Posted by Howard Beale at spider-wn014.proxy.aol.com on February 13, 2000 at 04:49:02:
In Reply to: The Sensitive Man - Crap or Liberation? posted by Piques on February 12, 2000 at 20:34:22:
: Is the sensitive man a liberating role-model for boys today to explore their tender, emotional side or is it a confusing load of crap leaving boys ultimately unsure of what being male is about?
I think there's a healthy medium somewhere. Extreme incarnations of the 'sensitive man' are lunatics, and extreme incarnations of the "man's man" are also lunatics. Also, people in general are lunatics. I look at both extremes and search for the middle ground...at least there are two fixed points for me to search between, that makes things easier.
And I think the sensitive man is both a liberating role-model for boys today to explore their tender, emotional side and a confusing load of crap leavings boys ultimately unsure of what being male is about. Emotionally, intellectually, and socially, it'd be better if a lot of men were more thoughtful and less knee-jerk-hormonal. Biologically it'd probably be better if a lot of men were relatively insensitive providers and women cared for the chilluns...and socially it'd be simpler.
: You see, I think men are men and women are women. If you just leave them alone they will sort themselves out. When was the last time you saw a nature program about a baboon who fought against its sexual stereotypes? A lioness who tried to grow a mane? A bull elephant who just wanted a chance to lead the herd? You don't see it. Why? Because they sorted it out. Or at least no one has caught it on tape.
There's an extent to which men are men and women are women. But do you have that much of a naturalistic view, that we're just like animals? We're a cut above, dammit, even if it doesn't always seem that way.
Anyway, the "sensitive man" and its attendant confusion are a result of feminist movements for independence...so, in an effort to send us all back to a simpler, less complicated social and emotional era...I blame women entirely for this confusion.