Brendon O'Connell said (January 29, 2017):

Hi Henry, my sister would complain about The Simpson's as malicious mind control. I laughed, but now I see it.

I remember the extremely positive, extremely funny and we'll written "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." The clash of modern America with a traditional culture. My fave line as mother instructs daughter on her traditional marriage role, "Daughter, the man is the head of the family, but the woman is the neck and we point him in the right direction." A woman's power comes from her feminine balancing role and ability to see "the big picture" and sense of invisible connections the man might miss with his harsh solar light.

The Rabbinate complained that they too needed an equivalent dramatised version of traditional Jewish life. They came up with a rather crass, sex scened, dark version. Surprised?

It's name escapes me. And rightly so.

Larry C said (January 29, 2017):

Henry, I love it! Howard Stern says:

"...she keeps taking her clothes off and it kind of feels like rape... I don't want to see that."

No, Howard would prefer to see mothers and daughters get naked, women measuring penises, women demonstrating their dildo techniques, etc. on his show.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Henry, there's bound to be a better role model and arbiter of good taste.

Suzanne said (January 28, 2017):

Fr. Chad Ripperger, an American Catholic exorcist, has an excellent talk on the devils that have been prominent in each generation since the first world war. I think that he says that this generation has the spirit of depravity.

Here is his talk if you would like to listen to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27dWrv_jM64

Al Thompson said (January 28, 2017):

HBO is an intellectual porn site. Most fat women are ugly. It looks like they don't take care of themselves. If fat looked so good, why does everyone want to diet and look more trim? I am appalled at my own fat belly and I would like to keep the weight down. I struggle with it every day. And the reason is that fat looks like shit; let's be honest. Fat people look like lazy slugs and it is gross. Just go to a Wal-Mart and you can see young fat people riding around in the store in these electric carts. A lot of this fat has to do with all of the processed foods and a huge intake of sugar. Women can't do much about how they look but they can do something about the weight. This is an attempt to invert reality and it won't work.

http://verydumbgovernment.blogspot.com/2012/04/hbo-shows-graphic-pornography.html

Art said (January 28, 2017):

HBO = Horrible, Blasphemous Offensive.

The rampant blasphemy throughout the Sopranos series was challenging, to say the least.

Home Box Offensive!

Pat said (January 28, 2017):

Re new article - good article but this statement is wrong -

Now, thanks to feminism, women give their bodies first and hope someone eventually will love them afterward. Feminists call this "empowerment."

The women are not giving anything. They are just satisfying their lust.

Rusty said (January 16, 2013):

From your recent essay on HBO's "Girls":

Young women today are dysfunctional because their minds are at war with their natural instincts.

In the bad old days, men had to court and marry a woman to get sex. He had to love her. Now, thanks to feminism, women give their bodies first and hope someone eventually will love them afterward. Feminists call this "empowerment."

Truly some of your most insightful narrative. Young women should be made to memorize those words, as I was taught to memorize Biblical verses in Sunday School.

Keep up the good work, Henry.

Lucy said (January 15, 2013):

In response to A below, I don't think Henry is speaking for all women, but he has opened the blinds for many who are unhappy with their choices and they don't know why.

I lost my job 3 years ago, and haven't been able to find anything since. So now I'm a stay at home wife, and everything the world tells me is that I should feel guilty, useless and worthless, that I'm a burden to society even though we pay our bills on time and claim no social services benefits. My lack of employment means I'm not paying taxes, and thus, not giving back to society, even though society has given nothing to back me. Nevermind the fact that my house has been kept better than ever, I have taken care of extended family members through multiple sicknesses (something I'd never have been able to do while working), and spend the rest of my time caring for my husband when he's not at his high stress job; all those things mean nothing if I'm not working.

I could tell you that despite the sacrifices we make, I'm happier than I've ever been working. I could tell you that my husband doesn't want me to go back to work, despite having sworn in the past that as long as he was working, I needed to be working too. I could tell you that now, after 8 years of marriage, and many failed attempts at having children, I am finally in a position to get healthy and conceive a child. But I suspect that's not what you want to hear because it doesn't apply to you.

I don't agree with everything written on this site, but there is a lot of wisdom here, especially on feminism. Girls who are lost and hurting because the world tells them being lost and hurt is normal and healthy, they need to know there's another way and that it's OK to think and feel differently. It's OK to want a family to nurture and home to care for, that there is value and worth in those things. It's OK to not want to spend your life toiling away in a high stress job that can destroy your health both mentally and physically. It's OK to not destroy your body and soul by giving out to any man who's willing to abuse you.

Tradition isn't to be feared but celebrated, and the shedding of all things old doesn't mean the new is better just because it's "progress." More women need to hear these things, and very few places are willing and able to tell them.

A said (January 15, 2013):

I am a woman who likes her job, her career – if you prefer – and I can’t imagine myself being a staying-home mother. It is NOT what I want, despite what you’re trying to tell me.

I enjoy being a mother, a wife and at the same time going to work every day. It fulfills me altogether. I don’t want to have just my job, or just my husband or just my kids. I’m happy with having it all.

I don’t have to work – I believe, we could easily afford to pay the bills with my husband’s salary but I choose to work, because I simply enjoy it
I understand, you may have a different opinion, but, please, don’t speak for all the women. It’s simply not true.

--
Dear A

I am not suggesting women not have careers, but only that they put marriage and family first.

henry

Anna said (January 15, 2013):

I enjoyed your article today, and you are spot-on about "Girls". I have thought about this show myself, and how young women have degenerated even further over the last 15 years, from idolizing Sex and the City (hardly a great work of high art), to this epic new low. The Sex and the City characters were certainly as vapid and promiscuous as the 'Girls', but at least they had professional lives. They had interesting careers, flashy apartments, designer clothes - one can see the ostensible 'glamour' and why young women might aspire to it.

I cannot even begin to comprehend, however, why young women might aspire to 'Girls', or even what there is to aspire to. But apparently they have and do, which confirms just how fast and far society is falling. At least there are still people 'waking up' and seeing through it all though, which gives some encouragement 'they' haven't won the battle quite yet.

Dan said (January 14, 2013):

I threw out television in 2008 so I was unaware of "Girls" till I stumbled across a clip on Youtube last week. The clip showed the fat girl ranting to another about "boys", which cut to a scene of the girls in a bathtub together. The fat girl said, "I can't get in a bathtub without farting" and they both laughed. I take it this was closing scene of an episode.

My take on it is that it's another celebration of infantilism, promoting arrested development as something to aspire to.

Luckily the impression that most youth are living this way is exaggerated. Unluckily, during my youth to middle age I was in that strata of society that emulates television values and behaviors. I knew women who really did get gonorrhea or chlamydia from one night stands, or had abortions, or miscarriages while having sex with a pick up. These are not funny things in real life. They're traumatic, life scarring tragedies. This comedy show probably won't include the occasional suicides, overdoses, or stupid accidents that go with the aimless, random life these characters are glamorizing. Try to imagine the characters on this show when they're 50. Will they live that long? And if they do, who will care?

David said (January 14, 2013):

As always, you published another great article. Until you wrote about Lena Dunham I never even heard of her. She is another brain washed Liberal Jew who wants social justice for everyone. This woman cannot think for herself and is not open to other points of views. She has swallowed the Kool Aid she has been given by Hollywood.

Now according to the Huffington Post she will not get married until Gay Marriage is legal in all 50 states of the USA. She has not read the Hebrew Scriptures and now she wants to give God the bird. This is in fact one lost person. She is indeed one ugly woman. God help us all.