More on the Man Front

There’s just something about feminism that makes me want to stick up for the male population.

I’m all for gender equality, but I really don’t think we’re there yet. Women have been seen as “inferior” to men for…well…a really long time. But now I feel that we’ve gone in the opposite direction, that men are beginning to be seen as inferior. If you want proof of this phenomenon, I challenge you to look at almost any television sitcom—what do you find? Bumbling men who constantly make mistakes, can never understand their significant other (who, usually is some snappy bombshell who is only with the poor schmuck by the grace of God), and generally causes mayhem due to his, well, stupidity. (Of course, you also tend to have a plethora of shrewish wives and girlfriends, which could support a continued inequality for women, but considering that the shrews are usually at least intelligent—and often beautiful—the shrewish-ness can often be explained away as frustration with the bumbler. Wouldn’t you be frustrated if every occasion ended with a cake/pie/pastry in a guest’s face?)

Women have worked quite hard for equality, but I think in trying to make themselves equal to men, women have felt the need to make themselves out to be better than men. I used to describe this as a “pendulum swing:” men had been superior (pendulum at extreme left), women—to gain equality—are overzealous and end up swinging the pendulum to extreme right rather settling in the middle (equality). Recently, however, I found a new metaphor that works a bit better.

My mother works as an office manager at a doctor’s office. Recently she had to forbid the other employees from touching the thermostat, declaring herself the only one able to adjust the temperature. No, she’s not a control freak. The other employees simply couldn’t grasp the way the thermostat works. If they felt too chilly they would move the temperature from, say, 65 all the way to 80. Now, obviously this would then make the room too hot, so they would change the temperature back to 60 or less. What my mother couldn’t get them to understand (no matter how many times she explained) was that although moving the temperature to such extremes will make it hotter or colder almost instantly, that “perfect” temperature will only last for a brief while. What they were too impatient to do was move the temperature by a few degrees and wait for the system to adjust. Sometimes I feel that’s what has been done. Women were too impatient to get equality, wanted to do it as quickly as possible—so they flung the pendulum or temperature or whatever to the opposite extreme; they made men inferior in order to make themselves superior.

What brought on this epic rant? As I read Cixous (and I regret that I do not have a nice quote to insert), I found myself wondering what she would think about the state of gender relations today. Would she be happy with this new inequality? Would she think that the role reversal is justified? Perhaps she would think that men have had their say for long enough, it’s time to give them a taste of their own medicine. I’m not sure. I really don’t have a handle on Cixous’s thoughts; that’s what makes me so curious. Would a woman who wrote so passionately for women be able to feel sympathy for what her cause has done to men?