The Myth Of Male Power (must See!)

G

gummybear

Guest




Dr. Warren Farrell on five myths about men & The Myth of Male Power. Hard data, good illustrations, and interesting concepts, e.g. "Power is not in who earns the money, it is on whom the money is spent." The five myths are:

Myth 1 - Men earn more money than women for the same work
Myth 2 - Women are poorer, men are richer.
Myth 3 - Women are the most likely victims of violence
(Touching interviews with British veterans)
Myth 4 - Male-dominated medical research ignores women's health
Myth 5 - The deadbeat dad
(Myths about child custody)
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Luann

Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2016
Messages
1,615
Really WEIRD timing for you to post this!
Love, a very-recently-ex-feminist.
 
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
10,501
Baumeister wrote a fantastic book

Is There Anything Good About Men?: How Cultures Flourish by Exploiting Men

Is there anything good about men?

Baumeister argues that relations between men and women are now and have always been more cooperative than antagonistic, that men and women are different in basic ways, and that successful cultures capitalize on these differences to outperform rival cultures. Amongst our ancestors---as with many other species--only the alpha males were able to reproduce, leading them to take more risks and to exhibit more aggressive and protective behaviors than women, whose evolutionary strategies required a different set of behaviors. Whereas women favor and excel at one-to-one intimate relationships, men compete with one another and build larger organizations and social networks from which culture grows. But cultures in turn exploit men by insisting that their role is to achieve and produce, to provide for others, and if necessary to sacrifice themselves. Baumeister shows that while men have greatly benefited from the culture they have created, they have also suffered because of it. Men may dominate the upper echelons of business and politics, but far more men than women die in work-related accidents, are incarcerated, or are killed in battle--facts nearly always left out of current gender debates.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

tara

Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2014
Messages
10,368
Love, a very-recently-ex-feminist.
I'll be an ex-feminist in post patriarchy. :)

But cultures in turn exploit men by insisting that their role is to achieve and produce, to provide for others, and if necessary to sacrifice themselves. Baumeister shows that while men have greatly benefited from the culture they have created, they have also suffered because of it. Men may dominate the upper echelons of business and politics, but far more men than women die in work-related accidents, are incarcerated, or are killed in battle--facts nearly always left out of current gender debates.
I agree with this.
But just because men are treated badly by the society in this set of ways doesn't mean that sexism and male domination aren't also still a big problem to solve/eliminate.
Both are important.
 
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
10,501
in the West female sexism is awful now. Women are believed if it's her word against his, pretty much all the time. There is a ton of legally sanctioned sexism in favor of women.
 

James_001

Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2015
Messages
235
lol at even thinking men have power, the whole western culture pretty much bows down to women.
 
Joined
Nov 26, 2013
Messages
7,370
File_000 (4).jpeg
 

SarahBeara

Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2015
Messages
176
My two c: both men and women are dicked over by the patriarchy.

Women are viewed as precious and weak, men viewed as strong but disposable.

One way to guarantee that nothing gets better is to frame the argument as men vs women or even men vs. Feminists rather than a societal problem.

All I know is I've yet to see a debate on this that didn't devolve quickly.
 

SQu

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2014
Messages
1,308
My two c: both men and women are dicked over by the patriarchy.

Women are viewed as precious and weak, men viewed as strong but disposable.

One way to guarantee that nothing gets better is to frame the argument as men vs women or even men vs. Feminists rather than a societal problem.

All I know is I've yet to see a debate on this that didn't devolve quickly.

Well put.

I recently attended a seminar on rape. Main points: men get raped too. Rape is used to violently keep the weak or outnumbered in their place, fearful, and so overwhelmed by trauma that they have no strength left to fight for a better society. Debates devolving into sexism distract from this threat to the status quo further. We're familiar with tactics to keep us sicker, weaker, more profitable, less able to question, when it comes to our health. Why not beyond?
 

SarahBeara

Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2015
Messages
176
Well put.

I recently attended a seminar on rape. Main points: men get raped too. Rape is used to violently keep the weak or outnumbered in their place, fearful, and so overwhelmed by trauma that they have no strength left to fight for a better society. Debates devolving into sexism distract from this threat to the status quo further. We're familiar with tactics to keep us sicker, weaker, more profitable, less able to question, when it comes to our health. Why not beyond?

So true, the issues speak to the power structures at the very heart of our society. It's all misdirection of pitting the powerless against one another.

It's much easier to have people bicker amongst each other than to address the true issues. We're constantly told that we need to be 'competitive' to get more than the next person when we are a cooperative species at heart. But we're told the lie that to raise up women you have to denigrate men. When the opposite is what needs to happen.
 

Emstar1892

Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2015
Messages
346
In my opinion by self-identifying as either male or female, a lot of implicit assumptions are already made. So to claim discrimination/hardship/superiority on one part or the other just perpetuates already-murky water.

Not sure how to un-murk. Certainly not by an "us versus them" sentiment though.

Hmm. The conventional distinction between men and women is dubious anyway, are genetalia and endocrine constitution really the most antithetical human characteristics?
 
T

tobieagle

Guest
Men and women are different and they love each other for that reason.

The dedifferentiation of the sexes is a sign of a degenerating society.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom