June 5, 2023

"Girls aren’t fearless. Girls are terrified. And their activism isn’t naive. It’s not 'innocent.' It’s the reasoned result of the stomach-churning awareness..."

"... that girls can’t count on someone else to save them.... Of course, it’s not just girls whose fear spurs them to action. Young male activists have no less reason to feel distress over intertwined global crises. And nonbinary organizers have been on the forefront of critical social movements. But the undaunted girl — chin up, hands on hips — remains a quite literal and ill-advised avatar for progress."

Is there a myth of the "fearless girl"? There's that fearless-girl statue that stares down that Wall Street bull statue.

By the way, "fearless" doesn't mean not feeling any fear on the inside. It means — according to the OED — "Unaffected by fear; bold, intrepid" or "Showing no sign of fear."

"Hark! 'tis an elfin-storm from faery land, 
       Of haggard seeming, but a boon indeed: 
       Arise—arise! the morning is at hand;— 
       The bloated wassaillers will never heed:— 
       Let us away, my love, with happy speed; 
       There are no ears to hear, or eyes to see,— 
       Drown'd all in Rhenish and the sleepy mead: 
       Awake! arise! my love, and fearless be, 
For o'er the southern moors I have a home for thee." 

44 comments:

Michael K said...

Brave women and girls plus manly men can help girls resist the evils of transgenderism.

The first step is answering the question, "What is a Woman?"

Sebastian said...

"Girls are terrified."

OK, let's assume it's true. So we are able to define "girls"? And girls, I take it, differ from boys in being "terrified"?

"the stomach-churning awareness ... that girls can’t count on someone else to save them"

Wasn't the point of feminism that girls could stand on their own two feet? Wasn't the savior complex a patriarchal residue?

"and fearless be/For o'er the southern moors I have a home for thee."

Sorry to be as predictable as any other deplorable commentator, but: it's easy to be fearless when a man has a home for thee.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Girls aren’t fearless. Girls are terrified."

We know. American women and girls' stock would instantly rise by a collective 10,000 basis points if they would just stand up to the tens (not hundreds) of mtf's competing in female competition nationwide. They could do this by not competing. They could do this by taking a public stance. They could do almost anything really. Some are, so that's a good sign.

This is easier than fighting one's way out of a paper bag. No need to hands-on-hips stare defiantly at a charging bull. Far far easier. Every American woman and girl needs to look at them in the face and say, "you're not female." That's it.

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

I scanned the WaPo article- it's the usual drivel.
The author conflates the true heroism of Iranian protesters who refuse to dress as they are told with the likes of Greta Thunberg and other western female activists who march to protest non-existent problems, the latter to the accolades of the establishment.
In the comment section, there is a surprising amount of push-back, pointing out that Greta is a mascot of the AWFLs, and comparing the comparatively trivial problems of young women today to the life threatening challenges faced by women a century or more ago.
Girls rule, boys drool, dontcha know.

n.n said...

A binary conflict.

n.n said...

A binary conflict of interest that will require sacrifice.

gspencer said...

Lets see just how fearless girls turn out to be when male trannies start showing up in their restrooms and gym lockers in increasing numbers. With cameras in hand.

Mason G said...

"Is there a myth of the "fearless girl"?"

The Current Narrative™ seems more to be "powerful girls", there's sure a lot of tv commercials depicting them with boxing gloves on, hitting punching bags.

rhhardin said...

Marge Piercy For Strong Women ending

... Strong is what we make
each other. Until we are all strong together,
a strong woman is a woman strongly afraid.

JK Brown said...


"... that girls can’t count on someone else to save them...."

Which is kind of weird since their activism is all in an effort to force others, generally the evil cis-gendered, heterosexual males to save them from their choices.

Where do they think the money would come from if they are successful in getting the government to take from others to give to their cause?

Gahrie said...

We are living in a time and place in which women and girls are living the most pampered and privileged lives of any women in history. (Just for the record men also have the highest standard of living in history)

No longer is childbirth the leading cause of death for women. Childbirth is safer and more pain free than ever before, yet the birth rate is also lower than ever before.

Women can control their fertility for the first time in history.

Women have more political power and legal protections than at any other time in history.

Yet women persist in obsessing over petty indignities and hysterical fears.

There really is no pleasing a woman.

Larry J said...

Children have been used as pawns in political fights for generations. Their fears have been fed to them by people - very often their teachers - who hope to use them to score political points. We're seeing it today with climate change. They're being manipulated.

Enigma said...

Stay grounded in biology and thousands of years of global culture. Girls and women behave as many other female apes and mammals do: they excel at childrearing and self-protection by staying within social groups. They are not and never were fearless, and we have ancient notions of 'hysterical' and 'unconsolable' females. William Congreve (1697) wrote that 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.' In sum, disproportionate and dysfunctional female emotions can indeed rule the day. I mean you Greta Thunberg.

Fear and anxiety are central for self-preservation, especially for a smaller, weaker, younger, and more vulnerable females. There is a case to be made that today's trendy celibate, gay, and transgendered females are recreating the ancient team-female strategies of harems, convents, congregations, and covens. This may be news to ideologues who deny the gravity of biology (sadly, there are many).

Robert Marshall said...

Fearless girls, in the generation that demands 'safe spaces' and therapeutic counseling in the face of trauma like having to (rarely) be on the same campus with speakers such as Riley Gaines or Matt Walsh?

I don't think so! The current lot is the most craven generation imaginable, females, males, and all the other unicorn-genders included. They wallow in their cowardice; they're proud of it! They're so afraid of their own sexuality they feel compelled to mutilate it, or if not that, to lock it away, unused. Low-T, for sure.

Dude1394 said...

The fearless tough chick is being promoted all over media these days. 80% of movies/tv shows has a heroine. It's pervasive.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

It's not just girls. It's liberals and even some conservatives. There comes a moment when it dawns on you that no one is in charge of the world - no Illuminati, no Washington elites, no Jewish bankers - and you have to make your way on your own. Power is distributed, especially in the West and more especially in North America. To see this as one more iteration of "girls coming of age" is to continue another myth: that girls coming of age is the most important thing in the culture.

William50 said...

Anyone who believes girls aren't fearless has never met my daughter.

Michael said...

"...like a fish needs a bicycle," huh? Not so sure.

JaimeRoberto said...

I thought the fearless girl was a trope rather than a myth.

Ambrose said...

I assumed it was aspirational.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Boys can count on someone else to save them?

Josephbleau said...

"... that girls can’t count on someone else to save them...”

Nobody in the world can count on someone else to save them. You can count on many to exploit you. The answer is to improve yourself and collect resources. That gives you options.

Inga said...

Anyone who isn’t afraid in this world of today is foolish. No braver person than one who can make their way through the brambles of life without being torn to shreds.

Lars Porsena said...

But really, what’s a girl?

Mason G said...

"You can count on many to exploit you."

"Anyone who isn’t afraid in this world of today is foolish."

Capitalists understand that their interests are connected with those of prospective trading partners and low-trust societies are the result of collectivists convincing people to organize themselves into "us" vs. "them" arrangements.

Welcome to Progressiveland.

Mason G said...

"But really, what’s a girl?"

Answering for Matt Walsh's wife, "A juvenile human female".

Mea Sententia said...

The only time in the last six months when I was truly terrified was one evening coming home from work on snow covered roads. I drove 20 mph and kept repeating Psalm 34.4. "I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears." I made it home without ending up in a ditch. Courage isn't the absence of fear but the capacity to keep going in spite of fear.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"And girls, I take it, differ from boys in being "terrified"?"

In the radical feminist book "Angry Women"* a section is written by bell hooks. One of the issues she covers is what she calls the sorrows of boyhood. The quote below is from a different book of hers, "All About Love: New Visions"**, but it's reflective of a much lengthier piece in "Angry Women", which is a great read.

“the wounded child inside many males is a boy who, when he first spoke his truths, was silenced by paternal sadism, by a patriarchal world that did not want him to claim his true feelings."

* https://powerhousebooks.com/books/angry-women/

** https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17607.All_About_Love All About Love: New Visions

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

When I coached gymnastics there was a universal phenomenon that clearly differentiates male gymnasts from female gymnasts. You ask a male gymnast how it's going and he'll tell you the most recent trick he's mastered. Pose the same question to a female gymnast and she'll tell you the trick she's currently learning.

Example:

Male Gymnast: I got my full-in double on floor, and I'm pretty consistently at sticking it too.

Female Gymnast: I'm working on a full-in double on floor.

True story.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"We know. American women and girls' stock would instantly rise by a collective 10,000 basis points if they would just stand up to the tens (not hundreds) of mtf's competing in female competition nationwide. They could do this by not competing. They could do this by taking a public stance. They could do almost anything really. Some are, so that's a good sign.

This is easier than fighting one's way out of a paper bag. No need to hands-on-hips stare defiantly at a charging bull. Far far easier. Every American woman and girl needs to look at them in the face and say, "you're not female." That's it."

So in summary, they need to man-up.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"The answer is to improve yourself and collect resources. That gives you options."

That pretty much sums up the secret to success in life.

farmgirl said...

I must’ve missed the memo b/c I have no idea what any of this is about.
I’d say we all have fears- and we have our ways of sorting it out. There would be male/female differences. Also, exceptions and most likely individual skill sets.

So far, we’re all still human. Until the furries start gaining ground.

Oso Negro said...

Fearless girls? Well, we had Jeanne d'Arc, of whom Churchill wrote "Joan rose so far above the common run of humanity that her like has not been seen in a thousand years." So there's one.

n.n said...

Every American woman and girl needs to look at them in the face and say, "you're not female." That's it."

So in summary, they need to man-up.


Masculine gender on isle 13. Toxic.

That said, they will always be able to abort demos-cracy in darkness, but, it seems that they will no longer be sanctioned by the State to outsource. Life and death, viability and "burden", male and female sex, masculine and feminine gender, trans/social males in the girls' locker room... in the shower, neighbors, liberals, and illegal aliens not rape-raping, etc. are binary conditions.

n.n said...

Critical Diversity Theory (CDT) advises us that #Judgment (e.g. color) and #Labels (e.g. privilege) are models of equity and inclusion.

Lnelson said...

"Anyone who isn’t afraid in this world of today is foolish."

I like Helen Keller's perspective better:
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all."

traditionalguy said...

Be Wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Sounds Like a good advice for girls. But fear is the enemy of wisdom.

Maybe intense practice of combat matches over the years helps men with compartmentalization of their focus on their next move. Then fear never comes up. There is always time to count your wounds and bruises when the opponent has been defeated.

Richard Dolan said...

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Or so it was once thought.

n.n said...

So, what she's saying is that sexual harassment is not a problem, that #MeToo was a leverage game, that girls are not special, that boys were hunted as witches, and that feminists do not represent the interests of women and girls. Well, at least they secured human rites to keep them affordable, available, and taxable, and the [carbon] "burden" of evidence sequestered in sanctuary States. All's fair in lust and abortion.

Tina Trent said...

One might note that Keats is referring to non-transgressive behavior and traditional marriage.

Charles said...

The "fearless girl" is indeed a myth.

These people live in the most safe, free, prosperous, and open societies ever to be. They do not really know what want is. Anytime they are thwarted or inconvienanced for any reason they scream "protect me!"

They are pampered not fearless.

So are men to be honest. And we are all prideful and I see a fall coming because they have not had much want.

hombre said...

"Is there a myth of the "fearless girl"?"

Been to the movies lately?

Jupiter said...

"Young male activists have no less reason to feel distress over intertwined global crises."

Old male activists too! Although I find it is getting harder to get all that exercised about it. Really, why give shit zero? I'll be gone pretty soon. I do worry about my kids, though.

Tim said...

There are the 12? Madonna of the Trail statues along US 40 and 66 from Maryland to California. Pretty damn fearless representation in my opinion. That is on my bucket list for road trip.