Ok, I give up!!! It’s impossible to enjoy life in an atmosphere of irrational assumptions, unrealistic expectations and after-the-fact determinations of guilt in matters wherein the rules are compounded and interpreted so arbitrarily that one would have to possess a God-like prescience to even muddle through this labyrinth of abominable asininities (deep breath). We are expected to play the game based upon rules known only to the other side. And they have they audacity to fault us when we fall short. Oh, I may have failed to mention that the “they” to whom I refer is not government; its women.
Is it really a coincidence that the people responsible for fostering the adversarial relationship between the people and their government are the same people responsible for fostering similar contentiousness between men and women? Yes, I fault those 60’s and 70’s era Cultural Marxists. C’mon you had to have seen that one coming. When considering the attack on common sense which prevails in matters of public policy, one cannot not help but see the similarity vis-a-vis interpersonal relationships.
I regret that I never had the pleasure of living at a time when men were allowed to be men with all the boorishness worthy of our genetic makeup. Sure we were expected to be gentlemen but that did not equate to the feminized version of gentlemanly behaviour common to today’s standards. I have it on good authority that we once were expected to pursue the target of our affections with zeal. We understood that her reluctance and protests were just part of the game. Any woman worthy of our affections was worthy of the chase. And real gentlemen could distinguish playful protest from honest disgust. Sure there were those of our species who occasionally failed to understand when they were playing above their skill level. There were those who did not know when to apply the breaks. But did that really justify torching the rule-book? Did we really have to kill the patient to cure the disease? Talk bout your reductio ad absurdum.
If we're attentive we're smothering you. If we need you we're co-dependent. If we don’t need you we're emotionally bankrupt. And if we dare to ask what the rules are you say, (let’s all say it together) "Well if you don’t know I’m certainly not going to tell you." Today, men are expected to know beforehand what to do and when to do it but if we misjudge the situation we not only risk rejection, we risk prosecution. That’s right. It’s no longer a matter of try and fail, then move on; today it’s try and fail, then go to jail.
Years ago, women swooned over Humphrey Bogart because he was aggressive, self-assured and dare I say, cocky. “Pompous, conceited and arrogant” were not epithets, they were compliments. For years women read dime-store romance novels featuring leading men who forcefully took the woman in his arms and stole that kiss while her knees buckled. Today, he would be prosecuted for sexual assault. Once upon a time, men were required to chase his love interest even to the point of risking public embarrassment. Today, this would be considered “stalking.” Pursuing the modern woman is so precarious that unless she is standing in front of you waving semaphore flags to guide your every move, the prudent course of action is no action. Frustrated women then turn to the deep, insightful wisdom found in Cosmopolitan Magazine and popular films such as “He’s Just Not That Into You” which tells them that if he’s cautious, he’s either gay or disinterested. What planet am I on!?! Isn’t this the epitome of “damned if you do; damned if you don’t.”
That famous scene in “Gone With The Wind” wherein Rhett Butler takes a resisting Scarlet O’Hara into his arms, kisses her aggressively, sweeps her off her feet then carries her up that famed Tara staircase, made millions of women instantly fall in love, not only with the character “Rhett Butler” but with the person of Clarke Gable (here). And his intentions were not subtle. Her feigned offense at his boorish behaviour didn’t dissuade him in the least. Why? Well, frankly my friends, he didn’t give a damn. But that was 1940. Lamentably no studio would green-light a “Gone With The Wind” these days unless the director agreed to include a final scene showing Rhett Butler being tried and convicted of sexual assault. The great culture of the South may have disappeared in the winds of war in the 1860’s, but common sense itself has in the winds of the cultural wars waged in the 1960’s.
Don’t get me wrong my friends, I thoroughly enjoy the women’s movement (especially when walking behind it). But is this turn of events really what those well-intended activists of yesteryear actually sought to engender?
When a 7 year old boy is expelled from school for kissing a female classmate on the cheek, there is something really wrong with the culture. This is what feminism and the need to have a permanent victim class has created.
ReplyDeleteYes, I understand that conservative men have a lot of trouble with women.
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