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comment by _refugee_
_refugee_  ·  3386 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Is There Anything Good About Men?

What this article says to me is that I, just naturally, whatever, cannot be as great as men. Not all men, but, you know, like 50% maybeish. I just can't. I didn't evolve that way, the women before me just lay there to get me here, and the assets I bring to the table in life are that I fucking get along with people and my baby will love me regardless of whether I am special in any single way or not. Neither of which are things I particularly care about.

That even a "different" woman won't be able to get to the same peak or success as men. Because after all, historically, culturally, societally, etc, the only thing that has really mattered about all the women before her was their wombs. Women fall to the middle. Men get to the extremes. Huh?

Do you expect that I am going to read that and be like "Yeah man, cool. I've always wanted to be average" ?

And sure, like, we can all pow-wow and be like "Not you ref!" if we really want to, we can say "We mean it in general but not in specific" but the bottom line is that I'm a member of this class which has been identified in this article as having basically no significant, worthwhile positive attributes so far as I can see. They go along to get along. They've just had to survive. They don't take risks. They aren't as motivated. They're not as creative. Whatever, we can keep going. Let's even just say for the fun of it it's all fucking true.

Who. The fuck. Would want to believe that?

Oh yes, very insightful klein. Great article. Love it. 'scuse me while I go accept my second-rate existence. Don't worry, it doesn't bother me. Besides, I'm way more concerned with what everyone else thinks.





kleinbl00  ·  3385 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The article says literally fuckall about you. Here's the funny thing: on average, men are every bit as average as women. What the article says is that men are also more likely to rule harder and suck harder than women, but the men who suck harder are rarely even noticed.

The article basically points out that women are going to be underrepresented at the top the same as they're underrepresented at the bottom but being underrepresented at the top is held forth as social injustice while being underrepresented at the bottom is held forth as a consequence of the natural superiority of women. But you're too busy looking to feel victimized to notice.

The really stupid thing is that the article isn't even saying it should be this way. The article is saying "it's probably worth investigating how it came to be this way" and putting forth hypotheses.

Know what the article says? "Average dudes don't get laid." It then explores the societal results of that maxim. Is your existence second-rate? Well, statistically you're more likely to get laid - assuming we're both single.

We're not, though. I'm married. To a woman who was married before. To a guy who dropped out of college, didn't get a job, got addicted to pot and dropped out of life. That guy? out of the gene pool. I'll bet you didn't even know he existed - the fact that I'm my wife's second husband. He's so irrelevant to our life that we haven't even looked his ass up on Facebook. That guy? Not the norm. "Extraordinary." In a way you don't want to be.

A dude who can't get laid is a loser. A woman who can't get laid is a tragedy. The article explores what that means for CEOs and jazz musicians. But frankly, at this point if you want to take it personally I really can't stop you so go right ahead.

b_b  ·  3385 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    What this article says to me is that I, just naturally, whatever, cannot be as great as men.

Found it! Don't ever let statistical averages apply to you and you won't have a problem. What happens in the aggregate has jack shit to do with YOU, so long as you don't let it.

I graduated high school thanks to a gift grade from an art teacher, who passed me when I didn't deserve it, as I'd spent all of high school getting high and cutting as much class as I could. In the average, I should be digging ditches for minimum wage by now, but I'm sure a shit not digging ditches. I'm not going to sit here and brag about how awesome my life is, but if I would have listened to everyone who told me I was destined to be a failure, I never would have stood a chance. My elementary school principle told my parents as much when I was 9. Seriously. Fuck averages. They're instructive when trying to explain group behavior, but they are meaningless to any particular individual.

I'm not telling you not to be offended. I didn't read the article, because I don't have any interest in reading it. I don't know what it's like to be a woman or a minority, and I won't pretend to. But what I am telling you is that every other woman in the world could be a slug, and you're still you, and you still get to make your own choices.

kleinbl00  ·  3385 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You should read the article. It puts forth some interesting statistical, evolutionary arguments for societal and workplace imbalance.

b_b  ·  3385 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Perhaps I will when I have time later. One thing I found fascinating about Catching Fire was the author's assertion that gender roles sprang from the need for protection in camp, as cooking requires (a) a fire that's easy to detect, and (b) sitting in one place for a ling time. Essentially, men and women struck a "deal" in which women cook for men and men protect them while doing so, and that this relationship has exactly nothing to do with sex. Best argument I've ever read, frankly.

kleinbl00  ·  3385 days ago  ·  link  ·  

And the African tribe that marries off the young bucks to the crones because the crones will bloody well be able to cook, which gives the young bucks the opportunity to thrive, outlive their crones and then take on the hot young new wives when they're established.

It's funny how many taboos there are to talking about sex, even when the discussion is about the economic motivations derived from gender.

artis  ·  3380 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    What this article says to me is that I, just naturally, whatever, cannot be as great as men. Not all men, but, you know, like 50% maybeish. I just can't.

This is true for me as well. Being a man I'm statistically in exactly the same spot. About 50% of men cannot be as great as the other 50%. Why is this worse for you than for me?

_refugee_  ·  3380 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Fuck off!

reguile  ·  3382 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    What this article says to me is that I, just naturally, whatever, cannot be as great as men. Not all men, but, you know, like 50% maybeish.

No, what it's saying is that women produce fewer Stephen Hawkings, Einsteins, and so on. People who aren't normal. People who didn't speak for years, or have genetics that create muscular dystrophy. Traits that, in an ancient time, are more damaging to exist in women than to exist in men.

You may well be an exception, you may well be an Einstein or a Stephen Hawking. However, if women as a group produce fewer of these sorts of people, then society will develop a bias against women as being incapable of doing those abnormal things. You should fight that bias, but understand it's origins at the same time. Without doing that, you cannot understand it, and will never defeat it.

user-inactivated  ·  3382 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Lol welcome to your version of my response to that one "I don't trust White People" comment.

Prepare for comments from random people three months down the line.

tacocat  ·  3381 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Don't trust whitey is good advice. And I'm white.