Friday, June 28, 2013

Something to think about heading into the big holiday weekend

I check my stats every week and often re-read the old posts that got the most visits that week. Reading this much-read post*, I was struck by some interesting language use that I missed the first time around:
Even in research about appropriate dating behavior among adults today, “men and women both agree that men should actively pursue female partners and that women should be passive recipients to their advances,” says Jessica Carbino, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at UCLA who studies online dating and relationships.
The two modifiers I have added emphasis to are doing one heck of a lot of work distorting reality.

For starters, ask yourself what "inactive pursuit" would look like. The expression is pure jargon from bureaucrats, not unlike the expression "action plan. These expressions were created because bureaucrats are so notorious for accomplishing nothing.

But the flipside is worse. A passive recipient is someone who just stands there and takes what is dished out to them and that is neither what women do nor is it what is expected of women. Putting it so categorically allows Ms. Carbino to seriously misrepresent what is actually going on in order prop up feminist fairy tales about victimization.

In fact, playing the responsive side of courtship and sex requires a very active recipient and is an enormously difficult challenge, a fact that can be readily affirmed by simply observing how few women are much good at it.


* Much-read by my humble standards.

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