Israel's new policy in Shomron and Judea makes my jaw to drop in astonishment. The Israeli Army never was very soldierly or manly like other militaries, there was little or no shouting orders and officers were always self effacing intellectuals. But now our soldiers manning the checkpoints are disciplined for talking harshly to Arab residents, for touching them when searching for weapons, for being insensitive to special cases like crying babies and fat women. They are being filmed and recorded by hidden cameras and sent to jail for committing petty aggressions so common among bored guards everywhere, like emptying "suspicious" cola cans or cutting up birthday cakes. Israeli Government Ministers are disgraced by disrespecting Arabs, like calling them "Arabushim" - not exactly an insult but also not a respectful way of talking about the Palestinian residents of this Holy Land. Suddenly our fighters are sensitivity trained and required to act like fifteen-year old blushing virgins.
In the civil world we are long used to follow this spirit and fake "sensitivity". Violence against women has become the most important preoccupation of our judicial system and the media, and each time an unemployed drunk Ethiopian beats his "wife" (African people has no poppa-momma-baby families in the Western sense) there are large didactic articles in the papers and long, lacrimose notes on TV. Yesterday, Minister Haim Ramon has resigned and retired: the famous kiss ended his distinguished political carreer. He was waiting for a meeting in the Prime Minister's office and a female soldier asked him to be photographed together and kissed him. Ramon (a tall man in his sixties) acceded but his was not to the liking of the 18 year old girl, and she sued him and sent him to jail and destroyed his life. The accussations of President Katzav's secretary against him caused him to be ousted from his position and he is fighting a legal battle now for five or six years. He says he is innocent: by now it has become clear that there was no penile insertion at all, on the contrary, the descriptionof the "rape" that is reaching the papers show that he is not a macho at all, he did not consume his "zmama" ("lust" - the Hebrew word used by female journalist to describe the horrible things that men want to do to women). He did have a meeting with the girl out of the office and I presume both had in mind something sexual, but he was unable to carry it out. For many years Katzav is our prototype of a "sexual predator". The poor old impotent goat (and his ugly wife) must be truely amazed.
Reihan Salam writes in "The Death of Macho" that recession is altering the course of history and we should be ready for the female-dominated world. Our choise is adaptation: men embracing women as equal partners and assimilating to the new cultural sensibilities, institutions, and egalitarian arrangements that entails. That’s not to say that all the men in the West will turn into metrosexuals while football ratings and beer sales plummet. But amid the death of macho, a new model of manhood may be emerging, especially among some educated men living in the affluent West. Re-education is the word that describes our future.
My male students are really adapting and faking to be sensitive fashion-aware feminized creatures, all in an attempt to score. That is what girls want, so that is how men will be. It took me a few years to recognize that the sensitive, unmanly young male students I meet in the university are not homosexuals, but perfectly normal males trying to get near the super-attractive semi-nude girls so abundant on the campus. They talk about feelings and astrology, they hate any show of violence or force. They hide their maleness, they adopt soft and sensitive forms of speech, they wear girlie pastel-colored blouses and soft-texture pantaloons, they are as unthreatening as they come. Welcome, new world.
11 comments:
I don't know that all of the things you describe are completely the fault of women. It may also be partly the fault of what men think some women want, and they may be mistaken. For example, before I read your post, I was confused by the photo. I thought, what is that? He's too dorky to be gay, but he certainly isn't attractive. After reading the post, I realize it's some designer's idea of a trendy metrosexual guy, which is exactly my point...the photo, and much of the behavior you describe, isn't the idea of women, but rather the idea of what some body-snatched men think would be the preference of women.
This reminds me of a Green Party meeting I attended many years ago. I was working on a local project and gave brief updates at the Green Party meetings from time to time. Unfortunately, the meetings were very long, and they always started with an hour or so of boring procedural matters. One evening, during the boring procedural part, where people had been discussing how poor attendance was, I suggested putting the boring procedural part at the end of the meeting, so activists like me could make their report, listen to the other reports, and leave before the procedural matters. The man who was leading the meeting said, in a very harsh tone of voice, No. He refused to discuss my suggestion and simply moved on. I was shocked at his rudeness, because part of what I'd learned from sitting through the procedural stuff was that our local branch of the Green Party made decisions by consensus, not a majority, because discussing things endlessly until everyone agreed was more feminist, because it was the way women did things. Or so I was told by the men in the Green Party.
Also, these men are being conditioned not to have children, or not to have many children.
The results are already catastrophic.
I put it down to a water problem-phytoestrogens and other emasculating chemicals. Check out the "male" frogs and fish; they are not exactly wearing blouses or pantaloons, nor talking about the signs of the Zodiac, but some of them give grave cause for concern. It is all part of the same phenomenon.
What does the water engineer think?
Anon.
Female hormones in our water?
Sperm count is decreasing very seriously, but no one seems to care.
I presume that people talking about this issue must be considered psychologically troubled. Personally I have not given much thought to the issue. I'll let it develope and mature in the back of my mind.
Not just sperm counts, but feminized embryos as well -- more females and hermaphrodites born among animal populations, at least.
Part of it is also cultural in America. Pretending to act gay can be humorous and ironic when done by someone who is sexually secure. Just look at Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno character in his upcoming movie. A lot of people imitated his immigrant Borat character's mannerisms, and I might expect the same for Bruno if the movie is actually funny. The timing is certainly good, with gay marriage a big issue right now.
I know nothing about hormones but seems to me that female hormones in the environment should not be dangerous. We humans are living in close knitted societies for thousands of years, with males and females together, frequently sharing bed and living quarters. I for one am living not with one but a tribe of women (wife, mother, daughters) and am surely exposed to their hormones in large quantities. Yet keep dreaming about attractive females (although not those about me).
I presume that people talking about this issue must be considered psychologically troubled.... female hormones in the environment should not be dangerous.
There was an article about this (and frogs, as a warning marker) in the NY Times, recently:
It's Time to Learn From Frogs:
"[U]p to 7 percent of boys are now born with undescended testicles, although this often self-corrects over time. And up to 1 percent of boys in the United States are now born with hypospadias, in which the urethra exits the penis improperly, such as at the base rather than the tip."
"Apprehension is growing among many scientists that the cause of all this may be a class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors. They are very widely used in agriculture, industry and consumer products. Some also enter the water supply when estrogens in human urine--compounded when a woman is on the pill--pass through sewage systems and then through water treatment plants...."
"A rush of new research has also tied endocrine disruptors to obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes, in both animals and humans. For example, mice exposed in utero even to low doses of endocrine disruptors appear normal at first but develop excess abdominal body fat as adults."
We know about endocrine disruptors for decades but the sensation has passed and we got used to the issue. We are not alarmed any more.
Apprehension is growing among many scientists...
That sounds like the global warming bullshit, especially considering it is being written up in the New York Times. Maybe they assume that since the cap-and-trade nonsense has passed the house they can move onto the next target to destroy.
You folks are missing the big picture. Men commit suicide at 4 times the rate of women. We die earlier.
What will women and feminists do when there are no longer enough males to propogate the species?
The bomb is active, and the clock is ticking....
That is what I always say to my wife. She does not appreciate her good fortune of having me as her husband. What would she do when I am not around...? I presume she will manage. Women always do.
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