The Electron Pencil

I want to throw this out there for discussion.

In this day and age of gender fluidity, we’re realizing that much of what Identifies us as either female or male is imposed on us by conventional cultural “wisdom.” There’s no reason why females should prefer pink and males blue other than some stale traditional lore. Girls who excel in math, say, or chemistry are breaking a mold created by elders from the distant past for no good reason other than to aggrandize themselves. A lot of the ways our binary gender system makes us think and feel are no more valid than the societal commandment that females use one toilet and males another.

That said, we still do, in more ways than we can count, think like women or men.

For instance, when Christine Ford told the tale of her alleged encounter with then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, she said he tried to rape her. The incident, she implied, scarred her for life. The memory of it haunted her, adversely affected her attitude and behavior, sabotaged her relationships with men, and drove her to enroll in intensive psychological counseling sessions.

Women around the country — hell, around the world — embraced her. They sympathized. They empathized. Even if they hadn’t experienced such a trauma themselves, many females knew that’s precisely how it would have marked them.

The key concept in Ford’s testimony was Kavanaugh tried. He — or whoever her assailant(s) was/were — didn’t rape her. She got away. She pushed and shoved and strained and struggled and through will, muscle power, and wile, got away from her attacker(s). My own first reaction was to think, Man, if I’d dodged that bullet, I’d have been strutting around telling myself how strong, how smart, how lucky I was.

In other words, it wouldn’t have been a trauma. It wouldn’t have left a scar. It’d be a badge, a reminder of what a potent agent I could be. Hell, I’d think, one or two guys tried to harm me — and I beat them! I won!

I’d brag about the story for the rest of my life. I have no doubt most of the other males I’ve known well might very well react the same way.

So, why the disconnect? Is this discrepancy hard-wired in our brains or is it an artificial construct of our patriarchy?

I’m eager to hear what you think.

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Two-For-One

BTW, today is You Go Girl Day.

Oh, and it’s National Sausage Pizza Day.

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