~The Man~

    For man without woman there is no heaven in the sky or on earth.  Without woman there would be no agriculture, no sun, no moon and no fire.   (Arab Proverb)

        Last week I attended my first women's study lecture, and that quote was how the class opened.  I thought the quote was a lovely sentiment written by a man who had clearly been smitten by some lovely lady.  According to my professor, the quote is accurate because women invented fire, tool making, agriculture etc.    

     Today I have my first quiz in the class, and I have a feeling that if I mark the answer that denigrates the man and elevates the woman, I will score a 100%.

     Perhaps I should care about who invented what and how the world was run when women were in charge and how horribly men have mucked things up since they found out that they had something to do with the reproduction process.

     But what I really think is that a squawking infant was at the center of every invention.    Tool making for example:  I am sure the first human used tool was used to grind something into mush that could be stuck into a baby's mouth and the first weaving project had something to do with making pampers.  Culture was clearly necessary so that a mother could convince someone else to be responsible for her child so that she could have a little Neanderthal 'me' time.  And who can doubt that the first music ever sang was sang to a teething baby?

      Maybe women did invent all of the necessary things in life, and perhaps men have marginalized women through out history.  It is possible that an understanding of women's views will radically alter my thinking and I will become a radical feminist who attends rally's and burns my bra and screams about the patriarchy.

     But I doubt it.  I like men.  I like them a lot.  I like the way they smell and the way they talk and that they have big muscles for the moving of refrigerators.  I know I can open the door for myself, but I like it better when a man does it for me.  I assume that at some point in my women's class there will be a discussion about how useful and wonderful men are--I really hope so because I can't get behind an academic belief that women are superior. 

     

Comments

[Karla]

You know your prof. is a moron, right? Arab proverb--and women are so highly prized in Arab countries. Women haven't been in charge, ever, and while that might suck, depending on your point of view, there's no proof of a historical matriarchy.