A Letter to Post Cartoonist Ann Telnaes About Her “Onward, Republican Soldiers” Cartoon
Ms. Telnaes doesn't recognize that "The Patriarchy" is hateful feminist propaganda
Dear Ms. Telnaes,
I believe that you’re aware of my efforts to get the Post to recognize its gender bias, provable by its imbalanced coverage of domestic violence1 and by its 2018 publication of the repulsive Why can't we hate men? op‑ed.
You might recall that last year I wrote to you about your 2023 Memorial Day cartoon. In my letter to you, I objected to the hypocrisy of using an image of military graves – essentially all male – to lament about two feminist-contrived injustices, “sexism and loss of bodily autonomy”, without understanding how feminism perpetuates these very injustices against men.
I respectfully ask that you take the time to read this letter about your recent cartoon in The Washington Post, Onward, Republican Soldiers, and to thoughtfully consider what I say here.
Please don’t misunderstand. I generally agree with the main theme of your cartoon, i.e., mocking the extreme positions taken by the Republican party, particularly the hypocrisy of Trump-supporting2 Christian nationalists and their recent efforts to dissolve the separation of church and state.
However, including a rider who carries a “Patriarchy” banner illuminates both your anti-male gender bias and your own feminist-inspired ignorance. The Patriarchy is nothing more than hateful feminist propaganda; it has nothing to do with the (wayward) Republican party.
First, it is morally equivalent to the Nazi’s fiction of a “Jewish conspiracy”. Second, if the Patriarchy, “…a social system that was designed by men to favor men” actually existed, it would have to be the most incompetent system ever devised by a supposedly dominant group.
Patriarchy is Feminism’s Equivalent of the Nazi’s “Jewish Conspiracy”
Feminists have lied about an imagined male conspiracy, “The Patriarchy”, in the same way that the Nazis lied about the “Jewish conspiracy” of Nazi Germany. The only difference is the target of hatred:
“Men, through male social, political and economic institutions, consciously and deliberately conspire against women via a system of economic discrimination” that (according to Gloria Steinem) “uses violence or the subliminal threat of violence” to enforce its will over women.”
In the same way that the Nazi’s use of “Jewish conspiracy” aided in perpetuating hate and violence against Europe’s Jews, the use of the term “The Patriarchy” aids in perpetuating hate and violence against men.
If you think the comparison is exaggerated, then how do you reconcile Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian-American feminist published in the Post who, in a 2019 radio interview, called for the use of “justifiable violence” against men and imagines “… a scenario in which we kill a certain number of men every week” to “dismantle the patriarchy”? Or ultra-radical Valerie Solanas, author of the SCUM Manifesto — the Society for Cutting Up Men — who called for not only destruction of the patriarchy, but also the complete elimination of the male sex?
For a more thorough examination of the moral equivalence of the Patriarchy to Nazism, see my earlier post, "The Patriarchy" is Feminism’s Jewish Conspiracy.
Patriarchy: An Incompetent Conspiracy
Shortly after the Barbie movie appeared in theaters, CNN published an article What is patriarchy? that included the following brief description:
“The patriarchy is a social system that was designed by men to favor men.”
But if this description is true, patriarchy is the most incompetent social system ever devised by a dominant group.
If the patriarchy favors men, then why:
do men live six years less than women
do men suffer 94% of workplace deaths
do men account for 80% of the homeless
do men account for 80% of deaths by suicide
do men account for 76% of homicide victims
are men more likely than women to be charged with crimes, receive 63% longer sentences on average, while women are twice as likely to avoid incarceration if convicted [from Estimating Gender Disparities in Federal Criminal Cases]
do men form the only group who, via the Forced Labour Convention of 1930, is still subject to a type of slavery (aka “military conscription” — the law exempts “able-bodied males between ages 18 and 45 from the ban on slavery and forced labor”).
Finally, feminism is completely oblivious to men’s far greater suffering, despite easily obtainable facts. Anyone who believes that the patriarchy favors men should watch this video.
The CNN article also stated that the Patriarchy “…is also organized around an obsession with control and involves as one of its key aspects the oppression of women.”
Anyone who writes or believes that the patriarchy controls or oppresses women should read “The Evolution of Patriarchy” chapter in a book Their Angry Creed: The shocking history of feminism, and how it is destroying our way of life:
“Patriarchy is the way things developed through history. In simple terms, men are pre-disposed physiologically to protect, through their greater musculature, their generally superior strength, and their generally greater height, and this automatically confers a leadership role. … It really is just as simple as that, and it has nothing to do with control, or a desire to control. Quite the reverse: men will sacrifice their health, their safety, their enjoyment of family life and their children, yes, even their lives in the pursuit of their inherent, inherited role [emphasis added]. It is all easily explained in terms of psycho-physiological differences between men and women that set limits on the roles and behaviours of each. It is important to clarify the difference between dominance and domination, terms that are used ambiguously these days, mainly by feminist propagandists to justify what they call patriarchy, and to denigrate men and maleness.”
Ms. Telnaes, let me close with the same message I wrote in my first letter to you:
“… in addition to being a lifelong reader of the Post, I’ve also been a lifelong supporter of equal rights for women. Even as a child, well before Betty Friedan and second wave feminism, I supported equality for women because I recognized that my own mother would have been happier not being limited by her gender role.
But for a long, long time, I’ve gradually had my eyes opened to the ugly truth that feminism, like most other “social justice” movements, has long since lost its way.”
Please, and again with all due respect, please take the time to examine your own feminist-inspired gender biases, to understand how feminism has lost its way and — hopefully — to temper your future cartoons with this enlightened perspective.
Sincerely,
Stephen Bond,
Publisher of "Letters to The Washington Post" Substack
This observation was confirmed by a February 2023 report by The Coalition to End Domestic Violence that described a 10-Year Suppression of the Truth on Domestic Violence by the Washington Post.
Because my intent is only to challenge the Post’s feminist gender bias, I’ve tried to avoid discussing Trump or the “Trumpified” Republican party. I do agree, however, with retired federal judge and January 6th Committee witness J. Michael Luttig: "Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present danger to American democracy."