The goddess delusion

Reading the Nikki Gemmel page in the Weekend Australian Magazine (Oct 6) I was struck by just how many women seem to be totally convinced that they are "Goddesses". I know the trend has been happening for years but lately it has reached epidemic proportions. Even otherwise normal women are afflicted by it. And it seems particularly acute amongst the "Older Goddesses".

My first reaction to the phenomena was humour and understanding. It must be difficult to see your greatest assets slipping away and not try to compensate. Especially if you'd exploited that feminine allure all of your life. But sadly we are only human, and we get old, without becoming divine. A similar thing happens to all of us, one way or another, regardless of our gender.

At a later stage the goddess thing began to annoy me because I could see that some of my female friends were being exploited by the use of flattery. Their insecurities were being used to manipulate them; usually to sell them cosmetics or cosmetic surgery. Instead of growing old gracefully they were desperately trying to stay vivacious, and relevant. They were being encouraged to be 'cougars' and to want 'toy-boys'. All rather silly and undignified. Even my ex-wife, when she contacted me to wish me a happy sixtieth birthday, let me know she had visions of herself as a Goddess. I gently tried to correct her because I know she isn't; I used to be married to her!

These days I see the Goddess Delusion more for what it is; a mental disorder. Elderly woman are aged humans who should be dignified and realistic. They should be feeling at ease with who they are rather than clinging to the ridiculous goddess fantasy derived from decades of indoctrination reinforcing the notion of spiritual and moral superiority. What kind of fools fall for their own propaganda? There's no fool like an old fool.

Could you imagine the situation where middle-aged men stared strutting about declaring themselves to be Gods? I can almost hear the withering, pitiless waves of ridicule from the ladies.

Poor women. They certainly are in crisis. Obsessed with power and "the future feminisation of the planet" according to Gemmel, who repeatedly refers to 65 year olds as "middle-aged chicks" and "girls".

It wouldn't matter so much if the madness was restricted to these small groups of wealthy self-obsessed women enjoying their "collective girl-crush' but they are the elites that are setting the political agenda for the rest of us. Quentin Bryce, one of the Goddesses Gemmel heaps praise upon, couldn't help looking glamorous considering the money the government hands out to her, which includes a $28,000 per annum clothing allowance, but at the same time as she is supping on champagne, caviar, and adulation the feminist government she heads is cutting the meagre income of single parents who are really, really, struggling to survive.

These elitist feminists have completely lost touch with reality. In the name of equality they've inflated their own importance to the point where they are now an especially privileged caste, above the law and beyond reproach. They have subverted the justice system and manipulated our institutions to suit themselves, managing to claim superiority while maintaining affirmative action laws based on the erroneous premise that they are an 'oppressed class'.

Single mums are an oppressed class but ironically they are oppressed by their Goddess-in-Prada sisters.

Goddesses they think they are, but for sure they are making mugs out of the rest of us.