Inspired by a reading of McCaughey's "Caveman Masculinity "
It's
all a capitalist's game and depends on who is selling what …..and what
we are being sold mainly is a ticket to the nearest point of sale. I
really don't want to come across as cynical; it is a capitalistic
society after all but people's fears are constantly being exploited by
those who have the economic capacity and resources to do so. We are
buying what is being sold because we desparately feel the need to be
accepted. It's human nature. There's something about the need for
nurture that blinds us to this fact, (like a person in the throes of
passion who forgot the birth control and in a frenzied moment of
impassioned denial casts their fate to the whim of the moment). And
because we exist in a society that moves at such a fast pace, where
split second decisions are being expected constantly of consumers, when
forced to decide we do so impulsively, without stopping to allow
rationality to eclipse immediate gratification. This is what the
marketplace is all about (….sorry business majors!) and, note to self,
there is no use lamenting the moral implications of exploitation because
this is America after all, and our ethic is such that we celebrate
social Darwinism as the ultimate prize. Those who have the means to do
so are within their right here to do whatever they choose within legal
reason. When DuPont figured out a way to create a sensation by mass
producing silk stockings at a price level that even lower income women
could afford, we bought into their image making money scheme. It wasn't
so much that they were selling stockings as much as that they were
selling 'class' , and doesn't everyone want to appear 'classy'? Doesn't
everyone want to appear socially, biologically, intellectually relevant?
And along with the class comes status and elevated status translates
into more power and more power translates into more opportunity and
more opportunity translates into different things depending on the
defined goals for the particular gendered class an individual subscribes
to.
If you are male, your status/power is linked with your
ability to trump the powers/status of the next male. (Correct me if I'm
wRONg but the same seems likely to be true for females also). In our
civilized society today that means being a well trained caveman in
intellectual form, savvy, physically 'hot', unbeatable: a winner in all
realms of being: a superman! How is this different from the caveman in
the earlier stage of evolution? Is it different or is it really same
thing in a different wrapping? Because when it all boils down to the
ultimate display of power, i.e., the arena of fisticuffs, it does not
really matter if you have a penis or not (I tried to think of another
way to say that, but saying "having a vagina or not" does not convey the
same message! ….that in itself could be an entire topic of discussion).
What does matter is who can kick whose ass in the arena. And those that
can triumph there get the "prize" ….. what is the prize? Again it all
depends on what satisfies one's self interest. Female or male, how do I
get my needs met? And where do 'needs' come from? Are they fabricated
like 'wants' are? Or are they hard wired in as part of the survival
instinct. I think that's the ticket. Needs are inborn, and wants are
constructed according to the popular devices and mechanisms that are the
product of a given socioeconomic current.
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