VII.
Like the day before, a spirit once again introduces itself to Aunt Hillary and takes her for a ride.
VIII.
The formerly well-ordered and prosperous society Hillary grew up in isn’t quite the same any more. There’s ever greater despair among the common man, with more and more communities being ravaged by criminals and drug addicts. The government is hard at work dealing with the problem, but not through the traditional way of upholding law and order. No; instead, the feminist perspective is that society needs to take a greater role in the rearing of children, which will supposedly create more well-functioning adults as these individuals grow up, all in the vein of Hillary’s mantra that “it takes a village to raise a family.”
IX.
The spirit takes Hillary to see her housekeeper’s family, a home she’s never cared to visit. Though Hillary expects the people there to see this as just another dull day, they’re actually in high spirits since Jane’s husband, the man of the household, is about to come home after a long day of work.
As Tarzan opens the door, the children all rush to embrace him.
“Dad! You’re home!”
“I’m so glad to see you, Dad!”
“You can’t believe how much I’ve missed you, Dad!”
Hillary is looking on in disgust. “Fathers? Humbug!”
Their joyous mood is broken, however, as a social worker and two police officers in uniform rush through the door and storm the premises. The social worker turns to the adults and speaks. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to take your Tiny Tim here into our care. We’ve noticed he’s not developing properly; you seem to have neglected his nutritional needs!”
Though taken aback at first, Tarzan still confronts his visitors. “But Tim is just a little bit short for his age. Surely this can’t be the way you work towards Hillary’s goal of securing a good upbringing for all children?”
Jane gets a cynical look on her face. “This is what it’s really about, dear. They just make excuses for taking our children, or anyone’s for that matter.”
Hillary adds her two cents to the spirit. “I’m entirely certain Tiny Tim will be much better off in foster care than in that father-led household.”
X.
Next, the spirit flies Hillary towards a church.
“Do we have to go in there? That God dude is one really nasty man,” she asks.
“Your son Fred is sitting there with his family,” it responds.
“Even more reason not to go!”
Hillary is still forced into the building, and bears witness to a baptism taking place. The demographics that reside in here aren’t of the kind they used to be; whereas before, church was mostly attended by an affluent middle class, now it’s mostly the working poor. Though short on personal finances, they’re still wealthy in spirit. Married couples are sitting with their children in an orderly manner, all of them excited to see a child being entered into a covenant with God, with Fred and family among them.
“Have a look at that!” the spirit exclaims. “They have really nothing of the things you treasure yourself: money and social status. Yet they don’t appear in want of anything!”
“The only reason they could possibly be happy is because of feminism!” Hillary retorts. “Before feminism, women were oppressed and miserable, and men were miserable oppressing them too! Feminism brought joy to both sexes!”
The spirit shakes his head in dismay.
Fred turns to his wife. “Can you believe that Aunt Hillary has declared the nuclear family ‘humbug?!’”
She chuckles. “I’m so happy for our family. I wish everyone could be allowed together just like we are.”
“You heard about what happened to Jane’s son Tiny Tim?”
“Yeah, the social workers took him as part of their god-awful feminist ideology. I really don’t want to curse in church…but G-d damn CPS!”
XI.
Next, the spirit is standing with Hillary outside in the street while dressed in a large coat, obviously hiding something underneath it.
“So what have you got inside your coat?” she asks. “Since everything here is about me, I guess you’re about to tell me something?”
He buttons up his coat, and a really sad child appears before her on one side of his legs. Though something is clearly holding up the other side of the coat too, she can’t see anything there.
“Are those your children? A depressed one, and one that seems to fill out your coat, yet which can’t be seen?”
“No! For they are man’s. Their names are Custody Dispute and Childlessness. They are the outcome of the policies you hold so dear!”
“But if they’re man’s, then why aren’t they being well taken care of? And why doesn’t that second one seem to exist at all?”
“Well, to quote you: ‘But aren’t there foster families? And group homes?’ It’s just that this is what happens when you abolish the nuclear family. You simply can’t replace that institution with the state. Children need loving parents who can think about something other than their own self-interest. People won’t have children if the state will just take them, and the government caretakers will only exploit them for their own benefit. All children have are their own parents!”
Trying for a moment, Hillary curses herself at not being able to come up with a good response. A moment later, she finds herself back at home again.
***
For all installments of “A Feminism’s Carol,” click here.
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Daniel Hammarberg is an aspiring literary heavyweight, an IT everything-under-the-sun, a persecuted thought criminal, a former strongman competitor, and an all around swell guy. His main English-language site is DanielHammarberg.com and he lives on a formerly white island in Sweden that sadly gets ethnically darker with each passing day.
