Let’s jump right in at the deep end.
Are men really the enemy?
Of course the answer is yes, insofar as they get paid more for the same work, start all the wars (go on, name me some wars that women started), and have spent a milllenium or two defining success in such a way that women end up feeling perpetually wrong-footed by life.
Was it women who came up with the idea to keep slaves? Or invented punitive rape? Or decided to use napalm on civilian populations?
And yet…it’s complicated. Who invented footbinding, men or women? Or was it just a jolly collaboration that caused a billion (yup) women to be crippled by three inch feet? (And while we’re on the subject, who came up with the idea of corsetry so constricting, it led to countless deaths by pneumonia — caused by fluid collecting in unusable portions of the lungs.)
There are no easy answers in the gender wars. Einstein was a man. And Titian and Shakespeare and Gandhi. Barack Obama is a particularly good example of manhood, and almost balances out the existence of Michele Bachman and Ann Coulter.I’m starting to think the problem is humanity as a whole.
So what’s to be done?
Perhaps in honor of International Women’s Day, we could all join forces to oppose stupidity, violence, hatred and maybe even…
….rampant stereotyping.
This blog first appeared on www.megrosoff.co.uk.
