All I can say is wow! And a point on #Me Too Politics

I am shifting gears slightly but still on topic.

First Wow...my post on Gender wars sure stirred up John huh?  Rather than getting into my first promised topic I had to take a deep breath after John's "Open" (chuckle) letter and say Wow.  This Blog entry has generated more page views than any except my first one (By the way I noticed in my Google stats that a few Page views of my Blog were from Russia! Seriously! President Trump, Robert Mueller and or Madam Clinton if you see my blogs all I can say is LEAVE US ALONE!).

Well maybe John's  email "advertisement" helped??? By the way it might be too late to say this but I  hope my friend John does not mind me using some of his letter in the near future to reiterate why I blog on and what I had hoped it would accomplish. In return I will not kick him off the island.....yet.

I am also thankful to my  Son James for weighing in his comments touched some issues I do intend to cover in later posts.

This post was supposed to be on Marriage, that will wait.  I had a couple of readers off  the record ask me why I felt it necessary to bring in the #Me Two stuff.  Heck, I know that plenty of women suffered in silence over the years from harassment and worse.  I am not here to challenge any particular "truth". However,  I do challenge the wholesale pushing of aggrievement  years later in the context of  "proper gender relations".  It is being used by many frankly as a way of continuing to divide us for political reasons.

So my reference was in the context of my post contending that men and women's situations have changed dramatically since say 1970 and I was simply bemoaning that the politics of gender now require new and rather unique forms of  showing Women's powerlessness. 

If you think I am a sexist pig or worse for daring to espouse such views I ask you to read this gift that came in my mailbox. I picked up my mail for the week from the Post Office today (2/24).  In Box was my Favorite Newspaper, The Stowe Reporter.  The Banner Headline was:

Removing barriers in harassment reporting.

The article is an Interview with the Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives (A women)

It is Dated 2/15/18

Here are the first several paragraphs in italics The Picture was from a Rally For Women in Montpelier over the new proposed regulations. I love Pink Hats

Mitzi Johnson remembers being told she was “a good little girl” when she first took her seat in the Vermont House of Representatives.

Johnson, a Democrat representing Grand Isle, has been a representative for 16 years and is in her second year as speaker of the House.

She’s in a strong position to push for reform in the Legislature’s sexual harassment policies.

“I came in as a very young person, a very young woman, and a member of the minority party,” Johnson said. “I pretty much had none of the currency of power in the Legislature.

“When I did have experiences of people repeatedly asking me out after I had said, ‘No, please stop, don’t do it anymore,’” she didn’t know where to turn.

And then there were the condescending remarks.

“I had a lot of people referring to me as a ‘good little girl,’ which I got a lot,” Johnson said. “I’m not a golden retriever. The worst offender of that was a guy my age, that I came in with. It was not fun.”

Johnson was the youngest woman in the Statehouse at the time, she said, but she was shortly followed by three more women close to her age.

“I know some of them experienced situations with somebody physically grabbing their backside,” she said. “Did stuff happen? Yes. That was also 15 years ago. I’m not saying everything has gotten all rosy since then, although I’m not hearing as much of that anymore.”

The article goes on to discuss legislation to further empower "men and women" to report all forms of harassment.  Boy I cannot wait.  When I go back to Vermont I can relate The Stowe Reporter my own  #Me Too moment at AIG in 1991 (Which I had I duly reported, showing evidence of this after which the women quietly resigned, from embarrassment.  She had been relentlessly stalking me for an affair and her husband was a NY City Judge with connections to AIG).  My goodness I probably still suffer mental anguish. 

I would be happy to send anyone a full copy of  Stowe Reporter article by email, as you need to be a subscriber to read online.

OK so here is how I see this article as in line with much of the political aspects of the #Me Too  Movement.

1.  Mitzi Johnson is A Democrat (Duh) who has been in the House for 16 years.  By my calculations that makes her a "freshmen"  a year or two AFTER Vermont became the first State to recognize the Union of 2 Women (or two men).  She was obviously "strong enough" in 2002 to run for office as a young women.   I love her reference to being "Powerless" in the Article.  She was elected to the State House for Pete's sake!

2.  Her apparent initial aggrievement was  getting called a "Good Little Girl", and being "asked out on a date by some people(?) repeatedly.  Oh my the humanity.  She does not say they were co-workers and from what I can tell they may have been either men or women or both.  They may even have been old boyfriends.  In an effort to further claim aggrievement she adds that some unnamed number out of 3 "female Representatives"  had their backside(s?) grabbed.  She makes it a point to say she was in the "minority party".  Thus implying that somehow that made her more even more helpless and inferring these were nasty Republicans grabbing asses and saying to her be a  "good little girl".  Assuming for a minute this story has some truth (it does not pass my smell test but maybe I am biased) then I ask you to "ponder" bullets 3 and 4.

3.  If you were voting for a person claiming that they will represent your interests in the State House would you still cast your vote for them if  they did not have the GUTS to tell some guy "Don't call me an F'ing little girl"?? ?  I would even say that to those unnamed elected female representatives whose asses were grabbed, heck, you  mean you didn't have the guts to kick him in the cajones or at least report it way back in the caveman days of 2004!  What kind of "invincible women" are you?  I sure am glad I elected you to fight for me!

I would hazard to guess before Helen Reddy, a woman's husband might go kick a guys ass for grabbing his wife or girlfriends ass.  Yes folks that is sarcasm.

4.  As to getting repeatedly asked out I suppose that  could be "harassment", I cannot tell if she was "stalked".  But if repeatedly asking someone out is sexual harassment that now somehow must be legislated and stopped how many of us would be married today???  I had to ask Barbara out about 10 times!

3.  My take on what old Mitzi is really thinking is "Since guys are not grabbing asses "much" anymore,  I will need to talk about all this terrible (Really?) unspecific old this stuff .  I do this in the name of exposing truth to power to try to stir up enough "anger" to advance more gender politics....in the most Progressive State in the Union"!!!!


This whole piece is drivel, and for the life of me and I cannot imagine how any self respecting women thinks that they are advancing their cause with this type of political justification for  new and updated "rules" to improve  Harassment Reporting. 

Coming from the Feminist writer for the Stowe Reporter this is no surprise.

Coming from one of the most powerful political women in Vermont makes me think "How did we get from an Invincible Helen Reddy to this in the Women's Movement?


With that I bid

Adieu

The Real Gender War?

I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an' pretend
'Cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep me down again

Oh yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong
(Strong)
I am invincible
(Invincible)
I am woman

Ray Burton and Helen Reddy 

May 1972

 OK readers please be forewarned this may be the last group of posts for Observations. Why? Because I am not sure that after this and the next few posts I will have many readers left.

Last week I "broached" the subject of gender differences, gently, in what one reader described to me was a very "PC" version. I confess it was intended to be lighthearted and fun, mainly because this topic outlines my concern for the long term prospects for our society.

For those of you who stick around for the  next several posts you may end up thinking I am an old "fuddy duddy" or worse may feel hurt by a few things I say.  However, I believe that some of the biggest and most frightening social changes in western society have occurred over the last several decades, out in the open, but ignored or, worse abetted by the most of the political and media elites in our society.  It will touch on issues I have pondered over since working with the United Way in Vermont.  It is a topic I have wanted to broach since I started my Blog but I have always feared any discussion may divide my readers into hostile camps, something I have grappled with as well.

So why do this now?  Basically because of some recent events.

When Donald Trump was elected President I actual had some hope that the shock would jolt some enlightenment into the  "Elites" as to what was actually happening in our society.  I foolishly hoped they might recognize that some of these social changes have been very bad for our society.  Maybe they would recognize that a lot of this major social reengineering had devastated swaths of our population who not only feel hopeless but persecuted.  In short we missed some long term implications of the sexual revolution.

What implication? Very specifically we now have had two and even three generations of males (40%? or more and growing in numbers) being raised with no gender reference or guidance, in homes headed by females.  A cycle that has now gotten so deep that it has its own self perpetuating "feedback" loop where perhaps half of all women in our country actually see the prospects of having a full time male spouse when they decide to bear children  just "ain't worth it". Even the Chinese cultural revolution did not yield such outcomes.

Unfortunately I was wrong.  Instead of grappling with how and why Bernie almost won the Democratic nomination, instead of self introspection on how Donald Trump attracted so many voters (to the media elites surprise) we got more of the same. Evidenced by Pink hatted women (and men) leading a charge of "not my president" and blaming sexism or worse, for their candidates loss.  In reality the loss was probably the fault of the candidate and their party  who called the huge number of males who have suffered the last 30 years, deplorables.  In fact still claiming they are the reason women have "still" not achieved "equality".  For these Millions  of men the idea that women have not achieved "equality" is a lie.  To "blame them" for continuing inequality is most disturbing. Throw in the "#metoo" movement now erupting and you might get the impression the cultural cleansing of men is just getting going!

I also had hoped those who call themselves "Fiscal Conservatives but Socially Liberals " might see the light that pure economic solutions will likely fail in the long run as because this is really a social issue. That does not seem to be happening either.

 I am convinced (and thus the "passion") that demographically we are already starting to face some very grim scenarios.

Since 9/11 many have speculated (correctly in my mind) about what do many young middle eastern men do when they face no economic prospects, little long term hope and lot's of time on their hands?  Well many embrace a radical religious fundamentalism,  become more sexist and blow up buildings and people.

So I speculate what millions of future young men that live in their parent(s?) basements with lowering economic prospects and no sense of what it means to be a "Man".  They lack male role models , and they lack a  sense that "gender matters" to the nuclear family.  In my mind they just may start finding some male bonding in Antifa or Aryan Nation.  They might self medicate with opioids and are already often mind medicated by schools and a beleaguard parent(s) for listlessness or ADD.  Evidence might even suggest they may become so lost that they shoot up schools.  Yes that last statement is my own thought but worthy of consideration when you consider some of the emerging trends in Opioid deaths and the overall skyrocketing of male mortality rates the last two or three years in the US(unthinkable just a few short years ago)   I should think this should be a signal of their malaise to all of us.

Ok so where can I go from here?  I guess a few more posts?

So my next post will give you thoughts on the decline of marriage, male abdication from child rearing and our very definition of acceptable child rearing.

After that I hope to touch on (in no particular order)

1. Traditional "Male" and "Female" Bonding and the blurring of these distinctions over the last few decades (My old college friends may even get some humor from that one).

2. Physical and emotional gender differences.

3.  Women and Men Competing in the Workplace.

4.  What hope is there of changing things so we all ( male and female) have better prospects and outcomes?

5.  Finally I hope at least some of you can provide me with some of your own thoughts as to why and how my thinking is flawed or off base!  I seriously invite you to do so.


Alright this post is already to long I still need to provide you with the basis for the claims I make above. To do so  I go back to what for me was a most enlightening study, written by a couple of MIT researchers a few years ago.  This research was commissioned by a group called "The Third Way" a group which, ironically, Bill Clinton in his "Centrist Democrat" days was once a supporter.

Alert- I mentioned this paper in a previous blog post and there will be a prize if one of you can tell me how and why I referenced it!
,
 While the researchers (see their profile below ) and I do not necessarily agree on all the "hypothesized" reasons and outcomes that are "good and bad ",(For example, I am not so sure that there claim these shifts have not had a negative impact on women are entirely true.  Life is not all about economics.)  I find the economic and social shifts they outline and the statistical evidence of these shifts is very compelling.  I have NOT fact checked all their statistics but the paper is "MIT" grade and to me appear intellectually rigorous.


Finally, I have included the a link to the ENTIRE paper with all it's attended charts and graphs  However,  if you find reading this to tedious you can get the gist of its' suppostions, hypothesis and content from some high level "overview" content by Third Way" and the authors. This was selected by yours truly and is presented  cut and paste in italics (note underlining and bold face are MY edits for emphasis).



So from portions of the Overview: "Wayward Sons" The Emerging Gender Gap in Labor Markets and Education

"It is widely assumed that the traditional male domination of postsecondary education, highly paid occupations, and elite professions is a virtually immutable fact of the U.S. economic landscape.     But in reality, this landscape is undergoing a tectonic shift. Although a significant minority of males continues to reach the highest echelons of achievement in education and labor markets, the median male is moving in the opposite direction. Over the last three decades, the labor market trajectory of males in the U.S. has turned downward along four dimensions: skills acquisition; employment rates; occupational stature; and real wage levels.

One can look at these findings and see either a glass “half empty” or a glass “half full.” On the more optimistic side the gains of women have been nothing less than stunning; a testament to the success of the feminist movement and the dedication of progressive politicians and activists to women’s rights. 

The paper documents a dramatic decline in the gender gap, a decline “...reflecting an increase in the skills and labor market experience of female workers as they have entered professional, managerial, and technical fields and reduced their concentration in traditionally female-dominated occupations such as teaching and nursing.” On the other hand the paper shows that women’s success has come about, in part, because of failure on the part of men. Over a period of time when the economic returns on education were increasing, male educational attainment—and therefore income—has stagnated..  

As the authors admit, there are no easy answers to why the gender gap between men and women has opened up in such an unexpected direction. They show that “simple shifts in occupational structure are insufficient to explain the puzzle of declining real wages of non-college males in the U.S. during the last three decades." 


"During this same time frame in the study marriage has declined dramatically and has lost much of its economic value to women, leading many women to conclude that they can raise a child without a long-term partner. This is especially pronounced at the bottom of the socio-economic scale where the combination of low male wages and high incarceration rates among young men has affected the pool of potential partners for women.

These emerging gender gaps suggest reason for concern. While the news for women is good, the news for men is poor. These gaps in educational attainment and labor market advancement will pose two significant challenges for social and economic policy. First, because education has become an increasingly important determinant of lifetime income over the last three decades—and, more concretely, because earnings and employment prospects for less-educated U.S. workers have sharply deteriorated—the stagnation of male educational attainment bodes ill for the well-being of recent cohorts of U.S. males, particularly minorities and those from low-income households. Recent cohorts of males are likely to face diminished employment and earnings opportunities and other attendant maladies, including poorer health, higher probability of incarceration, and generally lower life satisfaction.


To preview, we argue first that sharp declines in the earnings power of non-college males combined with gains in the economic self-sufficiency of women—rising educational attainment, a falling gender gap, and greater female control over fertility choices—have reduced the economic value of marriage for women. This has catalyzed a sharp decline in the marriage rates of non-college U.S. adults—both in absolute terms and relative to college-educated adults—a steep rise in
the fraction of U.S. children born out of wedlock, and a commensurate growth in the fraction of children reared in households characterized by absent fathers.

MY COMMENT:  THE NEXT PARAGRAPH WOULD SUGGEST A DANGEROUS FEEDBACK LOOP

The second part of the hypothesis posits that the increased prevalence of single-headed households and the diminished child-rearing role played by stable male parents may serve to reinforce the emerging gender gaps in education and labor force participation by negatively affecting male children in particular. Specifically, we review evidence that suggests that male children raised in single-parent households tend to fare particularly poorly, with effects apparent in almost all academic and economic outcomes.

One reason why single-headedness may affect male children more and differently than female children is that the vast majority of single-headed households are female-headed households. Thus, boys raised in these households are less likely to have a positive or stable same-sex role model present. Moreover, male and female children reared in female-headed households may form divergent expectations about their own roles in adulthood—with girls anticipating assuming primary childrearing and primary income earning responsibilities in adulthood and boys anticipating assuming a secondary role in both domains.

Note:  This study was published 5 years ago in March 2013


Until next time I soberly bid
Adieu

Link to study
https://economics.mit.edu/files/8754


ABOUT THE AUTHORS
David Autor is a Professor and Associate
Department Head of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology Department of Economics. He is
also a Faculty Research Associate of the National
Bureau of Economic Research and Editor in Chief
of the Journal of Economic Perspectives (published
by the American Economic Association), and has
served on the Board of Editors at the American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics and the Journal of Labor Economics. Autor
received a B.A. in Psychology from Tufts University in 1989 and a
Ph.D. in Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of
Government in 1999. Autor is the recipient of an NSF CAREER
award for his research on labor market intermediation, the Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and the Sherwin Rosen Prize in 2008
for outstanding contributions in the field of Labor Economics. In
2012, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Science,
and he is also a Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists and was a
recipient of both the John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Award
given by the Labor and Employment Relations Association (2006)
and MIT Undergraduate Economics Association Teaching Award
(2005). Prior to obtaining his Ph.D., Autor spent three years directing
efforts in San Francisco and South Africa to teach computer skills to
economically disadvantaged children and adults.


Melanie Wasserman is a Ph.D. student in
Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and a National Science Foundation
Graduate Research Fellowship recipient. Her
current research interests include gender
discrimination in the labor market, the economic
determinants of U.S. family structure changes,
and intergenerational transmission of human capital. She received a
B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in Economics and
German. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a research associate
for the Jameel Poverty Action Lab.

A simple "Primer" on Gender Differences

Way back when, before my Mom passed away my last blog topic was "Gender Wars".  At the time I had a whole "plan" on how I would approach a topic that I had some strong feelings about but was having a difficult time approaching. You see I have a wife and a daughter-in-law that I love dearly.  I also have some very strong feelings about some of the changes our western society has been going through since the birth of the "Modern" feminist' movement.

Now do not get me wrong, many of the changes brought about by the feminist (and the equal rights movement) were overdue in a society that relishes freedom for all human beings to follow their dreams, hopes and desires.  Anyone who believes in economic, political and religious freedom etc. can appreciate that opportunities for all humans to pursue their dreams need to be fair and equally shared among all members of society.  Turning back to clock to a time where only a part of society was free to pursue opportunities is not an option if you believe in the concept everyone's  right to pursue happiness.

So why talk about "Gender Wars" ?  Well as a person who also believes in "science" and who has a background in "Anthropology" I also remain convinced that there are certain biological and social truths in the evolution of humankind that cannot be easily written off. I had planned to launch into some topics on the nuclear family and reasonable gender based physical and emotional differences that raise caution flags in our explosion of expanding equal rights battles but have decided to start by a simple primer based on some observations from personal experiences and solicit responses from my readers on not only my comments but from their own experiences.

Humans, male and female are remarkably complex creatures.  My faithful and obedient companion for example is very complex.  I often cite her ability to remember names, events and incidents as an example on why the female of our species were gatherers rather than hunters.  She can remember people, places and things long forgotten in my brain and I will prove it by citing a few examples.

First the "people thing".  Two days ago we were riding a lift with two (a male and a female) people who were ski instructors at Winter Park.  As always we struck up a nice conversation (we find one of the joys of skiing is striking up a casual chat with strangers on a lift-it is so much better than then the dead silence on an elevator).  As we chatted about teaching kids how to ski etc. we wandered into the usual "where you from" conversation.  About 2 minutes later after one of the instructors mentioned he used to ski at Blue Mountain in Pennsylvania my faithful and obedient companion blurts out.....your Mike aren't you.  Startled I thought "WTF"  "Mike" turned to Barbara and said "Yes how did you know?"  She replied "you gave us 8 hours of ski instruction 4 years ago when we first visited Winter Park".

Now I had not forgotten we took a couple of lessons at Winter  Park but would I ever remember the guys name?  Not in a Million Years.  He was startled as well but the next day he sent me an email, obviously by searching his records from years back.

Now this reminded me how Barbara has a knack for remembering what I see as obscure memories.  A couple of years ago when visiting her sister Maria in Pennsylvania we went to dinner at a local restaurant where the waitress while taking our order was shocked when Barbara addressed here as "Jamie" (She did not have a name tag).  You see she had apparently waited on us several  years before...and had struck up a conversation about her name, and we called our son Jamie for years until he switched to "James".  (As an appropriate aside on the topic of gender-this name switch made my Father very happy because he had hated us calling him Jamie as he thought it was to "gender neutral").  Anyway I was amazed at Barbara's powers of recall.

I should confess that I understood her talents for years.  When I ran a division at AIG I had an annual meeting with about 80-100 insurance brokers who sold our product and I was the only Division head who included spouses at such meetings, frankly for a very selfish reason.  At our first night reception she and I would greet our guests with her always going first because she could remember not only the brokers names, but their spouses, and even kids names from year to year.

Now if it were just names that might be one thing, but incidents (yes good and bad), faces and places all remain firmly in her grasp.  I know some of my readers may scoff at this but I am convinced this is a genetic trait unique to the females of our species!  I always tell her it is why women were gatherers, they remembered where to find the best berries, herbs etc.  Men are programmed to wander around searching for Woolly Mammoths and stuff.  Heck I wander every day looking for my glasses.


So readers am I full of BS or a perceptive observer of gender differences?  If you do not agree please tell me where I am wrong.  However, I am also asking  all of you if you have any such observations of your own?



Until next time
Adieu.



 





 

Super Sunday Special Post

I approach this post with just a tad of trepidation and remorse.  

As most of you know I have been doing my own NFL "Boycott" this year over the National Anthem/Kneeling Issue.  Why?  Well certainly not because President Trump bitched, I actually got pissed at his intervention (I stopped watching before he weighed in), just as I got pissed when our prior President weighed in on the Washington "Redskins" controversy.  Each of them was simply using a contemporary issue to throw red meat to their supporters. (Actually Presidents for years have tried to score points with sports) My beef I thought was very, very simple, and it had nothing to do with who was President or any players right to "Free Speech".  

When a bunch of players decided to make a "statement" by kneeling during the National Anthem my thinking was why don't  you guys kneel about all the violence against women committed by NFL Thugs, how bout protesting record high out of wedlock births among families, how bout drug violence, or Chicago Murder and Gang rates????  I decided I did not want to spend my time watching an event where we lead off with a political statement which has the intent  of pitching tribe against tribe.  I get those everywhere I turn, day in and day out.  

In retrospect my reaction was as much "tribal" as  the players kneeling, My mantra to all of you became "Why keep watching so these players can poke you with a stick every Sunday afternoon?"  I then proceeded to miss the best season in my beloved Eagles History.  I also risked alienating some of my friends who love the NFL as I continued to rant about the politicization of our  last "safe haven"  (You know guys, a place where we could escape politics for a moment and unite both Progressives, Conservatives etc by discussing players performance , coaches, games and all our shared football history without getting into our ever more isolated tribal instincts). Of course now, as I write this, I realize it was me as much as the players who was politicizing the issue!  My  intelligent NFL loving friends on this blog ignored all that stuff ( and my rants) and just watched and enjoyed their beloved teams games, which after all was what it is about for them ...and could have been for me as well. 

So belatedly my regret: 

I MISSED ONE OF THE GREATEST EAGLES SEASONS EVER!!!!!    

Which brings me full circle to my blog followers who fall into two tribes.

Tribe one: the Pats Fans:

John Delnegro, Steve Clark and Howard Alpert. 

Tribe two: all Diehard Eagles Fans:

Ellsworth Whiteman, Phil Gocke, Lester Wurfel and my son James.

(Side Note John and Ellsworth are both also "Giants Fans" who must now stay in the closet after the Giants season)

As for me I am just glad I decided to suspend my stupid "protest" and catch the Eagles and Pats wins last week and I was happy with both outcomes!  As a lifelong Eagles Fan I grew to like the Pats (and even a few of their fans) during my "New England" years.  

So know I must leave with a final thought on the big game tomorrow. After all I am as tribal as any lifelong fan.

Minnesota better Grease those Poles because the Pats are going down!!!

Fly Eagles Fly

On the road to victory

Fight, Fight, Fight

Fight Eagles Fight

Score a touchdown 123

123

Hit 'em low

Hit 'em high

And watch our Eagles fight

Fly Eagles Fly

On the road to victory

E-A-G-L-E-S!

Eagles!