity that might involve risk, pain, or boredom. As a result, many of our kids are coming far too late to the arena of creative service and all it brings: dignity, meaning, freedom, virtue, creativity, character, and neighbor love.

Operating out of a justified fear of the harsh excesses of “harder times,” we have allowed our cultural attitudes to swing too far in the opposite direction, distorting work as a “necessary obligation of adulthood,” a gift too dangerous for kids. Working from these same distorted attitudes, the Washington Post recently published what it described as a “haunting” photo montage of child laborers from America’s rougher past.

The photos surely point to times of extreme lack, of stress and pain. But as Jeffrey Tucker rightly detects, they also represent the faces of those who are actively building enterprises and cities, using their gifts to serve their communities, and setting the foundation of a flourishing nation, in turn. Turns out there is dignity and meaning in that, too:

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In our modern context, loosening up the existing “system” need not (and should not) put our children at risk of 12-hour work days in extreme and dangerous conditions. As Tucker concludes, the current economic avenues for unskilled labor are actually prime territory for introducing our children to risk and service, never mind the side effects of practical education and character cultivation:

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For example, as families, what if we were to rethink our approach to “allowances,” or paid labor in the household in general? What if we were to be more intentional about creating opportunities for work for our kids, or simply to more closely disciple our children toward a full understanding of the role of their work in honoring God and serving neighbor? In our schools and educational systems, what if we stopped prioritizing “intellectual” work to the detriment of practical knowledge and physical labor, paving new paths to a more holistic approach to character formation? In our policy and governing institutions, what if we put power back in the hands of parents and kids, dismantling the range of excessive legal restrictions, minimum wage fixings, and regulations that lead our children to work less and work later? (This could be something as simple as letting a 14-year-old work a few hours a week at a fast-food restaurant or grocery store.)

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Let us not just teach our children to play hard and study well, shuffling them through a long line of hobbies and electives and educational activities. A long day’s work and a load of sweat have plenty to teach as well.