The University of Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

The lovely Jessica at Feministing points us in the direction of The Nation's Katha Pollitt's response to logic-impaired NY Times columnist John Tierney's blathering screed on the feminization of education, "Male Pride and Female Prejudice," which contained such gems as:

Advocates for women have been so effective politically that high schools and colleges are still focusing on supposed discrimination against women. You could think of this as a victory for women's rights, but many of the victors will end up celebrating alone.

One might suggest to Tierney that the choice to celebrate one's personal success alone, granted by the freedom that self-sufficiency allows, is in itself indeed a victory for women's rights, but I suspect the thought of a woman who prefers independence to a life attached to a strawman who is only available to her if she's uneducated is a concept he has trouble grasping. I understand; it's tough to wrap one's mind around such convoluted and implausible hypotheticals. Ahem.

Pollitt notes in her response to Tierney:

If the mating game worked fine when women were ignorant and helpless and breaks down when they smarten up, that certainly tells us something about marriage.

An excellent point. Clearly, the education of women is threatening the sanctity of marriage. Are you listening, Karl Rove? I suggest you dispatch Tierney, Brooks, O'Beirne et al to write columns to this effect at once, and set a Protection of Marriage Amendment in motion STAT.

(Related reading: Mannion starts a series on gender and education.)