I hadn't meant to imply that the list of "feminine" characteristics was anything but a present day thing with variations from culture to culture.
Ah, I know. Just wanted to make the point. I think it probably has something to do with sexual behavior transforming from "acts and preferences" into "being and identity."
But that's neither here nor there.
I think the flux of identity is a change from a culture-defined identity culture to an individual-defined identity culture. In the former other people told us who and what we are. In the latter people work to create their own lives and identities within the society.
I agree. I think there's a lot of tension due to the fact that women's roles and identities have expanded much more than men's have. In other words, women have gone through most of the hard stuff (the redefining of what it means to be a woman) already, and it was easier for us anyhow because female identity (as the non-ruling class) hasn't been quite as exclusive, rather like how upper-class roles and mores are stricter than working-class roles and mores.
Perhaps.
The cultural backlash going on right now seems to me to be people demanding the right to tell other people who and what they are and what they get to do.
Yeah, I agree - whether that's gender or what it means to be an American or whatever. I'm mostly just wondering
why. Novel stuff, you know.
All rape is battery and assault with a good deal of shaming from other parties on the side. Much like gay-bashing.
Totally agree. The main difference between rape and the OP and what you guys are talking about is the difference between aggravated and simple assault and battery. The felony kind versus the misdemeanor kind. It's a difference in degree, not in nature. IMO.
Also, I'd like to make the note that there's a big difference between clocking someone, even if it's for a silly reason, and engaging in predatory behavior. Just like there's a difference between being mean to someone at school and making their life living hell via every means you have at your disposal.
The first are kids being kids, and the second is bullying. Assault and battery in the former case and stalking in the latter case.
And I still think the biggest problem is that Romney appears to find those things funny. Same with the dog, same with laying off all the employees at a factory.
Actually, it was my use of the phrase, "Quote/Unquote"
I think Opty was teasing ya Richard
Hey, I thought it was "quote/endquote." I said that all the time. I was lucky enough to go to a school where bullying was rare and very mild when it did occur.
/very un-liberal opinion tangent
My school system practiced streaming, and I think that helped keep bullying at bay. Other than in junior high, which was a free-for-all, I had the same classmates in high school that I did in 3rd grade (with many additions, of course).
And we were nerds. Nobody ever got made fun of for being smart - being smart was a virtue. Gender roles were only enforced at the loosest possible levels. For example, there was a kid that was occasionally teased for being gay (and I'm pretty sure he is actually homosexual) in elementary school, but everyone still liked him and was usually nice to him. He's doing quite well now - last I heard he was at Cambridge, studying... I dunno, law or science or something like that.
I think it worked out pretty well because we all came from and had similar value systems, in other words. Nerdy ones.
/end un-liberal opinion tangent