Manliness (or how to castrate your guest author on public radio)...

I feel about public radio the way many people describe feeling about a rival sibling. On a semi-regular basis, things are said that boil my blood and roll my eyes. But even so, the time we've spent together would likely result in a punch in the neck to anyone who tries to bash NPR.

Recently, Jayson and I were listening to a download of the the show "On Point," the topic - "Manliness."

No, really, the show was titled that, after a book of the same name. The author (a male who's last name, ironically enough, had the word "Man" in it) explained that even amid our society's gender-neutral ideals, there are traits (healthy & unhealthy) to which men are prone, and men and women being equal does not make us interchangable. Meanwhile, an arrogant, postmodern "liberated" female scholar discredited him (and his gender) relentlessly.

While I have never (with the possible exception of my first 2 months of marriage) identified much with the third-wave feminist ideals, there is much to be said for the battles of my 19th-century sisters and even those in the 1960s, especially in education.

In 1869, John Stuart Mill published The Subjection of Women to demonstrate that "the legal subordination of one sex to the other is wrong...and...one of the chief hindrances to human improvement." And we ladies have come along way. But isn't there a point (especially if our definition of "subordinating" something is to "treat it as of less value or importance") where we're unmarginalizing one group to the demeaning of the other? Of course, Webster was just another dead white male...

I'm not trying to get political or advocate Mr. Manliman; by intent or slow wit, he said some pretty idiotic stuff too. It's just that in all the effort to move past "socially constructed" gender boundaries and convict this guy of chauvanism, no one seemed to notice the woman's condescending off-handed generalizations about men.

I don't know about Manliness - I find it quite elusive to define. All I know is when I let out a long weepy sigh, and Jayson looks gruff and asks "What can I beat up that's making you do that?" I like the feeling it gives me.