08.06.06
When the cat’s away…
I wasn’t planning on doing another entry for a while on the differences between men and women, but an article just popped up on MSNBC, and I couldn’t resist. It just goes to show you how badly men, even the finest specimens of their gender, need a female to help them focus.
[I linked to the article, but it seems to have gone poof. I'll summarize here.
It was the story of three men whose wives go away for the summer, formerly a not uncommon occurrence, but less frequent nowadays, as wives work. The three families profiled in the story had a man who was staying home for the summer while working at his job, while the wife took the children abroad to travel or stay with relatives. The men in the story regressed to remote-clicking beer-swilling card-playing layabouts, but complained to their wives how they felt stressed by the situation. The wives, meanwhile, caring for all the kids alone, were suggesting that the men definitely had the easy end of the deal.]
Regardless of how hard we try to pretend to believe in the egalitarian model – the one where all behavior differences between males and females result from gender-based differences in their upbringing – we are only paying lip service to it.
You see, I have a different definition of “politically correct” than the right wing establishment does. For them it has a variety of meanings. In other words, it means whatever they mean it to mean, always involving apocryphal “liberals” infringing on the “rights” of free-speaking neo-fascists, oops, fine upstanding Republican citizens, to harass people of color or women trying to break out of the mold – unless they are Ann Coulter – and just in general, to stand in opposition for civility, respect, and verifiable facts.
For me it means any opinion at all which brings the criticism, “You shouldn’t have said that because it goes against our dogma.”
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, especially since I may not have said it in this blog: I blame the education system for the existence of know-nothing no-fact right wing pundits and running dogs. Heck, I’m willing to blame them for the existence of the majority of magickal thinkers of all other political persuasions, too. Moi? I don’t discriminate.
What they teach in school these days is that facts aren’t important. What’s important is understanding the theory behind the facts. Well, guess what! Any theory is built on facts. Not knowing facts means you don’t understand the theory, plain and simple, and you’re taking it on faith if you say you do. Kids are learning that all ideas are equally valid and deserving of support, whether they are supported by facts or the fabrication of a deranged and addled mind. (Anybody you know?)
But getting back to the subject at hand, it really is the observations that matter. If you observe differences between males and females, and you write about them, but fail to acknowledge you are doing this, then in the very least you are showing your blind spot for all the world to see. They call it “cognitive dysfunction” – believing two things at the same time that are simultaneously impossible – yet failing to recognize that this is the case.
Clearly these males are in need of strict guidance by a female, and are unable to function productively in her absense.
Perhaps the wife should make arrangements for a surrogate to whip them into line on occasion.
