it's actually kinda weird. but you take any random man, and he is personally a nice guy who wouldn't hurt anyone. put him in a group of men, though, and the testosterone and violence become VISIBLE. its a strange gestalt. women do it to, in a slightly different fashion. and i sometimes think that the vicious cattyness that arises from a group of women is more damaging that Bouncing Betty.
but i go through the same thing, in my own fashion, the weird dissonance that you feel hearing about "men", i hear about "women" and about "feminists" and lots of other things. you ever heard the Heinlein theory of committees? "A committee is the only form of life with 50 stomachs and no brain". it's like that, a bit. there are a small, very small number of men who, for whatever fucked up reason, are considered to represent and be the epitome of men (this also obviously applies to women, to blacks, to Jews, to democrats, etc). these men generally are NOT AT ALL like the vast majority of men - reference again Brad Pitt (i use him because i don't like him, but everyone else seems to). He doesn't live a life that you or I or ANYONE that we know can comprehend - he has so much wealth i'm pretty sure he can't quantify it, he has so many fans that i'm sure they've become something less than human to him, etc. and yet he exherts this vast influence over the US population; it is assumed that all women want him and all men want to BE him. this disproportionant representation of men (or any other demographic group) is becoming more prevalent, and it warps our entire society... as a society, we all feel that we MUST follow Brittany and Lindsey and Paris, that we have not just the RIGHT but the DUTY to stalk them, judge them, influence them, pay them, and etc. again, it is assumed that all men want Brittany Spears and all women want to be her. when she did the MTV music awards she looked GOOD, with a very toned stomach - and she was VILIFIED for being FAT (when she was not fat but muscular). and so this, of course, made most women feel that they had to be even SKINNIER... its this never ending cycle, of everyone (even those that vehemently reject this paradigm; no one escapes, and everyone ends up conforming on one level or another)trying to BE THESE FAMOUS PEOPLE because for some reason we believe that these people MATTER. and we all want to matter. and the only way to matter is to be like these people. who we want to be like because they matter...
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Date: 2009-01-19 06:28 am (UTC)it's actually kinda weird. but you take any random man, and he is personally a nice guy who wouldn't hurt anyone. put him in a group of men, though, and the testosterone and violence become VISIBLE. its a strange gestalt. women do it to, in a slightly different fashion. and i sometimes think that the vicious cattyness that arises from a group of women is more damaging that Bouncing Betty.
but i go through the same thing, in my own fashion, the weird dissonance that you feel hearing about "men", i hear about "women" and about "feminists" and lots of other things. you ever heard the Heinlein theory of committees? "A committee is the only form of life with 50 stomachs and no brain". it's like that, a bit. there are a small, very small number of men who, for whatever fucked up reason, are considered to represent and be the epitome of men (this also obviously applies to women, to blacks, to Jews, to democrats, etc). these men generally are NOT AT ALL like the vast majority of men - reference again Brad Pitt (i use him because i don't like him, but everyone else seems to). He doesn't live a life that you or I or ANYONE that we know can comprehend - he has so much wealth i'm pretty sure he can't quantify it, he has so many fans that i'm sure they've become something less than human to him, etc. and yet he exherts this vast influence over the US population; it is assumed that all women want him and all men want to BE him. this disproportionant representation of men (or any other demographic group) is becoming more prevalent, and it warps our entire society... as a society, we all feel that we MUST follow Brittany and Lindsey and Paris, that we have not just the RIGHT but the DUTY to stalk them, judge them, influence them, pay them, and etc. again, it is assumed that all men want Brittany Spears and all women want to be her. when she did the MTV music awards she looked GOOD, with a very toned stomach - and she was VILIFIED for being FAT (when she was not fat but muscular). and so this, of course, made most women feel that they had to be even SKINNIER... its this never ending cycle, of everyone (even those that vehemently reject this paradigm; no one escapes, and everyone ends up conforming on one level or another)trying to BE THESE FAMOUS PEOPLE because for some reason we believe that these people MATTER. and we all want to matter. and the only way to matter is to be like these people. who we want to be like because they matter...