In college for the MRS

Driving home from the grocery store, a commercial came on the radio that outlined the difficult time men are having at this point in America. Depression, poor esteem, falling behind in school. It painted a pretty grim reality for men and boys in our world.

Into this situation comes Charlie Kirk, podcaster and ultra-conservative leader of Turning Point USA. He has many follower, and one might think he is a substantial person making a living as advisor and leader

Reading Charlie Kirk’s resume you will find he has a high school education. He dropped out of community college. He has very few credentials of any kind, but he is persuasive and is growing in fame and wealth.

Last week, Charlie Kirk showed real ignorance when he was speaking in a leadership conference held by Turning Point for 14 -year-old girls. The underlying pitch of the conference was to convince young women to go to college for the MRS degree. In case that is lost on you, the point is to find a husband and become a homemaker and mother.

The last fifty years, struggling for women’s rights, equal pay for equal work, and achievement both in school and the work force is lost on him. His plan is very regressive for women and might be an added burden on young men who soon will become a “catch.”

Kirk advised the girls to go to good colleges which would ensure young men were likely to be of higher socio-economic status.

Talk about having more babies has impressed upon many of us that there are a lot of men satisfied to have Tradwives, those who offer no game in the world. Being barefoot and pregnant is something a lot of women don’t aspire to.

I write as one who married at 19, in the middle of my sophomore year of college. I would not change anything about that. But I always loved learning, and hoped one day I could finish my education.

I was PTA president, grade mother, VBS teacher, Sunday School teacher, Cub Scout leader, and costumer extraordinaire. I worked to help Tom build the family business, which was broadcasting. Program logs, billing, sewing five hundred dollars to a piece of fringe. I drew a line when he wanted me to do meter readings… in the swamp!

The skills learned along the way were publishing a shopper’s guide, managing a screen-printing business and hosting a live call-in show on the radio. I did live on-air radio commercials and stayed sold out. I can sell tombstones like nobody’s business.

I was more fortunate than many young women who marry husbands who can’t keep jobs themselves. Or have affairs. Or drink and are abusive. Or leave the old wife for a new model. Young men sometimes die, leaving women and children to fend for themselves.

The state of American marriage will not be fixed by tradwives and depressed men.

Women need to have skills that will support them. Men need to help in the home and with the parenting duty. Men and women are not competitors. We all need to become who we are created to be and encourage each other along the way.

Our American culture  is not very family friendly, which may be why more babies are not being born. Childcare is outrageously expensive. Tax credits come and go. Family leave depends entirely on the largess of an employer. There is even pushback against breast feeding.

Why would a married woman even want to have a baby when the assault on women’s health care puts every pregnant woman at risk?

Maybe Charlie Kirk needs to go back to school. He needs open eyes and a heart wide open to see the landscape. Men and women are not at war. No one will thrive until we can settle the battle of the sexes and appreciate what each other offers to make the world better.

I thought we settled this fifty years ago.

Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com