NYT Dowd Berates Men

Maureen Dowd takes men to task for being the targets of vindictive women in her New York Times posting on July 6, 2008, “An Ideal Husband” Opinion. She notes the celebrity breakups initiated and aggressively pursued by Christy Brinkley and Cynthia Rodriguez as evidence that men come in no manner suitable for women looking for a husband.

She pursues her goal of proving that men are responsible for marital breakups by focusing on the media-hyped “women-are-victims” syndrome. The syndrome should be defined as a sickness in itself, like malaria, diabetes, and group-think; it’s opportunistic via culture, it’s endemic to 20^th century feminism, and it’s as avoidable as thinking before one puts a foot in their mouth.

From Australia, a country with one of the worst father-friendly records of democratic countries, Dowd claims that an old Irish-Catholic priest has the answers in a simple sermon he delivers to high-school girls. All of the poor priest’s judgments fall upon the man in the relationship.

Does he have friends? Does he use money responsibly? Is he attached to his mother? Does he have a sense of humor? Does he have a good family?

In American culture, a man has to ask: Will she destroy your relationship with the friends you have? Will she take your bank account and run? Will her mother interfere in your marriage? Can she take a joke? And, ultimately, does she come from a troubled family with divorce or domestic violence as major themes?

Dowd allows her interviewee to make one equitable point after another, fatalistically tinged with misandristic pinings, and finally, killing all hope of men ever trusting women and women ever trusting men.