I know virtually nothing about contemporary stars and starlets, other than having consistently to turn away from the images of the substantially disrobed young "entertainers" displayed on the jumbotron across from my office in advertisements for their latest performances. Pornography, by any other name, ain't art.
But I'm aware of the actress Kirsten Dunst for two reasons: Her memorable performance as a child in 1994's "Little Women" and the fact that "Dunst" is a fine German name, not unlike my own (she apparently has dual U.S. and German citizenship; warum nicht?).
Now, however, Ms. Dunst is much in the news for having the audacity to say what she thinks of gender roles, to wit:
"I feel like the feminine has been a little undervalued ... We all have to get our own jobs and make our own money, but staying at home, nurturing, being the mother, cooking – it’s a valuable thing my mum created. And sometimes, you need your knight in shining armour. I’m sorry. You need a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman. That’s why relationships work".
Wow - how revolutionary! The idea that gender is not a social construct but actually has to do with biology, neurology, morphology, physiology, etc. is an affront to the received orthodoxy of the feminist left, many of whom have piled-on with a predictable combination of derision, illogic, non-sequitur reasoning, and obscenity.
Yet Ms. Dunst’s view corresponds with the science far more than do the opinions of her attackers. Consider the words of Oxford-trained neuroscientist Zeenat Zaidi: "Studies of perception, cognition, memory and neural functions have found apparent gender differences. These differences may be attributed to various genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors and do not reflect any overall superiority advantage to either sex".
So, men and women are different, and being a stay-at-home mother who cares for her children is something to be honored, not scorned: For affirming these self-evident truths, Ms. Dunst is being labeled “dumb” and ‘insufferable,” among the more printable adjectives.
Whatever the merits or demerits of her various film roles, Ms. Dunst has “committed truth” in the public square, and for this deserves strong support from those who believe that a child needs a male dad and a female mom, and that the distinctions between the two are immutable and beneficial.
So, to my fellow German-American Kirsten Dunst: Herzlichen Glückwunsch, fraulein. Können Sie Ihren Stamm Anstieg (sincere good wishes, young lady; may your tribe increase)!
For more FRC resources on male-female complementarity, see “Complementarity in Marriage” and “Truth is the Greatest Weapon”
