Well we are here smack dab in the middle of whole bunch of rancor and discussion. “Leaning In” by Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook is more than a book or controversial musing. It is candid discussion whose time has come. That’s right. From one of the male chauvinist creeps I am saying, Right On.
That’s actually a little far from the truth. I am not as bad as I look. I have been surrounded by incredible women all my life. That’s my wife, my sister, my mother and my daughters and daughter in law and a lot of women friends to name a few. I have embraced them(well only a few literally) and cheered them on. In my own realm the above are so incredibly talented and just great people. I really don’t get the uproar. But then again I am a male.
It’s funny when I go to parties I drift to the left or the right as the case might be but it is usually in the direction of the opposite sex. They are fun and more than willing to enter into any type of conversation. Now I’m not the sharpest pencil in the drawer but given the option of a frank discussion of this or that current event or the shot by shot recreation of some bozo’s golf game, what do you think I am going to do?
My somewhat alien outlook was reinforced several years ago as I departed J.J. Kenny. My brother Kevin asked me who I thought should head up the trading desk? I said without hesitation that Anne Conwell, a highly talented proven leader should. He simply stated, “No, seriously?” Anne didn’t get the position and in all candor she did not push for it which I think is the point of the book.
My sister and mom felt duty bound to their husbands and family which was understandable but sad in a melancholy way. They both had an enormous amount to contribute to both the corporate theater and world as a whole. An exaggeration? I think not.
My wife approached things from a somewhat different angle. By her own choice her chosen profession was to be a mother. She could not have worked harder or with more ease. She was beyond good and has demonstrated that time and again as she advises her children and has now taken up the mantle with her grandchildren. She and I have been a good team but I would not feel differently if she had chosen a different lot in life.
How did this crap start or more importantly how is it perpetuated in a basically evil premise in so many parts of the world? Woman are not second class.This isn’t cultural but barbarian. How we accept that as a country among backward nations is beyond me. In so many cases it is considered a matter for diplomacy, which in my mind is just looking the other way.
I guess we can trace the male superiority complex back to the caveman era and all that hunter gatherer jazz. Well now there are more women graduating from college and getting PHD’s than men. They are a larger part of the electorate. Stay in the Bronze or Iron Age and get left behind mes amis. Kathy says and I really have to agree with her if we had women running the place we would have a lot less war. I’ll vote for that.
I listened in a distracted way to a special on PBS re feminism. While working on my blog I heard Gloria Steinem and a plethora of some pretty angry women. They not only professed their equality or superiority but a vitriol that bordered on a total detestation of anything with a penis. I couldn’t help but feel they had met their enemy and were taking no prisoners. If they did I shudder to think of the atrocities they would heap on my compadres at the female Abu Graib.
I was actually hurt by the whole presentation not only as a man but as a human being. Color me human but I can get just as pissed off by Jane Fonda or Nancy Pelosi as I can by some ignorant slob. I can’t walk on people whether male or female. A vile hatred based on your sex doesn’t do it for me. I guess that is in some way where we have come. Too bad.
As for the Catholic Church and my somewhat disengaged feelings, I really have a problem with an organization that espouses the equality of man(woman) but says that woman should not be qualified to become priests. I have a problem with a government that doesn’t really reflect its people in both numbers and makeup.
I don’t like heavy handed women but I feel the same way about arrogant men. It shouldn’t be who is in charge but how the hell can we all figure out a way to make this thing work. We all have our strengths…and our weaknesses too. Let’s try for a minute to hear the dialogue and not get hung up if it is coming in alto or bass.
I guess I will have to give up my pass for the men’s grill. I may not be able to play in men’s day anymore. I will forfeit my key to the frat house. For every door closed there is one that opens. In actuality I would hope we could hang up our jockstraps and our bras as well as our egos. Life’s too short and there is too much work to be accomplished. Let’s not complicate this thing any more than it is.
As always
Ted The Great
Miscellaneous:
My thanks to theology Prof. Kathy Petrie for pointing out the reign of Constantine and the politicization of the Church began in the 300’s not the 600’s. Mea culpa.
A good friend passed along a website that has made me reconsider my position on gun control. Take a look.
In 2003, there were 1.35 females for every male who graduated from a four-year college and 1.3 females for every male undergraduate. That contrasts with 1960, when there were 1.6 males for every female graduating from a U.S. four-year college and 1.55 males for every female undergraduate.
In the sequester I think it is time for corporate America to sponsor certain government activities that have been curtailed. The DEA could have a Mexican Drug Cartel fund it. NIH and the FDA by the drug companies. White House tours could be underwritten by the Republicans. The Thunderbirds by Ford. And last but not least The Blue Angels by the porn industry.
Ted's Head 