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October 18, 2007
World: The New Girl Order
Over at City Journal, Kay Hymowitz examines the global rise of the unmarried female, and its consequences. I have two things to say before linking:
1. It doesn't matter whether you think "The New Girl Order" is a good thing or a bad thing. This is a secondary question. What is crucially important are the consequences that follow from it.
2. Pay attention to a mention near the end to the correct claim that economies benefit in the short term when women delay or abandon child rearing; this is true, but don't forget to think about the long term. What happens when those women reach retirement age, and there are no new workers to replace them? Do you bring immigrants? Which countries will have immigrants available, but countries which have not gone through the "Girl Order" phenomenon?
My two cents into the pot, I leave the floor to Ms. Hymowitz: The New Girl Order
After my Lot Airlines flight from New York touched down at Warsaw's Frederic Chopin Airport a few months back, I watched a middle-aged passenger rush to embrace a waiting younger woman--clearly her daughter. Like many people on the plane, the older woman wore drab clothing and had the short, square physique of someone familiar with too many potatoes and too much manual labor. Her Poland-based daughter, by contrast, was tall and smartly outfitted in pointy-toed pumps, slim-cut jeans, a cropped jacket revealing a toned midriff (Yoga? Pilates? Or just a low-carb diet?), and a large, brass-studded leather bag, into which she dropped a silver cell phone.Yes: Carrie Bradshaw is alive and well and living in Warsaw. Well, not just Warsaw. Conceived and raised in the United States, Carrie may still see New York as a spiritual home. But today you can find her in cities across Europe, Asia, and North America. Seek out the trendy shoe stores in Shanghai, Berlin, Singapore, Seoul, and Dublin, and you’ll see crowds of single young females (SYFs) in their twenties and thirties, who spend their hours working their abs and their careers, sipping cocktails, dancing at clubs, and (yawn) talking about relationships. Sex and the City has gone global; the SYF world is now flat.
Is this just the latest example of American cultural imperialism? Or is it the triumph of planetary feminism? Neither. The globalization of the SYF reflects a series of stunning demographic and economic shifts that are pointing much of the world--with important exceptions, including Africa and most of the Middle East--toward a New Girl Order. It's a man's world, James Brown always reminded us. But if these trends continue, not so much.[...]
Posted by Ruy Diaz at October 18, 2007 3:52 PM
Comments
Dear Ruy Diaz,
This article is extremely interresting.
Actually, I can witness from my own eyes that young immigrant women enjoy, to a greater or lesser degree according to each individual, and according to her origins (Arab, Indian, Black-African) the funs and pleasures of the SYF.
Everything which is described in this article (including the success of the mentionned TV serials) concerns them too.
Even for those who are married, I know hardly a few African or Arab couples in France who rear more than 2 children.
And depending on the country of origin (Black African being the most tolerant), I am sure that, if it weren't the strong pressure of the familly, and the physical threat from male Muslim activists, the mass of Muslim women would escape their native environment to enjoy the funs of SYF, as well as the run for better jobs and studies. (And what about young men, Muslim or not, this article doesn't tell about them ; I suppose they also enjoy the fun, the easy datings, etc. Perhaps they enjoy a little less the increased competition on the job market !)
The thing I am wondering about is, given that this seems an in-depth trend that nor me nor you has the power to reverse : who will win ? The fun-looking Muslim young women, or the backward-looking Islamic ideology, backed with its violent servants ? Reading this article, I think that we are really at a cross of paths.
Posted by: Spipou ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.westernresistance.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at October 21, 2007 11:33 AM
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