Being able to ignore national holidays is not the smallest advantage of an independent lifestyle. Still, they give opportunities for thought, especially when they are as weird as Valentine's Day. Look at how the marketing hype panders to women, with the jewelry, chocolates, restaurant events, etc. Isn't this just a bit slatternly, 40 years after women's lib?
Valentine's Day is a perfect example of how 'there is no new thing under the sun.' Women always have and always will run a sexual extortion racket to their own advantage. Believe it or not, I don't really blame them for this. Biology and evolution have dumped a lot of overhead on the females. Males get most of the pleasure from reproduction, while women get stuck with the consequences. So there is a rough justice in women using their weapons to get even.
Their imperiousness used to irk me when I was a young man. Old age has moderated this. Getting a female dog has had an even bigger effect. It was amusing to watch her thrash males twice her size. The big dummies just put up with it; you needn't think too hard about why. (Recall the old English proverb, "Dogs don't bite bitches.") I'd never been on the winning side of the battle of the sexes before -- gosh it was fun!
Young males are just slaves of physiology, which makes them subservient to females. But why do older men still pander? By the time a man is middle-aged and his hormones have settled down, you'd think he would start to wonder if it was time to put away childish things. The male obsession with sex lasts for, what, 15 or 20 years. Female beauty is even briefer.
Why shouldn't a man just accept this fact and use it to his advantage? How much good did it really do him to make such a fuss over women? Did the benefits outweigh the costs? Maybe it was just a testosterone-drunk delusion. But many old men remain stubborn. They go through their entire lives being cleaned out financially by women. The reductio ad absurdum of this is a group of senior singles who act like junior high school kids around each other.
Hopefully the reader has not written this essay off as a pitiful addition to the misogynist genre. I can't find the quote at the moment, but somewhere somebody (Samuel Johnson?) says that the benefit of experience and wisdom is largely learning not to overpay. To say that most men overpay for women is not "anti-woman"; rather, it is a positive message about getting wiser and saner with age.
If women must be deified on a national holiday, let it be on Mother's Day.
If women must be deified on a national holiday, let it be on Mother's Day.
Comments
When you post an essay here, do you actually think about your readers or do you just spout off with whatever pops into your head? You are aware that I am a woman and also aware that I am one of your most active, if not THEE most active, participant here. Did it cross your mind what I might feel reading that essay? I really want to know....DID IT EVER EVEN CROSS YOUR MIND?
Once in an entry, I asked you why you don't journal privately instead of blog. In your answer you gave the analogy of sexual intercouse being better than masturbation. I get that point. But there is a third possibility....masturbation with an audience. I think that fits you best. Do you understand why I say this.....Any real intercourse here would require you actually caring about the people who are hearing what you are saying. It is a social skill, Boonie, learning how to walk in another's shoes. It's called empathy and it requires soft eyes.
When you recently talked about the woman hidden in the comfort of her car who hit the german shepherd, you talked about her mistaken "reality". You seem to me hidden behind the windshield of your own little cocoon, just as mindless of a loping german shepherd as she was. I guess she felt she had the legal right of way on the road and so she feels she didn't need to care about the dog...she, in her killer vehicle, demonstrating a very self-centered patriarchal attitude to the incident.
Everybody has bad experiences in their lives. When we are young, it is true, we are highly influenced by strong sexual drives. Hopefully when we get older, we get wiser. But that requires some self-analysis as well instead of just blaming the other person. Seems you are still into the blaming part and have yet to turn your focus inward to discover your own very patriarchal way of looking at the world.
The only hope I see for you is that you continue to blog your very personal thoughts and impressions because I do see that as a sincere attempt on your part to make sense of things. However, that doesn't mean you will ever find the courage to fight your biggest enemy.....no, not the long nights of freezing cold, but you yourself. You are truly your own worst enemy.
By the way, your dog is not fighting the battle of the sexes on your behalf and does not see herself as the female being victorious. They are simply playing, Boonie. Dogs of either gender act this way.
Anonymous, I think life can be beautiful without sharing it with a woman. There is a cynicism implicit in your statement, but of course I might be reading things into it.
bp, oh dear me. Perhaps you take the written word too seriously. This essay was not about trashing women or even romance. I thought I was being good-natured, but adult, in admitting that they are merely ludicrously over-rated.
The point of the essay was to ask why older men do not take advantage of the physiological liberation that comes with age.
Finally after reading 400 of your blog posts , I'm seeing Einstein come to life , count me as your second biggest fan, I may even take up mountain biking .......
You should have put the last few posts as your intro