The Double-Edged Sword

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed by the Vice-Presidential debate this week. I think it was a little over-hyped, for one thing. How many more red-neck homilies could Sarah Palin squeeze in? I was mostly disappointed by Joe Biden because he didn't do his job. Why didn't he do his job?

Well, the GOP base has brought up the issue of gender: Questions are being asked that would never be asked of a man; issues are being brought up that would never be brought up with a man; if Joe Biden goes into attack mode--which is primarily what the VP candidate does--he will be attacking Palin as a woman. Huh? You've got to be kidding me?

Here's the thing: Sarah Palin wants to paint herself as a feminist. Now, I don't have a problem with feminism in general, but there does seem to be a certain hypocrisy that goes along with it, just like every other POV platform that people may choose to stand on. (ie, hearing people say, "I'm a vegetarian because I think it's cruel to kill animals," while they're standing on their platform with nice leather Nikes wearing a leather belt to hold up their pants.) The feminist platform demands equal treatment, but they only want the good side of the equal treatment such as equal pay, equal position, equal opportunity, etc. When it comes to the bad side of equal treatment, they play the damsel in distress being attacked as a woman. Men attack. That's what they do. It's in their genetics. It's in that Y chromosome. They hunt, they attack, they kill. Whether they're doing it with their fists, weapons, or words, that's what men do. Offensively or defensively, that's what they do.

So, if Joe Biden had done his job as the VP candidate, if he had done his job the way that he would have done for any other male VP candidate, he would have been condemned immediately for attacking Sarah Palin, the woman. So, here's the "feminist" getting special treatment, not equal.

Now, we'll wander a little in this vein.......

Over the time of centuries, the role of man has changed. The role of woman has essentially stayed the same, but with a few added options. We no longer need them to hunt and kill for us; we can just go to the grocery store. We no longer need them to provide a home for us; we can just buy or rent one ourselves. We no longer need them to defend our honor or virtue; we take our honor and virtue into our own hands and those that have anything to say about it be damned. We continue to be the care-givers and nurturers, but are also providers, protectors, and defenders of the faith. Men get to pursue their more aggressive aspects in sports, weekend warrior play, sharpening their verbal skills into weapons of mass destruction. Hell, we barely need them to provide babies anymore! None of us stand on equal ground. To stand on equal ground we would be working together and we're still for the most part pushing against each other. We've forgotten to need each other.

That's not to say that there aren't pockets of equality, but I'm talking about an overall picture, a whole world view, if you will. There have been societies throughout the centuries, that have been able to achieve the kind of equality I speak of, but we have destroyed them (ie, the Algonquian Indian nations, the Celtic race). We live contradictory lives.

We're feminists, almost-feminists, strong independent females and yet our blood races and our hearts flutter while reading historical fiction novels over the hero that's always grimed with sweat, blood and dirt and waving a broadsword around. We swoon over these characters in the movies that take place 200 or more years ago. The best ones are the heroes that are grimed with sweat and blood, but come home from the battle and speak from the heart with the words of a poet. Sigh. We still want the bad boy. We're confused.

I've rambled far from the debate. I'm dissatisfied. An essential piece of the intricate puzzle that is our lives is missing. We all speak with forked tongues; our words say one things and our deeds do another. Hypocrisy rules. I wish we could just strip down to the basics, look at the common things that we all need, and work together to achieve those goals and leave all the other junk behind.
There are too many cooks in the kitchen.

So good luck deciphering where I'm going in this odd little ramble. I think I may have gone too long without letting some thoughts out of my head. The ragweed may have me slightly befuddled right now. This is, after all, the world according to a Gemini and we are by definition kind of all over the place:)