Man Class

[stressmint]

During my Religion & Men class today, one of the points made (by a woman) was that most societies tend to have brutish men.
I won’t go into detail regarding the choice of words and inflection, but it showed me that for as much as women are engaging in “Women’s Studies” in colleges and are seeking to make the world a more woman-friendly place; it

Comments

Sorry, I ramble...

[aveevah]

Sounds like a great class under normal circumstances. But just to throw in a few thought on gender and the 'modern' views of men; if you want to see some borderline freakish gender relations you should come up to Sarah Lawrence. I don't know how men survive up here. There are about four women to every man, so men are treated almost entirely like trophies and sex objects. They have been almost completely reduced to walking genetalia. Since it's a very liberal school they are expected to be completely sympathetic to the minority, and by minority I mean women. And they are never to 'take advantage' of their status as a minority on campus. They are expected to be frat boys and poets simultaneously and are harshly critisized when they fail to meet that expectation. Sometimes it's almost enough to make me want to build a half-way home for the men who have finally had enough of it.
Personally, I think the issues stem from the strict adherence to the gender binary, but that may be just me.

Re: Sorry, I ramble...

[stressmint]

I'll take that as an invitation!
I'm glad to hear from you, that is odd, though not completely unexpected seeing as how college is a time when one can be at their intellectual pinnacles and then spiral down into a frat party binge.
I do agree to a certain extent, that the gender association doesn't mean what it once did and bears examination and gradual tweaking.

[blueimber]

I think it is interesting that your teacher started class off with the statement “Men are usually seen to have issues with commitment, why is it then, (as statistics show) that men tend to die sooner after losing a spouse than a woman is

[stressmint]

Your shoe example was very on point, I think I like it enough to remember it and use it at a cocktail party (with proper credit given).

I know I do that, I'll wear a pair of shoes or two until I can't anymore, and then try to get something similar.
I figure when a woman has a connection enough with someone, the natural tendency is to commit, but when you talked about shoes, the commitment was made to many pairs of shoes, that have different purposes. Is this what would be ideal for women then? Multiple commitments to different partners for different reasons?

So men's commitment is hard to earn, but the man tends to hold onto that commitment, while a woman's commitment is easier gained, but can change and acclimate to the situation?

[blueimber]

A man's commitment _is_ harder to earn and a woman's commitment is given slightly easier, but that is where the shoe illustration really kind of loses its pertinence. I don't know what the statistics on fidelity are, who is more prone to cheat or move on, but i think you then start to get into a different realm of morals. I guess i would say maybe women go through more emotional connections and commitments, not necessarily with spouses, but just in general, whereas men make fewer deep emotional connections/commitments, and that is probably both part the way that they are raised as well as some genetic predisposition as well; men are 'supposed' to be less emotional and whatnot, like you talked about in your entry

[blueimber]

Men are too often undermined in today's society, and in the society of the past 40/30 years. Of course women deserve equal rights and equal pay, but men don't deserve to be degraded and belittled. It isn't any wonder that men struggle so much with their identities and purpose in this modern world where competition and the struggle to provide are ever being replaced by the importance of team work and situations where 'everyone wins.' Dual income families, the need of both spouses to work just to make ends meet, it breaks down important things like trust and reliance and commitment, replacing them with insecurities, stress and a philosophy that anything can be replaced. What is even more interesting is that as technology advances and women push their way farther into the business field; more and more men are staying at home to raise the children, as their partners are able to make more money and advance faster. As this becomes more and more the 'norm' i wonder what the next few decades will bring

[stressmint]

Yes exactly, I didn't begin to get into those points because I figured it would lead to another discussion entirely. The doping up of "hyperactive" children and whatnot.

Also, it's odd that if a couple were situated that a man goes out to make ends meet and the woman stays home to take care of the child, the Fem-Nazis would kick and scream. But then if the woman were out working and the man stayed home, they'd kick and scream cause the man isn't doing any work or contributing support.

So it seems like these Fem-Nazis are against raising children!