Optimizing men and women

[billg]

Examples of this sort of behavior among males--especially closeted conservative males who need to go out of their way to show that they're not faggots--are easy to spot everywhere:

 

I can fix that leak.

I can make dinner.

Its much less expensive if we buy the parts and I put it together.

I looked at the car, and that noise is just part of it getting old, its fine.

I know Saddam has WMD's.

 

Great post Buffy. I suggest a pertinent addition to your list of examples though:

 

I can make unsupported generalisations about the "feminization of society" and justify it by invoking "common sense".

 

I don't know if this is a typically male thing to do or not but it's definitely typical of HydrogenBonds last post.

 

To address that post directly; HydrogenBond, even if your assertion that women are more vulnerable to the kind of thinking you outline and men are better at appealing to the ever elusive "common sense" is true (though I personally believe it to be far from a description of the actual subtle differences between the two sexes different abilities and ways of thinking), it still does not support your assertion that society is becoming feminized, and instead seems to be an exercise in stereotyping and misogyny.

[Boerseun]

Haha - let's not go there!

 

These 'men = common sense', 'females = irrationality' takes on the situation are also generalizations and stereotypes. And that's my point. Don't knock on the door of 'common sense' to prove anything. After all, 'common sense' gave us a flat Earth, with the sun and the universe revolving around it. Common sense turns out to be not quite admirable at all.

 

You get guys who are brilliant at reading maps. You get men who completely suck at it. What the world would let you believe is that all men will get lost without asking their female partners for assistance, and that all females will have fender benders when trying to park.

 

Judge them individually, I say. Sexes and races.