- Anything Else -

Sweeping generalisations

Posted by: Jenny on December 02, 1999 at 01:25:09:

In Reply to: Women are not blameless little infants. posted by Deep Dad Nine on November 29, 1999 at 18:02:55:

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: DDN: Who gives a flying F___ if she has done these things or not. She's a dime-per-dozen male basher My blanket statements about her aren't any less fair than her sweeping generalizations about men. Does she know EVERY SINGLE MAN ON THE PLANET THAT EVER LIVED? No.

: Kevin: What's so important about fighting anyways?

: DDN: Well….in the USA, fighting is what we're expected to do (collectively in the form of war and individually in the workplace) in order help maintain our standard of living which is, according to our women, a direct measure of how well we are doing as men. In other words, if you want to measure up in the eyes of females, get some money; if you want some money, then go out and compete for limited resources i.e. fight, cheat, steal, participate in fascism - women don't care how you got it just as long as you HAVE IT.

There's something strange about someone objecting to "sweeping generalisations about men" in one paragraph and then turning around and making similar generalisations about women in the next paragraph.

Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to categorise half the world's population.

: Kevin: I thought fighting was wrong!

: DDN: Tell it to the ladies. They LOVE us fighting for them.

Crap. It's the ultimate turn-off.
[snip]

: DDN: No problem with you there. What I won't do, however, is lay down and take blame for EVERYTHING. What I won't do is let women get away with the evil hand they have in our collective state of affairs: their insatiable greed for material things, their twisted psychological manipulations of men, and their big, secret, nation-wide puSSy conspiracy.

*raised eyebrow*

There's a big, secret, nationwide conspiracy? Damn, someone forgot to send me an invitation.

Most women don't" want it all". Of course there's a minority, but then most men are normal human beings who don't suffer from pathological greed either. People are people, and they run a whole spectrum from morally impeccable to vilely corrupt. To judge an entire gender (or any group) based on the actions of a few is repulsive.

For example, based on your post, I could claim that all American men are narrow-minded paranoid bigots. However, since I fortunately have encountered far more American men than just yourself, I have much more positive images of the group as a whole. Furthermore, I would never pre-judge another human being just because he slotted into such a category as "American male" - I prefer to make my decisions based on individuals.

[snip]
: DDN: Not any more than the average women grows up resenting men for having penises or thinking that they themselves should be more like men than like women. If men think women are so lame then why is almost everything we do directed at attracting and appeasing women?

If you consider most of your life to be "directed at attracting and appeasing women", then I'm sorry for you. Because I don't spend my life trying to attract men, nor do most of the women I know. Nor are most of the men of my acquaintance obsessed with attracting women.

What defines a woman? This seems to be your problem. I don't want a penis - I like being a woman. I don't resent men. What I do object to is someone trying to alter my way of life because I fail to conform to their idea of what a woman should be. I am an individual who has the good fortune to live in a fairly free society, I specifically chose to live within that particular society, and I will utterly defend my right to determine how I live, within the legal context of that society. In fact attempts by other individuals to prevent me from the full and free exercise of those rights would be illegal.

: Kevin: …….and the average man grows up in a world of privelege.

: DDN: Eh? I thought the "privileged" class was less than one percent of the world's population. How do you get "average" out of one percent?

Proportionally, in nearly all societies (in fact, I can't think of an exception) men are better off. They control the wealth, they own the property, they enact the laws. UN statistics show that more women around the world live in poverty than do men. Men in most societies have more freedom and safety, whether it be the statistical likelihood of assault when walking down a street at night, or the right to determine the course of one's own life - from career to marriage to parenthood - the fact is that men do tend to be the "privileged" gender. This is not a hard and fast rule of course, there will be statistical blips, but overall it does apply.

[snip]

: 1) Men are subject to horrible abuses from women their entire lives (as exemplified by some of your own stats above Ex// They are expected to live in constant fear of relationship termination) and are exposed to a host of dangers that women are not exposed to.

My advice would be "get a life". "Constant fear of relationship termination"? What exactly do you expect from a relationship? I was under the impression that relationships are two people choosing to be together because they want to be. If you're so scared your partner is going to leave you, you might want to consider your reasons for being in the relationship in the first place. They don't sound very healthy to me.

: 2) The stats above represent a social problem of massive proportions, but it is just that: A SOCIAL PROBLEM. Blaming it all on men is nothing but a sick, trendy ploy by feminist movements to alleviate themselves of THEIR responsibilities as WOMEN.

Please define "feminists". Again, sweeping generalisations. The original definition of feminism was women seeking equality, not superiority. True, there is a minority who use it as an excuse for man-bashing, but then there's a minority of men who go in for women-bashing, whether verbal or physical.

And what exactly are my responsibilities as a woman? The point of self-awareness is that one can choose to ignore biological imperatives, that one has a consciousness above that of animals.

I don't have an overwhelming urge to have babies, I don't have an overwhelming urge to find an alpha male who will provide a nice secure haven for me. I am more than capable of creating my own nice secure haven. This is one of the joys of civilisation, that the overall structure of my society allows me to do that.

I certainly do not deny that I have responsibilities, I just don't see that they are fundamentally any different from those of a man. I benefit from my participation in society, therefore it is incumbent on me to contribute to that society.


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