Men Need To Be More Like Women

Before I proceed with this post please be advised that Microsoft has forced Windows 10 on my computer even though I kept refusing.  Now it is difficult to type certain punctuation marks such as question marks that come out looking like this ?  I can't believe it.  Microsoft must be behind this.  They hate criticism, Gentle Reader...

Gentle Reader, or the fifty percent of you who pee while standing, I will give you all exactly thirty seconds to calm down.  And for those of you who ran out of the room squealing like frightened little girls--is that anyway for a man to behave

Oh that's right.  This post is about why men need to be more like women.  But not like little girls.  Not even little girls should behave like little girls, and nor should little boys behave like little boys.  It`s time to grow up.  I have survived now I think four waves of feminism, or is it three I still think of myself as a second and third wave feminist.

I particularly want to comment on a column I read the other day in one of our local dailies.  The author of the piece was trying to weave a convincing argument about why women need to become more like men, which is to say, stronger, more assertive, more aggressive, more scary, more obnoxious, certainly less nice.  It happens that whenever a man is being strong and assertive he is perceived as powerful and is respected and admired.  When a woman is like this she is a shrill whining bitch.  A Harpy.  A shrew.

Of course this is all patently unfair.  There is nothing wrong with being assertive and a lot that is right about it.  And it does seem to be true that assertiveness is easily mistaken as aggression, sometimes when being expressed by a man but too often when it`s coming from a woman.  By the same token, men too often get away with being complete jerks and really don't care a rats hieny if they are being aggressive or assertive.  They all want to be like Donald Trump.

I am concerned about the influence of global neoliberal capitalism on feminism: the idea that  there are many women who aspire to become every bit as ruthless, competitive and take-no-prisoners aggressive as men in order to reach the top of the corporate ladder.  But my question is simply, who in their right mind would want to be a top CEO  I mean besides the whopping seven figure remuneration, the influence, the power, the power, the power...

Women, not all women but enough, want to be not men, but jerks, which is to say, like men: ruthless psychopathic monsters who simply don't care whom they step on or destroy to make it in life.  This is not about being assertive, it is all about completely abandoning a moral compass.  Women and especially men need to understand and fathom that men are particularly damaged as human beings.  The more power, the more wealth and status, the less humanity.  Regardless the influence, the wide reach of corporate and fiscal power, it concerns me that there are enough women who call themselves feminists who would be so eager and willing to barter out of existence the finest aspects of their humanity: empathy, kindness, emotional intelligence, sensitivity, to be not just the alpha female, not just the alpha male, but the alpha jerk.  These are not exclusively feminine characteristics.  Men also possess the gentle virtues though many are in denial and would blush like young virgin brides at the very thought of expressing such altogether vulnerable humanity.

In part two, Gentle Reader, we shall explore the necessity of men becoming more like women...