Remember the Neanderthals
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No one knows exactly why Neanderthals became extinct 30,000 years ago, but a new theory recently reported in the Boston Globe suggests that once able-bodied women, the "reproductive core" of their small population, began hunting with the men, it was game over. (Their mammoth was cooked, so to speak.)

Already in survival mode, their combined forces were no match for the perils of climate change, ferocious beasts and interloper Homo sapiens, according to the theory. Worse, while a few Neanderthal men might be expendable, reproductive women were not. (I can't help imagining the T-shirt.)

In this light, last week's decision from a Manitoba High Court confirming the right of two high school girls to try out for the boys' hockey team, while advancing women's rights, may also be retrogressive.

Barred in 2004 from playing with the boys' hockey team at West Kildonan Collegiate, Amy and Jesse Pasternak appealed to the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, which, in 2006 ruled in their favour. The Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association then appealed that decision, but the Manitoba High Court also ruled in favour.

Having won their human rights case, the girls tried out but were nonetheless cut from the team. Today they are in university but the precedent allowing other girls to try out for boys' hockey is established.

So, was it worth it?

Kenneth Minogue, emeritus professor of political science at the London School of Economics, addresses that question in his essay, "How Civilizations Fall." Published in The New Criterion in 2001, it argues convincingly that radical feminism has undermined modern civilization, even as liberal feminism could be its salvation. In a manner similar to other barbarian invaders, or like Homo sapiens that replaced the Neanderthals, the radicals have sniffed out the weaknesses in the host civilization, Minogue says. (A talent acquired by locating teenagers' dirty laundry by smell.)
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[ 08 February 2008: Message edited by: martin dufresne ]

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Even if women are the same as men, they still aren't picking up the torch of innovation that made western civilization largely the achievement of white males. Truly accomplished and determined women have always made their mark, but they had the values of the western heritage backstopping them.

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Now, in Canada, it's boys' hockey, arguably the country's premier institution for channelling young male energies, for developing their moral and physical courage, and for helping them to define themselves as men.

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1) Ally Oop has no lessons for feminists

Is Margret Kopala really blaming the demise of the Neanderthals on feminism? You really think the female Neanderthals' train of thought was "Oh, we're really hungry and the guys aren't bagging enough meat, but let's not help them because we are hungry, let's help them for equality." This is her hypothesis?

And furthermore, what is this nonsense about liberal vs. radical feminism being neatly summed up as a split between those who just want separate women's institutions and the crazy man-hating bra-burning hairy scary ones who are ruining our society. Honestly, find another scapegoat already! The issues are about justice and human rights, and since women are human, we get rights too. End of discussion. No liberal, no radical, just right.

2) Article was 'sexist fodder'

This is exactly the type of sexist fodder that has absolutely no place in a news publication. Femininity, the death of which Kenneth Minogue lamented and blamed on "radical feminists" is a social construct that can be purchased at any local pharmacy.

Amy and Jesse Pasternak ought to be applauded for fighting for equality (even though it is something so ridiculously self-evident that fighting for it is almost an insult), not blamed for not allowing boys to grow into "men" by playing hockey unobstructed by the presence of women.

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[ 09 February 2008: Message edited by: martin dufresne ]

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The Montreal Gazette
Letters Dept.

I must admit to some degree of irritation at seeing our proud male-supremacist civilization compared to that of threatened Neanderthals, in Margaret Kopala's opinion piece ("Remember the Neanderthals', Feb. 7).
This just because the Manitoba High Court decreed that young women ought to be admitted into minor league hockey.
Them's fighting words, sirs, and I await you at dawn tomorrow in the Gazette's parking lot.
Your choice of weapons: spears? clubs?...
Martin Dufresne

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