A great philosopher and poet once wrote "This is a man's man's man's world.....but it would mean nothing, nothing, without a woman or a girl." That of course was the late James Brown, the legendary soul singer, speaking about the man's world as he saw it in 1966. I cant help but think since then the world has changed and it's now becoming, or moving in favour of, a woman's world. Masculinity has become something of a faux pas, and all the standard outlets for manliness have declined or been shunned. I want to argue on behalf of the man that needs to be respected but would never yield to asking for it.
Never before in human evolution has there been such a rapid change of perception and culture then in the last few decades. Political and social reform has radically altered the expected role of the man and completely changed society's view of what is expected of a man. The idea of masculine strength as a civilizations ultimate virtue was a cultural necessity of a bygone age, when physical strength was vital to power economies and wage war. Otherwise obsolete in a world of predator drones and robotic manufacturing. That's all well and good, but if man's place is no longer on the battlefield or factory floor, where is his place? Even the place of a man as a loving father and devoted husband seem continually under attacked by continuous display of the man as an uncaring sex maniac incapable of romantic expression in media. While I do agree that all this reform, away form barbarism and physical prowess toward intelligence and less aggressive behaviour is both necessary and beneficial in our technologically connected world I think the way in which it's developing and moving is incompatible with the male psyche.
People must understand there are many natural driving influences in a man's personality, I think of them as the "Warrior" and the "Gentleman", both with malicious counterparts. As opposite as those two are they both work together to form the motivations and drive that makes every male. The first, the warrior, gives a man motivations for courage, selflessness, alertness, goal orientation, physical prowess, cunning, sexual drive and determination. From the gentleman side he gains civility, intellect, refinement, generosity, artistic appreciation, romantic feelings. It must be stressed that both have an ugly counterpart that is brought forth by societial influance. I consider those to be the "snob" and the "lout". The snob an excluding, prejudiced, snide, unwelcoming, ruthless personality and the lout an unintelligent, overly aggressive, immature, inarticulate, brute intent on destruction.
We must therefore find the optimal situation where the warrior and gentleman personas work together to overpower their negative counterparts in the minds of all men. We must shape society to have a place for men to feel naturally needed and vital in that role. It appears to me that the western culture seems geared toward a female mindset. Just look at all the marketing geared at female interests the massive fashion industry, all the laws that work against any sort of physical contact, against male fathers, against the rough and tumble that is natural (and necessary) in every man's world.
Moving on to look at sexism, it is the belief that one gender is superior to another, usually male over female, and that the inferior is incapable of work, cannot be as intelligent as the superior, and has no understanding of value. Let me make it clear this is the absolute worst of the human condition and comes directly from society allowing the snob values to rear their head in a man's mind. This is of course a behaviour that must be obliterated from all conscious thought. Here's the twist, there is a such thing as gender pattern identification, that all to often is mistaken for the much more vile sexism. It's not that easy to explain so I'll do my best and please read to the end before making a judgement.
Gender pattern identification is simply put a bet. Like betting on a horse race or boxing match. It's an educated guess at who the superior will be in a situation with insufficient information to be sure. When a businessman states that he would prefer a male employee over a female he is not saying that all men would be superior to women in that given position, but rather without a full knowledge of each candidate men have a higher tendency to excel in that area of profession {note 1}. Example taken from a NCBI investigation: pilot error is much higher in female pilots then that of men 81% vs. 48% by almost double. Now while I fully accept there are some female pilots with perfect safety records, and some much higher then men, there is a tendency to cause a dangerous situation. This is reflected in the much higher employment rate as a percent of total application of male pilots in the industry. Some would call this sexist and petition the airlines to have a more equal gender employment rate, this is the flawed association of sexism with gender pattern identification.
In the same vain, while using the statistics of performance there are some stereotypical careers and activities that are thought of as better suited to men that are actually better suited to women. Women are much more prone to be "super tasters"{note 2} having for more taste buds per unit area of tongue then men. In so all paths that require taste are better suited to women. Women also have better coordination and balance then men, allowing gymnastic ability far above that of a man. All these are statistical probability, and there are many exceptions to the rule, it must be stress that these are only a bet in the situation that a lack of other information makes a correct selection of the best individual candidate is impossible.
In the hypothetical situation of the sinking ship or any other life threatening situation I'll be the first to say "women and children first". Let this be clear, I would sacrifice my life, simply because gender pattern identification says that a womens life is infinity more valuable then my own! I would hope any other man would do the same. When I say women and children I don't mean my own wife and children, I mean you (assuming you're a female reader) or absolutely any woman. I'm making a bet just like as before, that a woman's life is more important then my own. Now there is the chance that you'll fill yourself up with heroin and drugs and waste your life making my bet invalid, yet still every time I would give my life without a second thought, simply because I am a "disposable man".
{note 1" Loss of control on landing/takeoff was more common in crashes of female pilots. Mishandling aircraft kinetics was the most common error of pilots of both genders and was noted more often in female pilots' crashes (81% vs. 48%)"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11346011 }
{note 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertasters}
will continue soon.......
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