Finally, I bought books on theater and critical studies of literature. It's a bit eerie because ten years ago, I had a smarter brain to read all this. I have reached the conclusion that human intelligence is repressed because we assume all others are stupid and we play down to their expectations. The net result is a gross sum of all stupidities. Go figure!
One book that I have been avoiding since I heard of it has finally wound up on my lap: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.* By John Gray, Ph.D. Really, now that I am dealing with Martians, this sounds like a helpful manual. But a thought strikes me: I am going contrary to a belief that I have held over a greater period of my life: human intellect is similar across genders, then why bother about the differences?
However, being with a Martian has taught me more than a little about my real-world polarity. I can't give the final world until I have charted this territory in detail. Is it a feminist's failure or necessity to accept the gender differentials, esp on the rationality-feeling see-saw?
* I do not like books that put men against women, victimizing either - and I thought this book was in the same league. I just think the whole gender conflict thing is non-sensical.
The only dilemma is, how deeply should we label our differences? Does it in some way create a difference?
Sunday, April 03, 2005
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Wake up and smell the DNA, o' filosofiscal one! Everyone's a Martian. Even if we didn't have the guys in the next faith to beat up, we'd do it with the guys in the next country, the next state or province, the next city, the next neighborhood, the next shop, the next school, the neighbor, the guy in the next room, in the next cubicle! You name it. Humans live for triumph over other humans. If the human race was only Adam, he'd probably die trying to one-up his reflection in the water or his own shadow! You have men vs. men and mice vs. men. So why not men vs. women? How many bozos in our immemorial history do you think have made careers out of useless competitions? It's in the genes girl. Don't brood over it. Just sleep over it... ;-)
ReplyDeleteAye the book does say it's a manual for relationships for the 1990's. It's got an anachronistic smell. Just this other day, I participated in a discussion that evaluated whether marriage is a dead/ failed institution. The al-famoso gender role reversal popped up in the discussion somewhere. Another manual in order, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteI think im still in that phase when books r hardly hard to digest. I prefer magazines unless they end up being stacked on my desk. Not a good habit at all. And frankly i dont like any books that favours either female or males. I think both have their roles to play n r inter-dependent. Then y fight over it?????
ReplyDeleteAnachronism is an understatement! Ever notice how vision in hindsight is always 20/20? That's what all these books about relationships and men-women associations are. Such books are always written "after the fact". They are nothing more than the author(s) account and experience on the subject: a diary written in the 3rd person as far as I am concerned. No relationship ever achieved perfection and pragmatism following these so-called "The Perfect Relationship in 21 Days" or "Relationships for Dummies" type books. Relationships are not a science. The same things you share with one person and get jelly-knees will give you nausea with another person. You can read a million accounts of peoples' experiences and draw upon them but the buck stops there. There's no holy grail to understanding relationshps. You just have to take it in your stride.
ReplyDeleteGovernment is an institution, the military is an institution, the banking industry is an institution...marriage is not an institution per se. Why? Because ultimately the two people in any relationship, whether it is a friendship, a kinship or a marriage are the ones that make it work or not work. It is up-close-and-personal, not governed by any hard-and-fast laws or norms like an institution.
The thing is that all the activity surrounding the study and popularity of relationships: marriages, and men vs. women, etc. have a tremendous commercial value that is why it pays to patronize such efforts and market them. Think about it: the "Relationships" market is a multi-multi-trillion dollar industry, if you take into account the amount that is just spent in a day on it worldwide: in movies, books, medical research, music, art, celebrations and holidays, written literature, you name it! It is the single most sellable industry to the human race. The only other industry that even comes in at a poor, distant 2nd place is the War[fare] industry.
Make sense? :-)