Different but equal

Very interesting article here about gender. (It's long and involved, but the author has helpfully bolded the salient points and you can read around them where you're interested.)

One conclusion: men are better than women--but also worse. Each gender has respective areas of specialty; a byproduct of the male sphere is male domination of our society as it's presently constituted. In short: although we're keeping women down, we're not doing it on purpose.

I tend to rail against radicalism in all its forms, and that includes radical feminism. I remember the first time I walked into the HMV flagship store in downtown Toronto: I was disgusted with the "Wimmin's Music" section. Furious, actually. On two grounds. One: are men allowed to listen to/appreciate it? Two: Damnit, every woman on earth is descended from a man. Is it really necessary to play games with language to make that fact disappear?

I'll yield the floor to the lamentably late George Carlin:

...when it comes to changing the language, I think they make some good points, because we do think in language and so the quality of our thoughts and ideas could only be as good as the quality of our language. So maybe some of this patriarcho shit ought to go away. I think spokesman ought to be spokesperson. I think chairman ought to be chairperson. I think mankind ought to be human kind, but they take it too far, they take themselves too seriously, they exaggerate. They want me to call that thing in the street a  cover. I think that's taking it a little bit too far. What would you call a lady's man, a person's person? That would make a He-man an It-person. Little kids would be afraid of the boogieperson. They'd look up in the sky and see the person in the moon. Guys would say come back here and fight like a person. And we'd all sing "for it's a jolly good person." That's the kind of thing you would hear on Late Night with David Letterperson.

Believe it or not, in my university days I actually heard some women say that this didn't go far enough. "Son", you see, is obviously masculine, so "personhole cover" was just as much a symbol of the patriarchy as "manhole cover".  I stuck around just long enough to find out they hadn't as yet come up with an alternative, but eventually the fact they were seriously debating one dawned on me and I ran away before I could infect them with my male cooties.

My best friend had encountered the same sort of political correctness run amok and wrote a poem in response:
 

"Opening Lecture" 

How many 
black 
lesbian 
single mothers 
in wheelchairs 
from dysfunctional 
Quebecois families 
can you hire? 

This is Human Resources. 
Welcome!                    (JGVD) 
--------

Inspired, I came up with the following ramble:

Politically Incorrect 

Somebody called me a 
MOTHERFUCKER 
yesterday. 
I was offended, and considered civil action 
on behalf of all those who make it a point 
to fuck their mothers 
on a regular 
or not so regular basis. 
Come on! Jump on the bandwagon! Support MOTHERFUCKERS everywhere! 
It's the latest trend. 
I have even heard of a wimmin's herstory class 
at this insbreastution of higher learning 
that wishes to organize a "consensual order of father-fuckers". 
Consensual, of course, because the merest whisper 
of rape 
is grounds for murder, or castration, whichever the womyn chooses. 
Our courts are kind to wimmin. 

If you are born white 
you are killed, or perhaps sold into slavery. 
For it does say somewhere that the sins of the fathers 
shall be multiplied on the sons, or something like that. 
(Not mothers. Not daughters. Only sons sin.
Didn't you know that?)

Pardon me. I must attempt 
to break my neck 
by falling down this--sorry, ther--flight of stairs. 
Last time I broke an arm; before that, I was hardly bruised. 
Career advancement, you understand. Right now, I am only 
a gay Chinese transvestite.

 (I don't want anyone to know I am male; I might 
be stoned for ther sin.)

 
It is hoped that, if I become handicapable 
I will receive the promotion I have so lusted after at work. 
Where do I work? you ask... 
The Government Ministry for the Advancement of Political Correctness. 
We have only just begun...there is so much more to do. 

---------------

Bitter, eh? And more than a little ludicrous? Every "politically correct" phrase in there (including 'ther' for 'this') I'd seen more than once.

Except one: "insbreastution". I made that up...or thought I did. Google the word and you'll find more than a few people who find the syllable "tit" offensive.

*sigh* Plus ca change....