I really wondered if I should give Professor Harvey Mansfield anymore airtime by talking about him on The GlobalBlend. I realise that The GB doesnt have the same readership as, say, your local paper (LOL), but I found the latest thesis by Professor Mansfield in his latest book 'Manliness' so offensive that I wanted to ignore it, on principle. But then I watched a 'debate' produced by ABC featuring Mansfield and Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth.
That 10 minute piece, my friends, changed my mind. Knowledge is power, people and I want you to hear what 'the other side' has to say about gender rights in America. Mansfield was too much. I actually found him to be HILARIOUS! I sat at my computer SLACK JAWED as he waffled on about what 'Manliness' allegedly is. Click here to listen to the full thing.
Can someone tell me what planet Mansfield is on? He cant have left his house for at least 50 years - I actually think that his interview was conducted in his home, seriously. Mansfield says that women don't like taking risks - and taking risks is a 'manly' thing to do. I know women who take risks every day in their personal and professional lives! My mother (a very 'womanly' woman) took a risk by moving to a foreign country - just like my dad (a very 'manly' man). In history there have been women who have risked their lives in the pursuit of justice. The Pankhurst's, Yaa Asantewaa, probably your mother, grandmother... and um, what DIDNT Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist risk when she spoke out against the war that took her sons life...?! The government knows who she is and she is probably on all sorts of 'National Security' lists! Oh, he's got me started. Let me just say this - HOOORAY for Naomi Wolf correcting the record on behalf of all right thinking people...
Anyway, listen to the interview if you have 10 minutes and are in a reasonably good mood. Here are my personal favourites. Mansfield on women and cursing:
'Women are not as convincing when they try to be as vulgar as men. They just come off as women trying to imitate men. Today women are trying to imitate men, but men aren't trying to imitate women.
OK, so we don't spend half of our day scratching our balls (I could be a little cruder if you like...), but I know plenty of women who could out curse a man - if they chose to, without breaking into a sweat (myself included).
Mansfield on women and politics:
'Politics is a field of competition and women are less interested in competition, just as they're less interested in sports. And indeed, I think their interest in sports goes together with their interest in men, more than in sports or in politics directly.'
Humph. Women don't like sports? Um, tell that to Mia Hamm, Denise Lewis, the Williams sisters or any other female athlete - or sports fan. And we don't like politics?! Again, I don't even know where to begin with this. Some of the most intense political wonks I know are WOMEN!
And note, as you listen, who his 'manly' heroes are. Of course the token woman Maggie Thatcher gets a shout out - as does Hillary Clinton - after some coaxing. But apparently the RICHEST MAN in the world, Bill Gates isn't 'manly' (what, Bill Gates got that rich by locking himself in a padded room?!) and Leonardo Di Caprio is too pretty to even be considered - according to Mansfield. And Mansfield didn't want to comment on George Clooney's 'manliness' - maybe George is just too much man for him...
Mansfield reminded me of a man that I had to interview for a TV report I did on sexism in the 90s. The man in question was fighting for men's rights, and I had to ask him why he felt the way he did! Our situation certainly made for an interesting interview. I was a young black girl who wanted access to all the things that he as a older white man had (yes, race mattered in this instance, least of all because his experience with black people was not extensive). He didn't like that - I was told that I did well to get as much time with him as I did. There were parts of his argument echoed Mansfield's thesis, in that he believed that women wanted to take men's power by being like them. I thought those views were dangerous and archaic in 1994 - and I cant believe that those in power are REWARDING the likes of Mansfield in 2006!
No comments:
Post a Comment