Is There Anything Good About Men?

[plural]

You’re probably thinking that a talk called "Is there anything good about men" will be a short talk! Recent writings have not had much good to say about men. Titles like "Men Are Not Cost Effective" speak for themselves. Maureen Dowd’s book was called "Are Men Necessary?" and although she never gave an explicit answer, anyone reading the book knows her answer was no. Brizendine’s book "The Female Brain" introduces itself by saying, "Men, get ready to experience brain envy." Imagine a book advertising itself by saying that women will soon be envying the superior male brain!

Nor are these isolated examples. Eagly’s research has compiled mountains of data on the stereotypes people have about men and women, which the researchers summarized as "The WAW effect." WAW stands for "Women Are Wonderful." Both men and women hold much more favorable views of women than of men. Almost everybody likes women better than men. I certainly do.

Comments

[geminiwench.livejournal.com]

Its just... the way it was. It worked. Women, each as individuals, got to live, men got to breed the next generation for the city to grow. Life for humanity continued. But that is not to say that the reason women did not have as large as an impact on history and the arts because they didn't want to... but because the vast majority of them didn't even have a chance to,.. if they wanted to live.

But, there were female writers, from Sappho in 800BC to Lady Murasaki in 900AD to Ayn Rand in the 1940s.. but rare. Stories of females renoun for their textile art, musical abilities, etc etc.. but stories and few names. At the turn of the century we start getting female engineers, scientists, inventors, mathmaticians, published fiction authors, (women's diaries have been popular for some time, though). Do you think the recent surge in women in these fields not at ALL hitched to budding female independance?

And who gave us that independance? We asked our husbands, and our husbands granted it. This was also about the time when it started to be a punishable criminal offense to kill your wife. Men made the rule. Men followed the rule, and men were finally forced to either grant the favor or kill us in a rage and maybe go to jail. They, chose the path of least resistance,.. just like we had for millenia.