Man-, Womyn- and Person-hood of Humanity
Often times in statements about humanity, men-be they philosophers, theologians, laypeople, politicians, or whatever-have a habit of using the words “man” or “men” to indicate humans. A while back, certain branches of the feminist movement, which is also understandably supported by the trans-movement for obvious reasons, pushed for gender neutrality in speech, arguing that the constant use of “men” ignored women and people of more complex gender identities.
I have a different approach.
I am also a man. I count myself among the “men” of humanity, not in the sense of my gender identity nor the arrangement of my genitals, but because I think, that doing anything less just highlights how I, as a female, can be considered different from a “man” because I insist on being recognized as a woman for some reason. Well. Fuck. That.
I am just as capable of lashing out, reacting violently, walking tall, speaking harsh with a puffed-up-chest full of bravado, of being belligerent and dismissive as any man. I can walk with that ridiculous masculine swagger that says I view the whole damned world as mine for the taking. I am just as capable of thinking, speaking and acting sexist, of getting distracted by a woman’s lusciously swaying ass and the heart-stopping curves of her thighs cupped in skin-tight jeans that descend down into knee-high boots… What was I saying again?
I am as equally capable of rational, logically articulated debates as I am of being swept up by blind emotionality. So although I am aware of certain tendencies within society and among people to view me as weaker or more vulnerable due to my appearance of femaleness, I have to say that I flatly reject those principles and I do not (usually) base my judgments or decisions to act or not act upon them. It is only when I am forced to consider situations where someone else may seek to use such presumed weaknesses against me that I even consider such things as a possibility.
So when Alan Watts says in this quote, “men”, I do not hear “everyone except you.” Because I don’t disassociate myself from this human-group. When he says, “men,” I hear “people” and I refuse to constantly juggle this extra mental editing of everything I read so that it says “men, and women…” just to comfort myself that the author didn’t mean to offend me. As I said: fuck. that.
“There are times when men’s passions are much more trustworthy than their principles. Since opposed principles, or ideologies, are irreconcilable, wars fought over principle will be wars of mutual annihilation. But wars fought for simple greed will be far less destructive, because the aggressor will be careful not to destroy what he is fighting to capture. Reasonable-that is, human-men will always be capable of compromise, but men who have dehumanized themselves by becoming the blind worshipers of an idea or an ideal are fanatics whose devotion to abstractions makes them the enemies of life.” (pgs. 40-10, Watts “The Way of Zen”)
Note: I realize that other people have different methods of dealing with this issue, and some of them may be in direct opposition to my own. I would like to think that there might come a day when we can stop attaching a gendered image to the word “men” just like we stop attaching a gendered image to “waitress” and “stewardess” and “secretary” but, that may never be reality. I don’t want to deny other people the right to deal with this issue differently, but this is how I do it.