The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Blogging As An Exchange Of Nerve Treading

Posted on | April 10, 2010 | 10 Comments

by Smitty

Cassandra at Villainous Company returns the favor with an ugly stereotype:

In all fairness, the biggest proponents of the “that’s all we ever think about and we can’t control ourselves” meme tend to be … men. Why do guys talk about themselves that way?

A few points:

  • The fact that the word ‘meme‘ is employed to talk about this ties the discussion to the contemporary assault on our culture.
  • Boys, of all ages, cannot quit talking about their libido.
  • Men, in stark contrast, while certainly able to discuss the human condition upon occasion, understand the “less is more” rule.

Monty Python, of course, delivers the definitive sketch on the topic:

Boys may, but men do not feel envy for Jesse James, Tiger Woods, Mark Sanford, et. al.: real men are not dogs, spraying their seed about. The Hollyweird-driven notion that men are indeed stupid dogs, treating manhood and sexuality like some crass video game, using female flesh as some sort of assisted masturbation device and then abandoning their offspring, is not without merit. But there is an observer problem at work here; maturing an infantile society, where good taste is mocked as an anachronism, is not helped by perpetuating stereotypes.

So, Cassandra, I’ve taken your brief, casual remark and went much further with it that you intended. I apologize in advance for taking a small statement and going on a bit of a tear. But I think the point important.

Category: Sex, Villainous Company

Comments

10 Responses to “Blogging As An Exchange Of Nerve Treading”

  1. wombat-socho
    April 11th, 2010 @ 3:29 am

    This reminds me of the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episode where one of the girls asks Xander “How does being trapped in a basement make you think of sex?!?!” His epic reply: “I’m a teenage boy. Linoleum makes me think of sex.” He became an extremely mature young man over the next couple of seasons, but for most of those teenage characters, it was mature fast or die horribly.

  2. wombat-socho
    April 10th, 2010 @ 10:29 pm

    This reminds me of the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episode where one of the girls asks Xander “How does being trapped in a basement make you think of sex?!?!” His epic reply: “I’m a teenage boy. Linoleum makes me think of sex.” He became an extremely mature young man over the next couple of seasons, but for most of those teenage characters, it was mature fast or die horribly.

  3. Charles Johnson
    April 11th, 2010 @ 4:54 am

    Cassandra is a piker compared to the shit we are swilling.

  4. Charles Johnson
    April 10th, 2010 @ 11:54 pm

    Cassandra is a piker compared to the shit we are swilling.

  5. Ron Jones
    April 11th, 2010 @ 10:21 am

    Teenage boys do think about sex non-stop. The old Eddie Murphy stand up routine discussing high school English class and a young boys thoughts…”I’ll take the zero.” While it is a hazy memory, it is a memory nonetheless.

    Many men grow up. Many do not. Not surprisingly, “progressive” with their ‘external locus of control’ and ‘cultivated dependency’ are the most offensive enablers of those who refuse to grow up.

    Is it any wonder we live in a society filled with sub-normals fixated on violent sports, recreational drugs, and their next sexual encounter?

  6. Ron Jones
    April 11th, 2010 @ 5:21 am

    Teenage boys do think about sex non-stop. The old Eddie Murphy stand up routine discussing high school English class and a young boys thoughts…”I’ll take the zero.” While it is a hazy memory, it is a memory nonetheless.

    Many men grow up. Many do not. Not surprisingly, “progressive” with their ‘external locus of control’ and ‘cultivated dependency’ are the most offensive enablers of those who refuse to grow up.

    Is it any wonder we live in a society filled with sub-normals fixated on violent sports, recreational drugs, and their next sexual encounter?

  7. Cassandra
    April 11th, 2010 @ 12:04 pm

    I think (I hope!) that my writing for the past 6 years has made it pretty obvious that I don’t believe men are “indeed stupid dogs, treating manhood and sexuality like some crass video game” :p

    Hence the question. I am genuinely confused about this, Smitty. Before I began writing on the Internet, I wouldn’t have asked the question; mostly because the men I know always expressed the opinion that what separates men from boys is self-discipline and maturity (i.e., your “boys may do X, but men do Y”). And that wasn’t just something they said – their behavior reflected that belief. Thus, I’ve been genuinely puzzled to see so many men online defend the stereotype.

    I definitely agree with you here:

    … maturing an infantile society, where good taste is mocked as an anachronism, is not helped by perpetuating stereotypes.

    That has been the theme of most of my writing on the subject of men. I think people have a tendency to live up or live down to our expectations of them. What bothers me so much these days is that our expectations of both men and women seem to have fallen to an all time low. Our minds and moral sense are discounted and we’re “expected” to be no better than our wiring.

    The article I linked at VC made the point that male wiring isn’t that simple, and since that’s something I’ve been saying for years, I was happy to see it.

  8. Cassandra
    April 11th, 2010 @ 7:04 am

    I think (I hope!) that my writing for the past 6 years has made it pretty obvious that I don’t believe men are “indeed stupid dogs, treating manhood and sexuality like some crass video game” :p

    Hence the question. I am genuinely confused about this, Smitty. Before I began writing on the Internet, I wouldn’t have asked the question; mostly because the men I know always expressed the opinion that what separates men from boys is self-discipline and maturity (i.e., your “boys may do X, but men do Y”). And that wasn’t just something they said – their behavior reflected that belief. Thus, I’ve been genuinely puzzled to see so many men online defend the stereotype.

    I definitely agree with you here:

    … maturing an infantile society, where good taste is mocked as an anachronism, is not helped by perpetuating stereotypes.

    That has been the theme of most of my writing on the subject of men. I think people have a tendency to live up or live down to our expectations of them. What bothers me so much these days is that our expectations of both men and women seem to have fallen to an all time low. Our minds and moral sense are discounted and we’re “expected” to be no better than our wiring.

    The article I linked at VC made the point that male wiring isn’t that simple, and since that’s something I’ve been saying for years, I was happy to see it.

  9. Stogie
    April 11th, 2010 @ 6:54 pm

    Male hormones torture us males for years and the sex urge is very strong. We make fools of ourselves constantly in an attempt to quench the fire.

    Some philosopher once noted that age diminishes the sex drive and that it is not a bad thing, to the contrary, but similar to a slave being finally released from the demands of a severe master.

    I can’t find the quote, but I think it was from Marcus Aurelius.

  10. Stogie
    April 11th, 2010 @ 1:54 pm

    Male hormones torture us males for years and the sex urge is very strong. We make fools of ourselves constantly in an attempt to quench the fire.

    Some philosopher once noted that age diminishes the sex drive and that it is not a bad thing, to the contrary, but similar to a slave being finally released from the demands of a severe master.

    I can’t find the quote, but I think it was from Marcus Aurelius.