No, this isn't a rant. The only frustration here is my feelings that men and women are wasting time on most gender issues. The library is full of investment books for women where the content is equally applicable to males. I've even seen computer books for women. This gender separation has also occurred with males and has left me curious what is going on? On many discussion lists some of the people felt politics and world problems were mostly a male "thing". Is this true? In seeking answers i spotted a book called "Stiffed" on the new book shelf. It is about male problems and the title sounded interesting. So... i got the book a began reading. Here is a quotes from the book: Both the feminist and anti feminist views are rooted in a peculiarly modern American perception that to be a man means to be at the controls and at all times to feel yourself in control. The popular feminist joke that men are to blame for everything is just the flip side of the "family values" reactionary expectation that men should be in charge everything. In plain English: The assumption that men rule the world is wrong and misses the truth. This way of viewing the world will lead to lots of struggle and in the end not solve anything. The book goes on describing the cultural box that surrounds men and why this causes much frustration. A similar box surrounds women and causes them frustration. Mostly the conflict is between two cultural boxes that are created by people (both sexes). The gender conflict is more cultural than biological. The book does not tie ecology to all this or talk about common efforts to adjust culture. It took almost 700 pages to point out that men are also victims and not the enemy of women. This leads to the question: What is a better model for relationships and how does this fit into survival, sustainability, and ecology. Nature seems to be a relentless struggle for survival and often it goes off track. One life form might be too successful and end up consuming the materials it needs to survive. The males of many species are aggressive and not models we would want to follow. So, what can we learn from nature and what is the best path forward? For me our ecology problems and gender problems are symptoms of a deeper cultural issue. It has to do with how a culture adapts and changes. Through history different cultures have come and gone leaving us a lot of clues about their mistakes. Even today we make the same mistakes and at the same time face new technology and ideas that present additional problems. To summarize, we are accumulating problems because our cultures can not adapt quickly enough and they resist change. Most of our cultural models have a history of ecological problems but the solutions scare those in control and so we muddle on. These problems have little to do with logic or gender. They are simply a cultural inheritance we need to deal with. Book: Stiffed by: Susan Faludi Pub: 1999
