July, 2022 - God’s Good Creation

July 11, 2022July 14, 2023

An Idealized American Landscape

Pastoral Landscape, 1861
by Asher Brown Durand
National Gallery of Art

See if you can spot the churches in the background.

Overview

By 1861, when Asher B. Durand executed this large and impressive picture, he had fully perfected his approach to landscape painting, creating idealized, expressive views of America’s wilderness based on close observations of the natural world that stand as prime examples of the Hudson River School aesthetic.

Because virtually nothing is known of Pastoral Landscape’s history prior to 1980, the painting’s original title remains the subject of speculation. But certain relevant facts can be established. First and foremost, the work is the largest, most ambitious, and most accomplished of Durand’s paintings from 1861, representing a substantial commitment of time by the artist, who was not a fast worker. Second, the scenery resembles that of the Hudson River Valley, where he spent considerable time and from which he drew inspiration for many works. Third, the painting contains several works of architecture—an Italianate villa just beyond the woods at left, an arched stone bridge, a gabled house across the water, and an English Gothic revival church in the center distance—that may or may not indicate that Durand sought to depict a specific, identifiable place. And finally, in certain respects—mostly notably, the presence of a house nestled in the woods, a church, and an arched bridge— Pastoral Landscape bears a strong resemblance to Durand’s important work of the previous year Sunday Morning (New Britain, Connecticut, New Britain Museum of American Art). Regardless of its precise identity, the painting is unmistakably one of Durand’s grandest and most successful panoramic renderings of an idealized American landscape.

Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art

Doughton Park, Blue Ridge Parkway
by blueridgemountain_man

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July 10, 2022July 9, 2022

Creating Fragile Children

Lisa Selin Davis in her recent article continues an ongoing theme of this blog; Coddling Generation Safety Blankey.

Coddling Generation Safety Blankey? Or Affirming Shared Truths?

College Students Demand Protection From Words and Ideas

Young Woman in Profile by Odilon Redon – 1910
National Gallery of Art

Davis, a parent of a gender non-conforming girl, who was frequently mistaken for a boy, has some astute recommendations for “snowplow parents” and the fragile kids they create.

Here are a few graphs.

While some advocates of gender-affirming medicine and gender-identity ideology insist they are saving the lives of vulnerable children, in practice much of what’s taught to kids today about gender—especially the conflation of gender nonconformity with gender dysphoria—suggests to masculine girls and feminine boys that they need to “fix” themselves through medical or psychological interventions that have some irreversible effects, without guaranteed benefits.

There are many possible reasons why this is happening, including the lobbying efforts of transgender and civil rights groups, and the institutional incentives created by federal laws like the recent White House executive order on “affirming care.” But I believe another reason is our national zeitgeist shift toward snowplow parenting, in which parents believe their job is to clear obstacles out of their children’s way rather than to equip them with the skills to navigate those obstacles. We are terrified of our children’s suffering and teach them to be terrified of it, too.

The lessons children are learning about gender in schools, from our culture and on social media, may leave them fragile and thin-skinned, unprepared to withstand pain and conflict and confusion. Take, for instance, misgendering—in the alterworld of Twitter, it’s a worse crime than, say, libeling someone, which is the lifeblood that powers the platform. Children are being taught that misgendering is violence, that every person must be treated exactly as he or she (or they) wishes to be by others or else they’ve experienced discrimination, and that people who violate these rules must be punished, whatever their intent. Children are being taught that feelings are facts. That figurative violence is literal violence.

Most of the time, misgendering means “correctly sexing”—identifying someone by their biological sex, not their gender identity. This can cause a very small percentage of people with intense gender dysphoria deep distress, but doesn’t mean children should learn that they’ve hurt—no, harmed—someone if they misgender them. I don’t want children to be disrespectful, but if they’re disrespected, I don’t want them to melt into a puddle and demand vengeance. I don’t want them to learn that they need to weaken others to feel strong.

Children are learning that sex and sex stereotypes are interchangeable, that rejecting stereotypes means rejecting your body. Or they are not learning about sex stereotypes; the popular gender teaching tool, the Genderbread Person, makes no mention of them. They’re learning that puberty is an aesthetic choice they can make based on their level of discomfort; they are learning that discomfort cannot be withstood.

[emphasis added]

Read the whole thing: The Real Risks of Gender Education

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July 10, 2022July 10, 2022

The Irony of Gender Identity Stereotypes

So here is a profound irony.

Feminism tried to contest certain stereotypes. But Gender Identity Activists often define boy & girl by those very stereotypes.

Gender Critical¹ Feminist’s like myself find this terribly regressive.

Here is how it works.

If a girl doesn’t like pink or dolls and prefers trucks and likes to roughhouse, you know the tomboy type, then GI Activists suggest we should consider…..

maybe she is a boy.

“She likes boy toys :)” by Chris and Jenni is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

We are counseled to consider the opposite for little boys.

Isn’t that ironic.

As soon as the ground of girl & boy is no longer biological femaleness, and maleness, then it is just stereotypes. And a narrowing of the whole range of what femininity and masculinity mean.

Here is a relevant portion of a post I wrote last September about Detransitioner Keira Bell.

Quotes from Keira:

'I felt I was not being listened to at school and blamed it on being a girl,' she explains.

'I did not feel respected as a young woman compared with young men. I thought life would be better for me if I changed my sex.'

This is part of our problem! We’ve got to change this impression. I don’t have all the answers. But I don’t believe blaming “patriarchy” or teaching our young girls with our words and actions that men get all the breaks in the 21st Century Western world is going to help them much. You’ll just increase their sense of victimization. Individual young girls may in fact have been victims of abuse or broken single parent homes, or have other psychological stresses. And that’s tragic. And should be taken into account. But women in the Western world today have never been more liberated, more free to pursue goals they desire. So many women I know say it’s great to be a women & mother living in the Western world today. Tell our girls that, especially the ones who are toying with the fantasy of sex or gender change. (The vast majority of whom are white and/or come from economically secure backgrounds.) Help them in their brokenness. But tell them, also, the world has changed. We’ll keep sensibly advocating for more change where it is needed. But don’t throw in your sex card. That’s not the solution.

The “victimization trap” may play well in the world of radical politics, which is the animating force behind Gender Ideology. But it’s not a recipe for personal or social growth. Just grievance.

Also, we need to teach our young children it’s okay if they don’t conform to expected boy – girl behavioral type. It doesn’t mean they are not a boy or girl. We must stop propagating that fiction! And stop the bullying associated with that fiction too. There are only two sexes or two genders, and a variety of ways for individuals to express themselves. For example, parents with a sensitive boy who likes to read and doesn’t particularly like rough and tumble stuff should find other parents with boys like yours. Otherwise, in today’s world, he might get the erroneous idea that he’s a girl. That’s a road you don’t want to travel.

Same with “tomboy” girls.

Let them play with the opposite sex if they want to as well. But show them other same sex examples like them.

And for God’s sake, parents, let’s do what we can to keep these girls and boys from viewing degrading online porn. If young girls see that crap they might desire to opt out of “being a woman.” Especially after being “properly” trained in Gender Identity theory from Kindergarten! [See this post for details.]

Smartphones, the Internet, & Social Media are part of the problem too. Take control of the devices you pay for! And ask other parents in your circle to do the same. This matters.

Keira Bell

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