A Letter to Post Columnist Roxanne Roberts About Her “Older Women with Money” Article
Going MGTOW is Starting to Look Like a Viable Option
Dear Ms. Roberts,
Recently, I included you as a recipient of an open letter I wrote about “The Big Shift”, the Post’s recent series that celebrates the financial progress of women.
In that letter I mentioned that, although I’ve been a lifelong supporter of equal rights for women, I’ve long noticed the Post’s clear anti-male gender bias, finally made undeniable by its publication in 2018 of its Why can't we hate men? op-ed.
I also observed that this bias is reflected in The Big Shift, as many of the series’ articles embrace a one-sided, feminist-inspired worldview. For example two articles, Closing the gender pay gap one job offer at a time and Five myths about women and money that need to be debunked, help propagate the myth of a gender pay gap. My responses (here and here) explain why this myth is provably false.
I respectfully ask that you take the time to read this letter about your Big Shift article, For older women with money, it’s yes to love but ‘I don’t’ to marriage, and to thoughtfully consider what I say here.
Please don’t misunderstand. As a father who has helped raise two independent, financially self-sufficient millennial daughters, I don’t fault women who want to preserve the hard-earned assets they’ve accumulated over their working lives.
But with that said, it’s clear that you (and the Post) don’t recognize your article’s gender bias.
For example, by writing that “…millions of older women were systemically paid lower wages” (i.e. due to sex discrimination), you’re helping perpetuate the myth of a gender pay gap, a feminist statistical lie that can easily be disproved with a single image:
Later, you quote Grace, a 61-year-old guidance counselor and other women as declaring “At this age, most guys want a nurse and a purse.”
Can you honestly not see how completely arrogant and sexist this statement is? The claim not only belittles men, but also illuminates the female chauvinism of women who utter it.
Those feminist-indoctrinated millions who don’t see anything wrong with this selfish summarization about what widowers want in a woman should read a book, The Privileged Sex. One quote from famed anthropologist Margaret Mead stands out:
“Somewhere in the dawn of human history, some social invention was made under which males started nurturing [emphasis added] females and their young... In every known human society… the young male learns that… one of the things which he must do in order to be a full member of society is to provide food for some female and her young... The division of labor may be made in a thousand ways… but the core remains. Man, the heir of tradition, provides for women and children.”
Keeping in mind that “nurse” and “nurture” share the same Latin root, it should be clear that women have always wanted – and been given – male “nurses” with “purses” in the form of generous men who have historically always nurtured and provided for both women and children.
And for women to say most men want nurses and purses ignores the tendency of hypergamous women who search for wealthy men – often much older men – in anticipation of a financial windfall when these men die.
A classic instance is Anna Nicole Smith, the gold-digging former Playboy magazine Playmate of the Year, who in 1994 at age 26 married 89-year-old Texas oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall II.
Millions of women like Anna Nicole only want a guy with a purse who is soon in a hearse.
Finally, your article – and feminism generally – completely ignore the financial gender advantages that women have always enjoyed, and instead focus only on female disadvantages.
As one proof of these financial advantages, women should answer a single, simple question:
“What occupation requires no education, no training, and no licensing, where you can literally make billions of dollars — yes, that’s a “B”, billions — that is filled exclusively by women, and that requires absolutely no skills at all?
Other than uttering the words “I do?”
The answer, of course, is “wife”.
For example, MacKenzie Bezos, the divorced wife of Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, walked away with a 4% stake of Amazon worth nearly $40 billion! The divorce made her one of the 25 richest billionaires on earth.
In closing, let me say that your article has been a real eye opener for me. Previously, I had thought that if I were ever widowed, and would be fortunate enough to find another partner, I would want to share everything with her.
But after reading about the women in your article who want to keep their finances completely separate from their partners, I’ve reconsidered. Like Christen, the 65-year-old doctor profiled by you, I would insist on keeping my finances 100% separate and have all of my money to go only to my children.
Or perhaps I’d completely eschew any relationships with women and go completely MGTOW: men going their own way.
The Big Shift and articles like yours are making me think that MGTOW is an increasingly viable option.
Ms. Roberts, please examine your own feminist biases.
Sincerely,
Stephen Bond
Publisher of "Letters to The Washington Post" Substack