by Anna Maria Hoffman

In today's society, young, decent men are rare to find. This problem has become so serious that A.J. Kieling even wrote a book about it called Where Have All the Good Men Gone? in 2008. 

When we think of young men today, we think of metrosexual, hipster, and unmanly guys who can't bait a hook, skin a buck, and dress like rugged men. It seems as though manly men are a symbol of the past and now are officially gone. 

Ladies, yes, there are unfortunately fewer young men who qualify as marriage material today. However, decent men still exist. Keep these 10 qualities in mind when looking for Mr. Right, so you don't lose sight of him:  

Strong moral code 
A man who abides by a moral code is definitely a keeper. He is the type of man who knows the difference between right and wrong. He always grounds his decisions in life on an understanding of a high moral ground. A man who prides himself in morality and becomes your future husband will definitely instill moral values in your children. 

Good relationship with his family
A man who has a close and loving relationship with his family is a man you want to be with. This type of man knows the importance of family and truly cherishes family time. He will  most likely place great importance on family after he marries you and begins to raise a family with you. Also, a man who treats his mother with respect will most likely treat you with respect and is obviously worth having as a husband. 

Understands the sanctity of marriage
A man who is marriage material truly understands the real purpose and importance of marriage. He will most likely uphold a life-long commitment of fidelity and love to you and the children that will potentially result from your marriage. Since cohabitation and the hookup culture have now become norms in our society, you don't want to miss out on being with a man who wants to pursue a life-long marriage with you. 

Respects human life
Ladies, a man who values the sanctity of human life from womb to tomb is not only worth swooning over, but also makes for a great husband. A man who knows that human life is precious will be more open to welcoming children into the world after you get married. He will also do his best to ensure that the elderly in your family are cared for, protected, and live their life to the fullest. 

Hard work ethic 
A man who has a hard work ethic is marriage material. He will never give up when working towards his ambitions. He will always work hard to provide your future family financial support, no matter what circumstances come his way. He will also instill this same value in your future children. A man stricken with a case of the "entitlement mentality" is not a great catch for your future anyways.  

Shared life goals
A man who shares similar life goals with you will make for a great husband. Sharing that similarity with you, he will most likely support your efforts in life. He will always be there to comfort you when you hit your lows and rejoice with you when you achieve your goals. Walking along the same trajectory in life, you both will most likely maintain a strong marriage, despite any setbacks you may face.   
   
Honors your femininity 
A man who recognizes your beauty, inside and out, and honors your femininity is worth keeping. He will respect you as a woman and have a better understanding of your purpose in your marriage. He will value you completely, not only for your physical appearance or features. A man who cherishes this quality in a woman will also teach his daughters to maintain their femininity and self-worth as they get older.      

Selfless
A man who puts others before himself and gives a helping hand to those in need is a man you should not overlook. A man who values selflessness will most likely be a loving, supportive husband and father. When he becomes your husband, he will also encourage your children to be charitable towards others in your community. A man who has a heart for humanity is a man you want to be with for the rest of your life. 

Faithful
A man who is faithful not only to you, but also to God, will make for a great husband. This type of man will value and uphold the vows he made to you on your wedding day. He will also value your importance in his life as his wife and the mother to his children. His faithfulness to you will also underlie the steps he takes to keep your marriage stable for your children. In addition, a God-fearing man will let God unify and strengthen your relationship, will highly prioritize your marriage, and will make sure morals form the foundation of your family.  

Knows his purpose in life 
A man who knows his purpose in life is a man worth marrying. He will remain confident while pursuing his life's goals and what drives his soul. Because he knows his purpose, he will probably be more career-driven, despite any shortcomings he may face. Since he has this quality, he will continue to be an inspirational force in your life after you two are married.

Yes, good men are becoming more scarce in America, but know in your heart that there is a man out there in our generation who would love to make you his wife one day. Likewise, he has a similar plight--finding a young lady to marry who cherishes her femininity, does not conform to our morally decayed culture, and is not swayed by the false promises of third-wave feminism. 

A decent man that you want to share a beautiful marriage with is out there. Although he may not be easy to spot, he will come and sweep you off your feet when you least expect it. Just make sure that he has these 10 qualities, so you know you two are meant to be.

Anna Maria Hoffman explains why "The Vagina Monologues" degrades women and should not be promoted to raise awareness against sexual violence. And watch out, Tyler O'Neil makes an appearance! 

Song clips, from Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)", are sung by Anna Maria herself!

Spread the counter-cultured love!

by Liz Thatcher

Where do I even begin?

On March 1, ABC’s “Nightline” did a segment on male porn star “James Deen,” who, according to ABC, has quite the following of underage girls. Reporter Cecilia Vega stated about the fans, “some of them so young we couldn't even interview them on camera. Their parents had no idea that secretly they have a crush on a porn star. It is a phenomenon that not even the man at the center of it fully understands, but it's one that he fully defends.”

How lovely …

The interview with Deen was disturbing enough.  He told ABC how he had first been exposed to pornography when he was in fourth grade, but he had known since kindergarten that he wanted to be a porn star.

But the way ABC dealt with this issue is even more disturbing. They said NOTHING to challenge him when he talked about DMing on twitter with underage girls “on accident.”

Um … what?

In the Twitter-sphere, BOTH parties must be following each other in order to send messages to one another. And a 15-year-old’s Twitter feed will reflect her age.  Come on now, if twitter had been around when I was 15, my feed would look COMPLETELY different than it does now. It’s inappropriate that Deen is following back ANY girls that are under the age of 18, not to mention DMing them. This is statutory rape just waiting to happen.

“Nightline” essentially promoted a male porn star that enjoys his underage following. What? This is a main stream media outlet?

ABC even interviewed a few of Deen’s fans. These girls said they liked him because he seemed approachable to them, and they could totally see them talking to him at a coffee shop … that is, when he’s not getting paid to have sex with multiple women.

Deen’s advice at the end of the segment to his underage fans? “Turn 18 and buy porn.” That's exactly the kind of advice parents want the evening news to be giving their children. The sad part is that through ABC’s positive portrayal of Deen, they exposed a whole bunch of new kids to this filth. Parents shouldn’t have to worry about what news shows might be exposing their children to. This segment is despicable.

by Liz Thatcher

Jezebel may have outdone themselves this time. In a Feb. 6 blog titled “What’s the Best Age to Have an Abortion” blogger Erin Gloria Ryan pontificates the pros and cons of getting an abortion at different ages. Her conclusion on the best age? “Taking into account access, ability to keep life plans intact, affordability, and likely relationship status, it's 25.”

Oh, well that’s great to know!

Aug.

In the discussion of pros and cons of teenagers under 18 getting abortions, Ms. Ryan stated that it could be hard because “kids still living under their religious parents' roof may have some Bachmannian hang ups about when life begins and how totally damned they'd be if they ended their pregnancies.” Ironically enough, Salon.com, another liberal rag, published an article on the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade titled “So What if Abortion Ends Life?” In this article, Mary Elizabeth Williams argued that feminists can’t continue to pretend that pregnancy isn’t a life if it was unplanned or you don’t desire a child. “Fetuses aren’t selective like that. They don’t qualify as human life only if they’re intended to be born.”

Apparently Jezebel missed this [equally atrocious, yet honest] article.

Don’t worry, it gets worse.

The only con listed for the age range of 18-23 is simply the “cost, access, you can't use your parents' insurance because they'll know.” Never mind the fact that you are taking the life of a child … oh wait, silly me. Jezebel is full of feminists that deny the science of life at conception. But it's totes cool to lie or hide the fact that you got an abortion from your parents ... even though it is a risky medical procedure. How irresponsible can these women get?

In the 27-30 age range, a pro of getting an abortion was “if you saved up a little, you could probably afford a designer abortion. A Marc Jacobs abortion, in teal.” Feminists always know how to keep it classy!

If you’ll recall, Jezebel was the site that had the freak out session on the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade because they feared that states were shutting down women’s rights to have abortions whenever the heck they felt like it, and attacked Norma McCorvey, the infamous Jane Roe and plaintiff in their sacred court case.

With garbage like this, is it any wonder that pro-choicers are losing ground?

by Gabriella Hoffman

The Left is relentless in their efforts to ban guns. They will stop at nothing to see every law abiding gun owner disarmed and helpless. It is also apparent that the Second Amendment means bupkis to them. Instead of using firearms to deter criminals, leftists have proposed women taking up rape whistles and scissors.

What?

We’re often told that women shouldn’t be able to handle guns because they’re “scary killing machines,” yet somehow we’re now expected to serve on the front lines. But I digress… Additionally, the Left views women as victims who must rely on the government from cradle to grave (think Life of Julia). What happened to the Left being about so-called women’s empowerment?

Speaking as a young female, I honestly don’t see how whistling our problems away or using scissors will likely deter a pervert or aggressor from attacking us. Do anti-gun proponents honestly think a criminal will be merciless because their intended victim is going to beg and plead and whistle them away? NO. Criminals are criminals because they don’t follow laws and have the intent of harming people.

AWARE – Arming Women Against Rape and Endangerment – best explains the problem with “rape whistles”:

Believing that someone will come to your rescue when you blow a whistle or set off a siren is a wonderful fairy tale. Don't fall for it. Not only are noise-makers and rape whistles ineffective at deterring crime, they are likely to do more harm than good…Counting on an alarm to summon aid means that you are depending on someone else to come forth to rescue you. That is, you are betting your life on the hope that someone will hear the alarm, and will respond, and will be capable of stopping the attack. That's a lot of 'ifs' that are out of your control.

The act of activating the alarm or blowing a whistle can take anywhere from 2 to 20 seconds, but the outcome of an attack is usually decided within the first 8 to 10 seconds. So, if the noise doesn't work, you may be out of time, the loser, before you can try other options.

Screaming can sometimes be effective, since the human voice has an impact that is quite different from a mechanical sound. But instead of just making noise, you could be doing much more constructive things that would decrease your likelihood of victimization, such as running away, kicking, striking effective blows, counterattacking with pepper spray, or reaching for a weapon.

American Majority Action’s Celia Bigelow and Audrey Blankenship wrote in National Review about the growing demand for AR-15s among women:

AR-15s are the most popular rifle in the U.S.; more than 3 million Americans own one. And its popularity isn’t with criminals — assault rifles account for only 0.6 percent of murders every year. Rather, the semi-automatic AR-15 is the gun of choice for many hunters, target shooters, and home defenders.

Last Wednesday, I took a break from student meetings in the Boston area and went to the Manchester Firing Range in Manchester, New Hampshire. While there, I shot from an M4 Windham and a 9mm glock. It was exhilarating and fun to shoot from these firearms. If you haven’t gone shooting yet or taken up shooting classes, then you must!

Contrary to popular belief, those of us who take up responsible gun use will not go on shooting rampages. Don’t listen to the hype from anti-gun activists. I implore every young woman who’s eager to take up self-defense to go shoot at their nearest firing range.

Huntress and outdoor enthusiast Regis Giles said it best: “Girls just wanna have guns!”

by Gabriella Hoffman

Haven’t you heard, ladies? Chivalry has its roots in sexism! 

Thought that cute guy was holding the door open for you because he wanted to impress you? Wrong–he was exploiting you because he thinks you’re inferior and incapable of opening the door for yourself. Thought that guy friend you like bought you dinner because he cares about you? Wrong–he wants to keep you poor and discourage you from ever becoming financially independent. Do you feel oppressed whenever a guy does a nice thing for you? Well, you shouldn’t.

How can a gentleman's behavior be sexist? Why do these women—excuse me, “womyn”—denounce chivalry? What leads them to conclude this and disparage a custom that’s in great need of remedying?

Several days ago, one radical feminist on Twitter-@IsabelBeatty–responded to a tweet of mine by denouncing chivalry as “chauvinistic” and “oppressive.” I was deeply troubled by her thoughts. Below is the conversation I had with Beatty. (Unfortunately, she deleted her tweets so I’ve kindly provided screen shots of them for you to enjoy.)

She then continued on her anti-chivalry tirade: 

I then responded to her: 

Many other women share this negative view of chivalry. 

In a recent New York Times column, novelist Lynn Messina echoed Isabel’s sentiments that chivalry is sexist in nature: 

It’s sad to see chivalry demonized by individuals like Beatty and Messina. Rather, chivalry should be met with praise and further encouraged in society. Young men should be held to a higher standard and taught to be respectful. The same should also be expected of young women.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Even in the case of platonic relationships or friendships, being chivalrous is a sign of upstanding moral character. Going out of your way to make someone smile, give them a helping hand, or being nice goes a long way. It shows you are compassionate and thoughtful. What’s wrong with that?

I don’t know about you but I don’t ever recall feeling belittled, discouraged, or oppressed by a man if he opened a door for me or complimented me. Truthfully, I feel humbled by these acts of kindness and will always be grateful for chivalry. Women shouldn’t be offended by chivalrous guys; they should be flattered by them!

Women have many rights and luxuries afforded to them in this country, yet they’re inclined to denounce chivalry as “oppressive” and “sexist”? Look at the Arab World as a model for oppression and sexism. Women have limited to nonexistent rights there, are stoned to death, or face genital mutilation, for example. Where’s the outrage from radical feminists? (Crickets…)

In an age dominated by rudeness, lack of self-respect, and relativism, members of our generation should value any semblance of chivalry that comes their way.

Stop trampling on chivalry; start encouraging it.

by Liz Thatcher

I normally ignore al Jazeera because they’re so crazy … but while working on something for my job, I came across an ironic feminist gem. I couldn’t ignore this one.

“This film is not to be made seemingly progressive or feminist because it presents a female CIA agent as central to the demise of Osama. Nor should any of us think that it is ‘good’ that Maya is female, or that several females had an important hand in the murder of Osama. There is nothing feminist in revenge,” wrote Zillah Eisenstein in her Jan. 21 op-ed.

Hold on a second, did she just say feminism isn’t about revenge?!?! LOLCATZ

If feminism isn’t about revenge, why are they constantly whining about patriarchy and how women need to take back the culture and lock up all men and blah, blah, blah.

But it gets better. Eisenstein continued to bemoan the feminist injustices of this movie. “Maya is not believable to me. She is an awful stereotype: a driven, obsessive woman, alone with no friends.” I didn’t realize that there is a stereo-type of the driven, obsessive women with no friends, but what would I know? I’m just a mindless conservative.

But the real question is … shouldn’t feminists LOVE Zero Dark Thirty? As one of my co-workers stated about the movie, “She’s the only person with a brain.” This woman was the central and key figure to an imperative CIA operation that will be a major part in American history. On top of this, women are CEOs, writers, journalists, government officials, and soldiers, something women wouldn’t have been able to do fifty years ago.

Oh wait, this is al Jazeera I’m talking about. Of course they hate Zero Dark Thirty.

This feminist can’t see past her racial-centric lenses. According to her, this is just another imperialistic (white) ploy for evil America to take over the world.

In reality, Eisenstein continues to prove the feminist stereo-type of -- if you don’t agree with me, you’re not a feminist -- just like Naomi Wolfe does consistently, and just like Jezebel did a few weeks ago.

One last question … when exactly did al Jazeera start caring about women’s rights?

by Gabriella Hoffman

In the weeks following the Sandy Hook massacre, President Obama and his supporters have come together to push for more restrictions on the Second Amendment. 

Last Wednesday, Obama-surrounded by children so as to not let a “crisis go to waste”-called for more gun control in the form of universal background checks, limits to high capacity magazines, and a renewal of the 1993 Federal Assault Weapons Ban. His directive includes 23 executive orders. 

The rabidly anti-gun hysteria emanating from the Left should concern you. 

Fox News Insider recently reported on a story about a 5 year-old girl suspended from school for threatening to shoot her classmate with a Hello Kitty toy gun that shoots bubbles.  It reads, “The Mount Carmel Area Elementary School originally suspended the child for 10 days for making what they called a "terroristic threat." The punishment was later reduced to two days. The girl’s family has hired a lawyer and is fighting the suspension.” 

Talk about outrageous. Since when do bubbles assault people?

The Left’s crusade against “assault weapons” has to be exposed. Our side must clarify what an “assault weapon” is, and challenge their smear campaign against our right-to-bear arms. 

Much to the dismay of the media and this administration, Americans are fighting back and defending their Second Amendment rights. 

The term “assault weapon” is a pejorative phrase used by the anti-gun lobby to undermine the Second Amendment. 

In Stanford Law and Policy Review, Bruce H. Koboyashi and Joseph E. Olson wrote, “Prior to 1989, the term "assault weapon" did not exist in the lexicon of firearms. It is a political term, developed by anti-gun publicists to expand the category of "assault rifles."” (Read more about “assault weapons” at The Truth About Assault Weapons.)

It’s imperative to distinguish the difference between so-called “assault weapons” and military-style rifles. Semiautomatic weapons, think AR-15's, fire one round whenever the trigger is pulled. In contrast, fully automatic machine guns fire multiple rounds whenever the trigger is pulled. The Left gets up in arms about semiautomatic weapons with cosmetic features bearing similarities to fully automatic rifles, so we must articulate why these guns don’t pose a threat to our livelihood.

Additionally, studies show that gun control policies are ineffective. 

One study conducted by the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy concluded that gun control doesn’t prevent gun-related crime. It also concludes that there’s a negative correlation between guns and crimes committed: the more guns available, the less crime there is. 

The Daily Telegraph reported that gun-control haven Great Britain is the violent crime capital of the European Union with 2,034 crimes recorded per 100,000 people, while gun-toting America has 466 crimes recorded per 100,000 people. 

An American University study recently found that 60 percent of high schoolers and college students plan to own firearms in the future, as reported by Campus Reform. 

It’s also recorded that women use guns 200,000 times a year to defend themselves against sexual abuse.

The Second Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The facts favor the Second Amendment and responsible gun ownership. It’s morally imperative to tell the truth about “assault weapons” by putting an end to this nonsense. 

Remember–tyranny begins when citizens become disarmed. Learn from history and fight for the preservation of our Second Amendment rights here in this great nation.   

by Liz Thatcher

I recently came across an antagonistic article on Jezebel that made my skin crawl … but also reminded me why exactly I refuse to refer to myself as a “feminist.” The article, titled “There is No Such Thing as a Pro-Life Feminist” did nothing but bash on conservative women like Sarah Palin and organizations like Feminists for Life that provide a pro-life, feminist alternative to the far left feminism of today’s society.

While I found the entire article to be ironic, my favorite line was a rhetorical question, in which the author asked “Who the f*** are you to actively work at taking away other women's right to make their own personal decisions about their uteruses?”

Ahhh yes…the ridiculous, age-old question of “legislating morality.” But is that what the pro-life movement is actually doing?

Let’s just look at this from a “feministic” point of view. Who are you, liberal feminists, to push for the murdering unborn girls who will turn into women someday? Gendercide is an epidemic, and not just in third world countries that have dowry or China where a strict one-child policy is enforced. This happens in America, too, where people choose to abort their babies because they are girls. I’ve written about this before.

Oh, the irony. As a commenter on this article so eloquently asked, “Isn't the entire idea of third-wave feminism based on the premise that a woman can be WHATEVER she wants, be it a business woman, a homemaker, a Democrat, a Republican, a construction worker, a sex worker -and someone who identifies as pro-choice OR pro-life? Who gets to define feminism?”

A great question indeed.

What feminists fail to realize is that through their emphasis on being pro-choice, anti-man, and pro-lesbian (which aren’t touched on in the Jezebel article, but are other common feminist themes) they are destroying their movement. Without reproduction, liberal feminism as it is being pushed today is self-defeating. It can’t perpetuate itself since feminists are killing and preventing the births of new ones. It demands the coercion of new feminists through the culture.

by Gabriella Hoffman 

Whenever I tell people I am a “traditionalist,” many look at me like I am from another planet.  I’m often met with awkward glares or sighs of disappointment. A typical response is, “You like tradition? That doesn’t surprise me. You’re a conservative. You’re backwards, hateful, bigoted, misguided, and out-of-touch with the times.” Others say, “That’s commendable. I applaud you for keeping with standards and not submitting to pressure.” 

Cultural Marxism, or political correctness, has taken our culture and society hostage. Abortion is readily acceptable in society, the hook-up culture is now seen as a rite of passage, and voting with private parts rather than voting with brains is a now sign of empowerment. To quote Monica Crowley, “What the bleep just happened?” 

However mixed the responses to traditional values, the case for making tradition relevant in today’s world has to be made.  It is time to be counter cultured.  

I’m very forthright with my views. If you follow me on Twitter, then you get to see them firsthand. I am pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, and am against the hook-up culture in addition to being fiscally conservative. I prefer classic movies to MTV. I wish more people had manners. I wish male effeminacy would disappear. I wish members of my gender had more self-respect for themselves. And I love shooting guns and going fishing.  (Peculiar, right?)

Although I maintain a more traditional outlook on life, I am in tune with pop culture.  The Left, with the help of Hollywood, has been very successful tapping into pop culture and making alternative lifestyles, hook-ups, and trash TV acceptable. They have a monopoly on entertainment, and they are sadly winning. Our side must make conservatism acceptable to Americans with the help of pop culture and entertainment. (This is a subject best reserved for another article.) 

Tradition can be cool. Here’s how: 

Modest is hottest: The divide between classy and trashy couldn’t be clearer. Here at Counter Cultured, we profile outfits for women and men every Friday. You can dress well and still hold a traditional view on life. Women should look to ZARA, H&M, Arden B., and similar stores for chic outfits that bring out the best qualities in them; men should look to Art of Manliness and American Gentleman for tips to bolster their manliness. 

Articulate traditional values in a smart, intelligent fashion: Our side has to be tactful in their approach, yet equally grounded in conservative ideals.  Harvard University professor Harvey C. Mansfield best articulated this in a recent interview in the Wall Street Journal: "Of course there are conservative principles—free markets, family values, a strong national defense—but those principles must be defended with the use of good judgment. Conservatives need to be intelligent, and they shouldn't use their principles as substitutes for intelligence. Principles need to be there so judgment can be distinguished from opportunism. But just because you give ground on principle doesn't mean you're an opportunist." 

Tap into pop culture: In order to win the War on Culture, our side must create good content that will not take away from conservatism. We should be able to communicate traditional values in a way that best resonates with people, much like the Left does with Modern Family and similar shows. This is an area we need to work on. Do not neglect it. 

There is nothing wrong with standing for traditional values. It does not make you a bigot, homophobe, racist, or fascist. Our country is unique in that people can hold many beliefs and different viewpoints without fear of being ostracized. 

The Left brought America the counter-culture, so we must take back the narrative by being counter cultured. Join the fight!