Oh, but they are serious . . .

Just an FYI-

One of the groups that I monitor regularly in the context of feminism and the Catholic Church is the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, which can easily be put into the category of the far right-wing. They view themselves as crusaders to save the Church from feminism (see their anti-V-Day campaign), the feminine (see below), and the feminine divine (see their campaign to shut down the movie version of The DaVinci Code). Misogynists, hardcore. but they'll try to tell you that they are trying to save us women from the evils of self-determination.

But my real point is their latest foray into the music industry with their recording of "Echoes of Catholic Militancy", a recording of traditional Catholic choral music "sung in a masculine and forceful style." They toss around words like "combativeness" and "virility" without ever stopping to think that, maybe, perhaps, our constant attachment of combativeness and forcefulness to our ideals of masculinity may have some tiny connection to the domination and abuse of women by men. And as if I could ask for a better example, they perfectly illustrate Michael Kimmel's thoughts on masculinity as homophobia. What is so frightening and evil about femininity and women that these men must constantly point out how seperate they are from it?

*sigh* I can't even bring myself to listen to what they might have done to the Ave Maria. If someone else is braver, please let me know.