Hand-Me-Down Trauma

In the pages of Scary Mommy, where progressive ladies roar, Elaine Roth wishes us to know about her mental health problems:

There’s a running monologue whispering in the back of my mind. Maybe it’s whispering in the back of your mind, too. 

Place your bets. 

My running monologue isn’t unique to me. Countless women across the country — maybe across the globe — experience a similar monologue. It results from a shared trauma, and it’s got a name: Patriarchy Stress Disorder, or PSD.

I fear woo may be incoming.

PSD is the idea that the mental, physical, and emotional impact of gender inequality is a trauma that impacts woman and builds over time, and over generations. 

It is, we’re assured, a “collective intergenerational trauma,” and “genetically transmitted,” “passed down in our genes” - albeit in ways left entirely mysterious.

PSD can impact anyone, including nonbinary people and men. Still, few people have heard of patriarchy stress disorder,

You see, you haven’t heard of it, this new and modish ailment, for which no convincing definition is offered, beyond unspecified “systems of inequality” and repeating the word patriarchy many, many times. And yet apparently, simultaneously, we’re assured that said ailment – and its purported transmission - is the obvious go-to explanation for why “high-achieving women” – ladies much like Ms Roth - have so often failed “to have it all and thrive,” despite the promises of feminism. Why supposedly empowered ladies fail to “own their own shine.”

We’re told that the term patriarchy stress disorder was coined by “Dr Valerie Rein, Ph.D.,” and that Dr Rein - allegedly a “women’s mental health expert” - “learned that trauma could be genetically transmitted.” A link is provided, introducing us to “Dr Valerie” - though, again, no explanation or evidence of this alleged genetic transmission is included. We’re merely told that “trauma lives in our nervous system.” Which, as you can imagine, is immensely helpful. A second link, written by the expert in question, supposedly explaining Patriarchy Stress Disorder and its transmission, does no such thing. A third link, to the pages of Good Housekeeping, is similarly mysterious and short on particulars.

The symptoms of this phantom, catch-all disorder are numerous, often vague, and seemingly unrelated. The list includes insomnia; feeling a “need to try harder;” feeling insufficiently happy about pretty much anything; feeling “uneasy,” or greedy, or ungrateful. Feeling that one isn’t a sexual athlete. Or just being displeased by one’s own fatness. Almost any kind of uncertainty or dissatisfaction, whether substantive or self-indulgent, can now, it seems, be blamed on “the trauma of our ancestors” and the drowning of witches, and thus on “gender inequality,” however non-existent in the here and now. Whatever the woe, or fit of neuroticism, the cause, we’re assured, is “as pervasive as it is invisible,” and, says Dr Valerie, “It’s not our fault… it has nothing to do with us.”

Exactly how Ms Roth, a writer and Pilates instructor, is oppressed by “patriarchy,” and how she has been traumatised by it, crushed by the aforementioned “systems of inequality,” is not made clear either, and no examples are forthcoming. None whatsoever. Perhaps expectations of evidence - even a single, relevant anecdote - are now considered superfluous and impolite. Readers of Scary Mommy are nonetheless expected to nod in agreement, before checking their breasts for signs of “inherited trauma.” Readers may wish to ponder the appeal of a worldview, an intersectional science-fiction narrative, in which one’s feelings and resentments – and any number of failures and shortcomings - aren’t actually one’s own, but are instead somehow inherited, like sickle cell anaemia or grandma’s knick-knacks.

Via Princess Cutekitten.

Ah, a button. I wonder what it does. 

Comments

[PiperPaul]

Sowers of Discord

Better band name.

[Ames]

And if the feminist urge to displace responsibility sounds familiar, you may be thinking of this.

Does she know she's joined a cult?

[David]

Does she know she’s joined a cult?

Ms Fabello’s mental contortions are quite a thing and have entertained us more than once. But the displacement of responsibility - and with it, realism – is a recurring theme.

According to Dr Valerie, if you think you could have done something better, or think you could maybe do with losing a couple of pounds, “That’s just our old friend trauma courtesy of the underlying PSD.” It occurs to me that encouraging women to go through life believing that any unhappiness or shortcoming is “nothing to do with us” and “not our fault” isn’t exactly ideal. In fact, the rejection of responsibility seems likely to ensure that miseries accumulate.

But then, as we’ve seen, leftist lifestyle advice is generally terrible, to the point of being perverse.

[pst314]

David, you have written in the past about Aaron Bastani’s Fully Automated Luxury Communism.

I just learned that his YouTube channel, Novara Media, has just been deleted.

Would you care to review his calls for the silencing of those he disagrees with, for the benefit of your readers who never bothered to follow his activities beyond your few comments?

[anon a mouse]

"prances around in tights all day"

Pics? Video? Worth watching?

*asking for a friend, you know...*

[ccscientist]

David's comment that believing all your troubles are not your fault is not quite ideal is so true. In college I was having too much fun and was in danger of flunking out. It being before woo became an official religion, and being a white male, there was no one to blame so I got my act together and did well. I feel fortunate because without self-criticism one can sink into a real pit of neglect and failure.
This belief in free-floating patriarchy and racism and capitalism and "systemic" and inherited trauma is such a handy excuse for not being able to cite instances of oppression today.

[Daniel Ream]

Today is Saint Crispin's Day.

I've known enough squaddies to find Branagh insufferably pompous in that scene. Private Benitez knows it isn't the King who's going to be dying in the mud.

Insert the cheesiest 1930's gangster film dialogue you can think of

Well, since you insist.

[Uma Thurmond's Feet]

Private Benitez knows it isn't the King who's going to be dying in the mud.

Can't quote chapter and verse, but at least in those days the aristocracy had skin in the game, and sometimes did die in the mud.

Nowadays, they send off the troops from the comfort of their offices, and their children certainly aren't going to enlist.

Which is why we might as well call the U.S. military what it is: a mercenary army working for the Comfy Class.

[Watcher In The Dark]

I saw PSD once. It was right there, plain as day, on a car numberplate. I had to go and have a little lie down afterwards.

[Sam Duncan]

“But nuance? I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.”

Well, it's kinda complicated...

“I just learned that his YouTube channel, Novara Media, has just been deleted.”

I think Sgt. Major Williams speaks for us all.

[Peachy rex]

One of the peculiarities of modern society - perhaps an unsustainable peculiarity - is that the ruling class is not the fighting class.

A Duke - Henry's cousin - died at Agincourt, along with an Earl and assorted knights and gentlemen. Henry himself was wounded. And that's not even considering the hecatomb of good and great on the French side.

[pst314]

I think Sgt. Major Williams speaks for us all.

Jeremy Clarkson agrees.

[David]

I had to go and have a little lie down afterwards.

They use the word trauma to explain the most humdrum irritations, as if their conceit weren’t morally laughable, even disgusting.

[pst314]

"Science Serves The Party"

Twitter has now locked Pajamas Media and Not the Bee out of their accounts, for the crime of saying that Rachel Levine is not a woman.

I never dreamed, when I was young, that this sort of totalitarian insanity would come to America.

Tolerating leftists was a mistake.

[Directrix Gazer]

I don't know if that's fair, Daniel. Henry really was there on the field that day, and had he fallen he'd have been neither the first nor the last medieval monarch to die in battle. Due to the primitive state of command and control technique, it was not uncommon for the leader of an army to fight, even in the ranks if it was a predominantly infantry engagement, as the alternative was often to be reduced to a passive bystander watching the battle unfold.

It's not even entirely fair in more modern contexts. I once reviewed the detailed casualty statistics for the British Army on the Western Front, and found that the KIA rate increased by rank up to Brigadier General.

[pst314]

Oh the humanity! (via Dogs Don't Have Thumbs)
Also: Imagine the smell. :-o

[Uma Thurmond's Feet]

Also: Imagine the smell. :-o

It's a measure of my attitude toward society that I'm fine with furries. They don't impose their pronouns on me, they don't force me to agree with their ideology, they seem to have a good time and the costumes are cute.

But, then, I have a son who went trans ...

[pst314]

This is clever, and useful where housing is very expensive, but I still do not want to live in a pod.

[ComputerLabRat]

...I'm fine with furries. They don't impose their pronouns on me, they don't force me to agree with their ideology, they seem to have a good time and the costumes are cute.

Exactly. While they may have a very detailed in-culture, I have no fear of losing my job or my platform for speech if I call them humans, nor are they shoving the first furry veep or the first dog fursona as transportation sec, etc, down everyone's throats.

I am fine with transvestites, cross-dressers, drag performers - whatever you want to call them - like furries, they cosplay as something else, some seem to have a lot of fun doing it, and there's a whole in-culture around the dressing up. Fine - y'all do y'all.

But if there's no such thing as a woman anymore, and female is just a state of mind, why is it such a big deal that the Levine person is a first? Hell - why don't all those evil white male CEOs mass-identify as women and become one huge historic first, bashing the patriarchy and ending the gender pay gap in one fell swoop. It could be done. Doesn't really require much effort, probably just need the frock, pearls, and heels for a few photo-ops at first, then go back to whatever they were wearing before. We have all seen how spineless the feminists are against the trans mafia, the only real patriarchy they've ever faced. So no opposition from that quarter.

[Sam Duncan]

Furries seem to be the Christians of weird subcultures: the one Leftists can make fun of without being hounded out of The Siblinghood.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

This is clever...

Oh good, an electric Murphy Bed. How original.

However, it doesn't come cheap – having one bed and two storage units installed costs $18,750 (£13,630), while a bed and six storage units comes to an eye-watering $29,000 (£21,000)...'The vision of Bumblebee has always been to make beautifully efficient space, so it becomes affordable.'...Residence 405 costs a whopping $2,662 (£1,933) per month to rent...

Odd definition of "affordable".

[pst314]

Uma and Lab Rat: I guess you're right about furries. But adults doing this sort of extreme role playing does worry me: Is it a sign of a problem with our culture? Or were they always there and only now have emerged from the closet?

[pst314]

Odd definition of "affordable".

Affordable for a high-rent city like New York...or Tokyo or...

I have seen photos of some clever space-saving systems in tiny Asian apartments. Folling wall systems dividing kitchen from living area did not require motors, but were presumably too massive for elderly people to manage.

[pst314]

I haven't heard anyone talk about "testosterone poisoning" since the 70's and 80's when I knew a lot of feminists. Do feminists still say this?

[Princess Cutekitten]

Sowers of Discarded Bras

Best band name

[Princess Cutekitten]

“Oh the humanity...”

Looks like the weekday flight from Toontown.

[Princess Cutekitten]

I am sorry to hear about your son, Uma. I hope he hasn’t done anything irreversible.

[Uma Thurmond's Feet]

I hope he hasn’t done anything irreversible.

What was shocking was how quickly he was allowed to go on the drugs, simply on his say-so. He's developed severe health problems, partly from car accidents, and (I suspect) partly from the massive amount of drugs he's taking. It doesn't help that genetically he inherited unusual side-effects to prescription medication. It's assumed he'll probably be dead in ten years.

So, yeah, yay trans.

[Daniel Ream]

in those days the aristocracy had skin in the game, and sometimes did die in the mud

...and fought inside the medieval equivalent of a tank armed with the best weaponry wealth could buy, while the peasant levies marched in near rags in the front lines, armed with the thing they pruned the apple trees with.

Aristocrats also knew they would be treated handsomely and ransomed back to their families if defeated on the battlefield, while the peasantry would simply be executed en masse by the winning side.

Defending medieval British aristocracy is a bit of a weird flex for an American.

I'm fine with furries

You are aware they're having sex in the suits, and the subculture has more than the usual number of problems with sexual assault and statutory rape?[1]

were they always there and only now have emerged from the closet?

They've always been there. The Internet and the leftist drive to accept all kinds of degeneracy just means they're more visible.

[1] Which for a geek/con subculture is saying quite a lot

[ComputerLabRat]

But adults doing this sort of extreme role playing does worry me: Is it a sign of a problem with our culture? Or were they always there and only now have emerged from the closet?

I think a little of both. It's become far more socially acceptable to let your freak flag fly, and also as more people's lives get easier (growing up, at least), they do this more and more into adulthood. Childhood is much more prolonged now than in previous human eras. The internet has allowed formerly isolated groups to find each other, but I think this sort of thing has always been around, just maybe not so openly, or in such great numbers. The modern era has not invented kink, fetishes, etc, although it may have brought them to the masses like never before.

[Directrix Gazer]

Daniel, you might be interested to read this excellent general overview, particularly the chapters on the composition of medieval armies and how they changed over time. You might also find many of the articles and primary sources here valuable. It just so happens that the first dissertation available in the Articles section happens to have some relevance to the discussion.

[Peachy rex]

That's Hollywood's version of medieval warfare. By Henry V's time, even the rank & file - certainly for a foreign expedition - were well-equipped volunteer semi-professionals serving under contract, and largely recruited from the smallholders and tenants of the "middle class" yeomanry. There was much less professionalism in the Wars of the Roses a little later, but still damned few "arrow fodder" - even the urban and county levies were required to have a decent kit to be accepted for service. Moreover, plenty of aristocrats did die - armour was far from invulnerable, medicine was a joke, and a victorious enemy might decide that a corpse was more useful than a ransom. (Particularly in a domestic conflict - not many ransoms in civil war.)

Not "flexing", by the way - just stating the facts. It's actually quite a fascinating subject.

[3shaun2]

On a more serious note, anyone have an answer to my Walt Kelly question in the previous thread?

I believe We Have Met the Enemy, and He is Us per http://www.waynecountry.net/Pogo/pogoindex.html might be what you are looking for.

My dad had some of the Walt Kelly books. I enjoyed reading them as a kid. Had a little plastic mug with the porcupine painted on it....

Dad'll still sing "Nora's freezing on the trolley" during Deck the Halls.

[Daniel Ream]

By Henry V's time

By Henry V's time - I'm talking specifically about Crecy, Poitiers and the apposite Azincourt - the English armies were at least 50-60% longbowmen. At Azincourt they were over 80%.

Archers take a decade or more to train, and that made them valuable enough that they generally had to be paid for their service - but they still deployed unarmored because you can't fire a bow in armor, got cut down like sheaves of wheat if the French managed to reach them, and were executed out of hand if captured or defeated because they weren't worth ransom. For that matter, the "volunteer semi-professionals" generally got by with helm, breastplate and chain rather than full field plate, and again were executed out of hand after the battle by the winners because they weren't worth ransom.

Or in the case of the Genoese mercenary crossbowmen at Crecy, cut down by the French aristocrats on their own side when they fled an unwinnable exchange of arrow fire.

It ain't the King dying in the mud, which is why Branagh's Flashheart impression has always rankled.

[pst314]

Sowers of Discarded Bras

Cadmus sowed dragon's teeth, from which sprang warriors. What crop would discarded bras yield? And would it be more or less dangerous than Greek warriors?

[pst314]

Looks like the weekday flight from Toontown.

Toons! [shakes head]

[pst314]

You are aware they're having sex in the suits...

I'm still uncertain what fraction of them have sex in the suits: My geek fan friends assure me that it's only a small fraction, but I trust their word and insights less and less with each passing year.

...and the subculture has more than the usual number of problems with sexual assault and statutory rape?

Yes, I've heard a little about that. Curiously, I learn about it only online--never from face-to-face conversations with fans. It's as if most fans prefer to sweep such problems under the rug.

[pst314]

Childhood is much more prolonged now...

Not a good thing. Children make poor citizens--in many ways.

...The internet has allowed formerly isolated groups to find each other...

And has fostered an increase in fetishes and all sorts of dysfunction. Not what my younger naive self anticipated in the early, halcyon days of the net when everthing was bright and new.

[pst314]

I believe "We Have Met the Enemy, and He is Us"...

Thank you VERY much! It will be at the top of my list when I hunt down various collections. (By the way, all those books were reprinted in the 70's or 80's. Maybe they will get re-reprinted soon.)

[Watcher In The Dark]

Our host wrote: 'They use the word trauma to explain the most humdrum irritations'

Sorry to say I can't afford a trauma. I believe there is a tax on it called VAT ('Value Added Trauma') which alas pushes the cost of a full meltdown beyond my reach. I have to make do with little lie downs.

[pst314]

My dad had some of the Walt Kelly books.

That's where I got my first three books: Pogo, I Go Pogo, and Uncle Pogo's So-So Stories.

FYI for others who are not familiar: Although Fantagraphics is reprinting all the newspaper cartoons, some of the original Walt Kelly books contained cartoons that never appeared in newspapers.

Walt Kelly was, as I recall, a big influence on other cartoonists. And for all the criticisms that the Disney corporation comes in for, Kelly said that they were an immense benefit to his development as an artist and storyteller.

[pst314]

I have to make do with little lie downs.

Me too. Would you like a cup of lapsang souchong? I just made a pot.

[ComputerLabRat]

You are aware they're having sex in the suits...

Yes, some of them are, undoubtedly. And I don't care. They aren't trying to get us to change our vocabulary, deny facts, or lie. No one will lose their jobs for snickering at a furry. We are not required to celebrate them. We're allowed to think they are a little nuts. That's the difference. They aren't trying to take over like the trans mafia are. I think their subculture is degenerate, and some of them are taking the dress-up too far. But as long as they aren't doing anything illegal, I'm not going to waste my time caring.

And as to the assault/rape charges - I think that is a general problem in all subcultures based on kink, fetish, or being a bit nuts in the head. Yesterday I was reading, either from a link here, or from a blog in David's list, about lesbians being preyed upon by trans-women, forced to have sex out of fear of being cancelled. Because unlike furries, trans-women can go on twitter and screech "death to terfs", call refusing to have sex with them transphobia and a hate crime, and in a sense erasing rape. I have a problem with the people I am not allowed to criticize, who think and act as if they are above the law.

[pst314]

Not "flexing", by the way - just stating the facts.

One of the frustrations of blog comment threads and other online fora is the difficulty of conveying emotional nuance: No tone of voice, no facial expressions. As a result it is very easy to have one's intent completely misunderstood, resulting in acrimony, flame wars, and all sorts of vitriolic nastiness. (Except in such places as Instapundit where being nasty seems to be a popular recreation.) Thanks to David for cultivating a civilized atmosphere. Except for the sausages and hump fat, perhaps.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

They aren't trying to get us to change our vocabulary, deny facts, or lie. No one will lose their jobs for snickering at a furry. We are not required to celebrate them. We're allowed to think they are a little nuts.

Yet.

[WTP]

Heh. Muldoon I nearly posted that exact same excerpt with that exact same comment yesterday but got distracted.

[pst314]

From a recent thread: "Asimov...It's no surprise that his political opinions sound like those of a college sophomore..."

I have been pondering, off and on, why so many science fiction fans, although professing to value the liberty of the individual, keep embracing liberty-destroying politicians and polices. One reason is, I think, that many fans are, like Asimov, dorks with little clear understanding of the real world.

Another reason, I speculate, is that fans, being nerds and geeks, tend to fall in love with all-embracing theories and systems. And being dorks they tend to fall in love with even the most unrealistic systems--and simple but wrong systems are easier for a dork to understand and apply.

Thoughts, anyone?

[Darleen]

The modern era has not invented kink, fetishes, etc, although it may have brought them to the masses like never before.

Say what you will about the downside of bygone days of keeping things compartmentalized, this whole push to be "my most authentic self IN YOUR FACE. Look how brave I am!" has made said kinks and fetishes the key to social fame.

And I believe this goes hand-in-hand with the tearing down of any cultural icon based on that person's actual achievements. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Greenleaf Whittier, Shakespeare, and all other manner of people who actually did stuff must be torn down for their flaws in favor of promoting people for little more than their "identity". So the more exotic the identity, the greater the social standing.

Sorry, in the 1970s I didn't ever want to know which of my neighbors were "swingers" or if my boss dressed in his wife's evening gowns when his kids were at camp. It was happening but kept behind closed drapes. Today, I supposed to applaud all manner of destructive behavior, including the exploitation of children, or I will be held "responsible" for any "violence" a proud kink might perceive or even inflict on him/herself.

[pst314]

Today, I supposed to applaud all manner of destructive behavior...

One of the dubious women I used to know lived with a dozen other people (all unrelated, of course) in a huge old Victorian house. One of them happened to mention that "everyone" recently had to get antibiotics at a free clinic for an STD that she gave to them. The only downside of this promiscuity seemed to be the STD--no suspicion that casual sex with numerous people might have other, psychological and social consequences. And then there were the drugs....

[ComputerLabRat]

Today, I supposed to applaud all manner of destructive behavior...

Yep. And that I have a problem with. I wish to be left alone to live my life as I see fit, within the law and my religion, and let everyone get along in their lives as they see fit, within the same laws. But no - some have the law twisted so it's a hate crime to merely not applaud their choices, never mind express actual disapproval. These same people actively disapprove of and wish actual harm down on anyone thinks differently than they do, and that's ok with the powers that be.

Yet

Possibly. Although I would guess if the furries were going to make a move, they'd have done so by now, and ride the trans mafia wave like the wannabe disabled (the body dysphoric who want a limb or something chopped off because they think it doesn't belong) have done. The anorexics also haven't jumped on the trans bandwagon, and they have body dysphoria as real as any trans person. So you could be right, and the furries are just marshaling the forces, but I have a limited number of fecks to give, and joys of living under the Biden Regime have taken up pretty much all of them. Right now I am more concerned about the uncertainty that any vote I cast in a US election will matter if it's not for the "correct" candidate, or will flashdrives and boxes full of ballots magically appear in the middle of the night to put the "correct" candidate ahead, regardless of who the people actually cast the most votes for.

[Watcher In The Dark]

On recent comments about the pressing need to applaud all manner of kinkery:

No one cares about what consenting adults do after they have shut their front doors and drawn the bedroom curtains, but a number of us find public exhibitions of their private fun not all that great. TBH, this is like when people recount their sexual conquests over a drink at the pub; other than a reason to make a few dirty comments, it isn't all that interesting. Lots of people do things and most of them are dull beyond belief.

I once taught a kid who was a furry. He had, he told me without my asking, graduated from wearing a dog's head to wearing a horse's head. I presumed he could now, the way horses can do, look down on his old dog mates (perhaps his autobiography could be called "From Goofy to My Little Pony") It struck me then that even being something as innocuous as being a furry is fraught with emotional traumas. I suppose it's the change of diet from a Bonio to hay that does it...

[Captain Nemo]

I don't mind furries. There's a bunch local to me who I often see around town on various charity awareness dates like "Wear it Pink" day for cancer research. Harmless goofballs who raise thousands of pounds for a good cause, and who are clearly having fun while they do it. Long may they continue.

[Herp McDerp]

I have been pondering, off and on, why so many science fiction fans, although professing to value the liberty of the individual, keep embracing liberty-destroying politicians and polices.

There's one more reason, summed up in an old slogan: "Fans are Slans." In other words, we know we are Superior Beings, because we know things and care about things that normal humans do not. Who could be better, then, to rule the stupid, ignorant masses than ourselves?

(And there's a tiny bit of truth to that. People who care about science fiction -- as opposed to fantasy -- tend to be smarter and better educated than people who know and care nothing about science ... and the latter group includes many voters. The trouble is that smart people are perfectly capable of being wrong and smug about things at the same time.)

[pst314]

Who could be better, then, to rule the stupid, ignorant masses than ourselves?

--which ties in with my comment about fans being dorks.

I've known a lot of fans who in some ways were highly intelligent but in other ways were abysmally stupid.

[pst314]

Dear slans: