RE: A rant on gender stereotypes
December 31, 2014 at 9:47 am
(This post was last modified: December 31, 2014 at 9:48 am by Dystopia.)
(December 31, 2014 at 9:42 am)Alex K Wrote:(December 31, 2014 at 9:26 am)alpha male Wrote: No, it's a fallacy. I agree that the construct is self-reinforcing once it's begun, but the construct cannot be used to explain its own beginning.
The fact that it's self-reinforcing, i.e., with positive feedback, could mean that small more or less random fluctuations gave rise to it. But there are of course obvious differences such as differences in bodily strength, on average, which could have rendered males dominant in society on average. Does anyone here argue for complete biological equality?
Of course not, but there are many kinds of behaviour that are more social conditioned than biologically determined - For instance boys not being able to express feelings has been proven to be wrong because men can feel emotions as much as women, and women can be very aggressive, not necessarily physically, but they can have a generally more aggressive non-passive behaviour and it's not unnatural for that, yet we criticize it because it doesn't fit the dichotomy of agressive V passive and strong V sensitive.
The truth is I'm betting half of the behaviour people think it's biologically determined can actually be socially conditioned and it's not a biological result. honestly there's the obvious difference in physical constitution and strength, but I don't seem how a female cannot be an aggressive, strong community leader as much as a man. It depends on the inividual
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you