8/3/2019 The Advocate Women and the Extreme Man
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OPINION
May 2, 20074
Titan Editorial Providing insight, analysis and perspective
since 1960
A Veto is Not a Victory
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The AdvocateBY Robert Moran
BY JOHN SAKATADaily Titan Staff Writer
[email protected]
From the obscurities of YouTubesvast vault of video clips,
Alanis Mo-risettes mock video of the BlackeyedPeas My Humps video
catapultedto the front page of the L.A. TimesCalendar section last
week.
My Humps is a good exampleof music with an infectious beat
butlittle more. It falls in line with thelatest movement that
includes ePussycat Dolls, a group with musiclaced with sexual
provocation thatprances around on stage in lingerie.Morisettes
video hits on a chord ofthe superficial state of pop music. Itgains
more attention now becauseit hits on a chord long touchy with
Americans: the struggle of womenin society. Still, the condition of
popmusic isnt any different today thanin the past.
Pop culture works like a pendu-lum. It gravitates in one
directionto the point of over saturation untilit becomes so bloated
it weighs itselfdown and swings off in the oppositedirection. In
the 1990s, there wasthe over saturation of grunge mu-
sic following the genres rise intopopularity. In the late 90s,
there wasthe boy band craze. en came thepublic backlash against the
cheesylyrics and the bomb that hurled the
boy band members off to the fourcorners of the globe, never to
be re-united again.
Behind the costumes are industryexperts eager to earn a buck,
whowork behind the stage and controlthe fate of pop music with
puppetstrings.
e music industry follows popculture in search of something
thatsticks and resonates with the pub-lic. Once the music industry
findssomething, it rides the act into su-perficiality, stripping it
down to thebare essence of what makes it sell.en finally with the
act on its lastlegs, the music industry comes outwith bats and
clubs to beat the act todeath and rides the subsequent waveof
public anger off into another di-rection.
Its the sad fate of pop icons whostick stubbornly to the same
paththat brought them fame, only to watch the music industry glut
themedium with similar acts beforeit becomes a joke. Britney
Spearscareer followed this arc and as shegrabbed at the tattered
remains ofher music career, more and more ofher clothes fell
off.
In the absence of any substance,sex is where all music goes to
keepthe publics attention.
e fate of todays pop-music actsare approaching that point now.e
radio is oversaturated superfici-
ality, busting at the seams full of actswith little to say. But
this is the ebband flow of pop. It gets burned tothe ground only to
be born again ina different manifestation.
Alanis Morissettes par-ody is just a reaction tooversaturation
of pop
Lets face it, men dont have aclue about women. We just haveno
understanding of the other
half. But if misunderstandingwomen is a problem for normalmen,
just imagine how it is for aman with Aspergers.
While most men come off asinsensitive, Aspies come off aseven
more so.
Simon Baron-Cohen, a pro-fessor of developmental
psycho-pathology at Trinity College,Cambridge, has conducted
re-search into the autistics inabil-ity to connect emotionally
withother people. In his research hediscovered that men and wom-ens
brains were wired differ-ently. Womens brains allowedthem to
express empathy whilemens brains allowed them toanalyze and
systemize. Baron-Cohen referred to the autisticsmind as the extreme
male brainbecause it was more systematicand more analytical than
that ofa normal male.
If a normal systematic andanalytical mind cannot com-pletely
understand the oppositesex, how can someone with an
extreme male brain be expectedto do so? It cant.
No matter how much anyman tries, he will never reallyunderstand
women. roughthe process of socialization, menare taught not to
express theiremotions and not to talk aboutthem, but there are
biologicalfactors as well.
I wrote earlier that Aspies doexperience love, but for men,given
the extreme maleness ofour brain we dont always getthat women love
us back.
While Baron-Cohen refersto the autistics apparent lackof empathy
as mind-blindness,
women would just call it by an-other name: jerkiness.Yet despite
autistics seeming-
ly emotional obtuseness, womenseem in some ways to be drawnto
the out-of-the-box mindset ofpeople with Aspergers. In fact,men
with Aspergers do marrywomen who do not have autism.Psychologist
Kathy J. Marshack wrote in her book Silver InMind: Loving ose with
As-pergers Syndrome that Aspiesare attracted to
compassionate,strong, intelligent women whocan deal with the social
aspectsof life for them. Women whoengage in relationships with
Aspies often are attracted toour unconventional and boyishcharm.
ese women feel thatwe will allow them to be inde-pendent.
Like other men, we Aspiesdont realize that the ability
toeffectively communicate withwomen about their feelings
andopinions is part of what makes arelationship work. On the
other
hand, it is important for womento understand that they need
tointerpret their body language sothat it is more apparent to us.e
ability to read body lan-guage is a deficit that all autisticshave
to deal with.
Its already difficult for normalmen to do this, yet normal
menare able to read body language.Imagine what it is like to not
beable to do so.
All I can say to the womenout there is be kind to us, we aremen,
albeit extreme men.
Women and the Extreme Man
E-mail Robert at [email protected]
My Humps Satire Not
Revolutionary, Just Recycled
President Bush vetoedthe Iraq funding bill, as ex-pected.
Of course this isnt a vic-tory for the hawks; they stillhave a
minority in Congressand their man in the WhiteHouse is on his way
out.
Its not a victory for thedoves, ei-ther. eydont havethe
veto-over - r id epower thattheyd needto put anyteeth intoany
billthey pass.
What sclear is thatthis coun-try is increasingly disaffected
with war. Whats also clearis that Iraq is in no shape tostand on
its own. Its a dif-ficult place our governmentfinds itself in mired
in adifficult-to-win and unpopu-
lar war that seems i mpossibleto abandon.
But this is just anotherlong line of Devils dilemmasthat weve
been handed sincethis war began.
Citizens were forced tomake the false choice of sup-
porting the war or lackingpatriotism.
Our government chose tomake a run on Baghdad overa cautious
advance.
Now the U.S. is poised tobetray our soldiers, the Iraqipeople
and what trust thepublic has left in it by refus-
ing to makethis latestdecision.
e Dem-ocrats arerefusing tocompromise.
e Re-publicans arerefusing tocompromise.
And in themeant ime,U.S. soldiers
and Iraqi civilians are stilldying.
Its necessary to look out-side the box when handed
adamned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-dont decision, butrefusing to do
anything does
not advance any causes. Itsimply deepens the politicalrhetoric
and further con-vinces Americans that theirrepresentatives are
untrust-worthy and more concerned with a paycheck than
theircountry.
Whats clear is thatthis country is increas-ingly disaffected
with
war. Whats also clear isthat Iraq is in no shapeto stand on its
own.
