16 December 2013

The Indispensable Sex

'After the next inevitable apocalypse, men will be desperately needed again! Oh, sure, there will be the odd gun-toting Amazonian survivalist gal, who can rustle game out of the bush and feed her flock, but most women and children will be expecting men to scrounge for food and water and to defend the home turf. Indeed, men are absolutely indispensable right now, invisible as it is to most feminists, who seem blind to the infrastructure that makes their own work lives possible. It is overwhelmingly men who do the dirty, dangerous work of building roads, pouring concrete, laying bricks, tarring roofs, hanging electric wires, excavating natural gas and sewage lines, cutting and clearing trees, and bulldozing the landscape for housing developments. It is men who heft and weld the giant steel beams that frame our office buildings, and it is men who do the hair-raising work of insetting and sealing the finely tempered plate-glass windows of skyscrapers 50 stories tall.'

Camille Paglia, It's a Man's World, and It Always Will Be, Time, 16 December 2013

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read the article and it's food for thought. Camille Paglia is one of the few feminist writers who makes sense. It's ironic that when most militant feminist writers were at the height of their youth and beauty their creative output was highest. Maybe the world was paying attention to them for reasons other than their thoughts.

It's true that women would find it difficult to survive an apocalypse without the help of men. Historically apocalypses have served to cull the surplus and useless elements of society while the fittest survive. Thus a balance is restored. Men would naturally protect the females most useful to them. The mothers of their children. The future mothers of their children. Their daughters.

Women who don't fall into those categories might well be culled unless as LBF says, they have very strong survivalist skills.

Unknown said...

The rise of militant Feminism is certainly an indication of one's culture slipping into an abyss of decadence.

Often, when I'm visiting a client in the more fashionable neighborhoods of NYC, I notice some broken down bum sitting on the pavement being sneered at by one of these haughty feminist types. I cant help but envision the role reversal that would ensue if she were not supported by the social apparatus that she takes for granted.

A Female said...

There seems to be a broken link. Here it is again:
http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/16/its-a-mans-world-and-it-always-will-be/

A Female said...

Anonymous above says "Men would naturally protect the females most useful to them."

Some men do that now, being very abusive to women whom they don't deem useful to their daily existence.

Thankfully, there are men and women who look beyond the direct gain of an interaction, and are simply kind and generous to anyone because they themselves have integrity.

I'm so grateful to have had kindness from both sexes modeled
for me, otherwise my perspective would have become unfairly jaded against one or the other sex.