Stardate 20011211.1911 (On Screen): In "My Fair Lady", Henry Higgins laments "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" For the last thirty years,
some people in the US (you know who you are) have lamented, "Why can't men be more like women?" And they decided to start with boys. In the preschools they tried to encourage the boys to play with dollies instead of always grabbing the toy trucks; let little Sarah play with the truck this time -- here's a nice Barbie doll for you, Davie! But much to their chagrin, the boys didn't want dolls and the girls usually didn't want trucks either. There was a disturbng tendency for kids of both sexes to act differently. The girls liked playing house and pretending to be mommies; and the boys kept insisting on being rambunctious. They not only played with trucks, they crashed them into each other. Of course, it was culture's fault; the boys had already been polluted by their environment. At age 4 they'd already been ruined. The pathology was too deep for such small measures. So the call went out: eradicate all traces of male culture. Too much violence on TV and in the movies (never mind the ratings; people don't know what's good for them). Stop selling toy guns! Sensitive New Age guys were in; Macho was out. And still it didn't work, even more was needed; and emasculation became a political movement, dedicated to stamping out all traces of testosterone in our culture. Men would become feminine voluntarily -- or by force. It was
always wrong to be violent; there were no exceptions. Feminine relating skills could solve all problems, and masculine confrontation and intimidation was always a failure.
So who have been the heroes in the last three months? Policemen, firemen, and soldiers; the same role models I had as a boy in the 1950's. Did Sensitive New Age Guys win this war by relating to the Taliban and feeling their pain? Hell no; it was soldiers who went in and kicked ass. Is it too soon to hope that maybe, just maybe, men can stop being ashamed of their testosterone counts? Having men around can be pretty handy sometimes.
Why shouldn't a man be like a man? And a boy be like a boy? James is right: a boy can't have too many motors for his Lego set; you can't make a truck built out of Legos crash right without enough motors. (discuss)
