Captain Coward ...a new masculine sexuality problem?

A friend sent me this article and it may me think. Actually I am not sure how to react as I had never before this really thought of the subject of masculinity and the new "sexuality emancipated world" from this perspective.

But one thing that almost immediately came to mind is the "perfecto Italiano" cheese ads that I have seen recently on NZ Television (I found a couple on youtube and embedded it after the article).

I do remember a number of occasions when I was much younger (*sigh* - the good old days? :-)) being told off by a few times by some girls (back in the 80s) when I opened the door for them  (as in when entering a room, I instinctively open the door and hold it open for them to pass through first) and when I offered to carry their bags etc.

Reason given was in the area of "do you think I am helpless?" and "I can do it myself, I don;t need your help", (can't remember the exact terms). But I do remember the context was that it was insulting to them as it was seen as that I was implying that they as women (girls) were weaker than men .... And that was in Malaysia ...

Anyway, have a read and tell me what you think

Captain Coward’: Behold our brave new sexually emancipated world


SANTA MARINELLA, Italy, January 23, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – What kind of man sneaks away under cover of darkness from his own sinking ship, leaving nearly 4200 passengers and crew to fend for themselves? What kind of men knock aside old ladies, little girls and young mothers to get to lifeboats first? Why, modern men, sexually emancipated men who have been raised on the tenets of feminism and our “contemporary” mores.
What can an expression like “women and children first” mean to modern men who have been taught all their lives that women are nothing more precious than sexual playthings, and children nothing more than a disposable burden?

The capsizing of the Costa Concordia, one of the biggest cruise ships plying the Mediterranean, filtered into the English language press a week later and everyone has now heard the recorded phone conversation in which coast guard captain, Gregorio De Falco, furiously orders the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, to return to his vessel. Schettino replied by repeatedly lying, while trying to flee in a lifeboat.

Passengers were left to rescue themselves aided by hired entertainers and a few crew members. One woman was quoted saying, “There were big men, crew members, pushing their way past us to get into the lifeboats.” Another passenger, a grandmother, said, “I was standing by the lifeboats and men, big men, were banging into me and knocking the girls.”

Francesco Schettino ("Captain Coward") has become the world's most hated man. But is he so much worse than any other modern, sexually emancipated man, raised under the tenets of feminism?

In the first days after the Costa Concordia tipped over in shallow water 300 yards from shore, all of Italy was gripped by shame at reports of Schettino’s behavior. He was arrested after he got to shore and charged with involuntary manslaughter and abandoning his ship. He was caught trying to get into a taxi, having reportedly asked the driver to “get me as far away from here as possible.”
Nicknamed “Captain Coward,” Schettino has become the focus of national fury for Italians fed up with the all too frequently accurate stereotype of Italian men as vain, feckless, irresponsible, selfish and untrustworthy permanent adolescents.

But the problem is not limited to Italy. It seemed apropos that the same week bad-boy American Catholic apologist Michael Voris was doing a series of videos on the emasculation of men and the effects of feminism on the Catholic Church and the world in general, a topic few in the Church dare to broach.
In one video, Voris mentioned the type of men who are approved by the feminist-controlled media: weak, stupid and ineffectual, who need to be ruled over by strong, hip, intelligent women. In the last 50 years, the Catholic institution has followed the world in adopting the feminist model. That ideal, Voris says, has driven strong men out of the Church and out of family life, pushing them to find a channel for their masculinity in unhealthy avenues like criminality and the objectification of women.

After watching one video, I sent Michael an email asking that he remember to talk about the flip side of feminism’s misandry, its vilification and demonisation of masculine strength. According to the tenets of the ideology, strong men are violent, evil and terrifying. Instead of heroes protecting women and children, feminism depicts strong men as brutal monsters, wife-beaters and child abusers.

The Costa Concordia disaster brought into the limelight the effects on men of feminism, and her strumpet daughter, the Sexual Revolution. Feminism has killed the cultural priority of men protecting and being responsible for women. In one video, Michael Voris spoke of the “hero’s journey,” the traditional western cultural archetype of the boy who leaves home, faces and overcomes adversity and becomes a man capable of protecting a family. But our feminist-inspired anti-culture, coupled with a soul-deadening consumerist materialism, has tossed these concepts out.

By telling women they don’t need men, by demonizing the value of masculinity, feminism has at the same time told men that they never need to grow up. If feminism has told women they can sleep around “like men,” it must be remembered that this implies that men may do the same right back. Instead of insisting that men grow up, marry a woman and protect and care for their children, it has offered men women as toys while offering women the Pill, abortion and family court as the back-up plan. Feminism defines “equality” as men and women competing equally in the labour market and using each other equally as objects.

A while ago, I read an interesting, though deeply frightening, website that claimed to be in support of men against the feminist world. In one article, the clearly angry men pointed out an unjust double standard in family law. The legal system, now held firmly in the feminist claw, holds them financially responsible for the children they father when they split from the mother. The article pointed out, however, logically enough, that at the same time feminism demands that contraception and abortion be freely available. Why then, if women are now allowed to use men as sexual objects, should a man ever be held responsible for fatherhood? Why should men be routinely financially ruined by family courts when abortion is legal, a lot cheaper and easy to get?

Why indeed? Feminism, because it is essentially dishonest, childish and self-serving, will never own up to the logical conclusions of its premises.

Recently, the popes have written against the kind of feminism that promotes abortion and contraception while hammering a wedge of hostility between men and women. Universal promiscuity, contraception, legal abortion, easy divorce, together with a youth-worshipping, madly materialist culture, they have said, has created an atomized society of isolated consumers for whom all relationships routinely end in abandonment. A vast cultural catastrophe that leaves children without fathers, tells women they don’t need men, and men they can remain happy, care-free adolescents their whole lives.

This message seems to have come through especially loud and clear in Italy where it is only too easy to find men who are the embodiment of the self-indulgent stereotype. The effeminate man-child is a plague in Italy; vain, self-important, shallow and self-seeking mamma’s boys who live in their parents’ house into their thirties and forties.  The once-family oriented Italians are increasingly either divorcing or refusing to marry in the first place.

Italian journalist Rosaria Sgueglia writes in the Huffington Post that the former master of the Costa Concordia is one of those Italian men who match the stereotype point for point. Italians are “furious,” she wrote, at “people like Mr. Schettino [who] do nothing but compromise the already damaged image the rest of the world has of Italian people.”

“The average Italian man is said to be narcissist, egomaniac, coward, selfish, unable to follow basic procedures and unable to follow the rules. True or not, it’s a stereotype, a stereotype which is strongly proved by the latest, tragic events in Italy.”

While Italians vent their fury on Francesco Schettino for being everything they hate about themselves, it must be remembered that many countries were represented in the crew roster of the Costa Concordia. The disaster has the fingerprints of our poisoned and dying western culture all over it.

Reading the reports of the Costa Concordia, I could not help but recognize the results of our society’s new priorities. Many observers made the comparison with the Titanic disaster. One hundred years ago, 1st class men lifted steerage class women and children into lifeboats in the full knowledge that they were giving their lives. The captain of that ship was last reported seen holding a child in his arms seeking a way to save her. A hundred years later, we have a coast guard officer shouting at “Captain Coward” to “Vada a bordo, cazzo!” … Get on board, damn it!

Behold our brave new sexually emancipated world.



Perfect Italiano Cheese ads



Comments

  1. I would agree that feminism has socially castrated the average male, Being a Butch woman, one would assume that I am all for feminism when in fact I am NOT, I have been saying for decades if women want equality with men in every aspect, then give the men the same equality with no strings in return, problem is feminists want to oppress men. Captain Coward is a shining example of men who no longer know their role in life, would the world be less condemning if the Captain was a woman? probably.

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  2. There's so much here that is problematic and disturbing--the thought of responding to this article raises my stress levels, and I can't do this right now. I'll just say briefly that there are many different narratives and claims of "feminism," and to use the term in a blanket way is counter-productive and misleading. This article describes feminism that is completely unfamiliar to me, and I've read a bit on its historical development, at least in the US. From a Christian perspective, suffice it to say that I agree with you and anyone else that women as well as men need to be set right with God, and consequently, with one another. The church may not always agree on how that should happen. But to dismiss all feminisms out of hand without more careful work is...well, I prob shouldn't go there!

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  3. Thanks "Butch" and "Z"

    Appreciate the insights. I can see that there are diverse forms and expressions of "feminism" - and I suspect that I would be very comfortable with some expressions.

    I have met a number of very feminine women here in NZ who are are as "tough as nails"(?)and very strong not just physically but in terms of abilities in "traditional" male areas of life. Would put me to shame actually except for the fact that I am a bit thick skinned about some of these things and believe that gifts and abilities are God given so no complaints from me :-) And perhaps also I am a "liberated male" LOL

    I wonder .... if the captain was a woman, would people expect the same from her - that she go down with the ship?

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    Replies
    1. that would depend on the nature of the job. is a ship's captain expected to go down with the ship in the event of an accident, either culturally or as stated in his/her contract? and if so, what are the reasons behind those contractual or cultural assumptions? what are our expectations of workers of all sorts then, regardless of gender? if gender is the tipping point here, then what are we really interested in here? different cultural expectations based on gender? how about other kinds of questions surrounding gender such as domestic violence, sexual violence, sex trafficking, etc. that are much more immediate, real, and damaging? how do we address those questions today?

      hypothetical questions are useful because they open up so many other kinds of interesting questions, don't they? :D

      Delete
  4. another scary story about italians...:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-picture-that-shames-italy-873743.html

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