Flibbertigibbet

History Is the Story of Women Following Behind With a Bucket

I'm presently watching the movie History Boys and there was a scene just now in which the boys were practicing their university interviews and one of the teachers went on a rant about women not being allowed to play a role in history. History, she says, is really the tale of male incompetence. Apparently, women have been -- historically speaking -- mere toys -- not even toys -- useless accessories like those fish, remoras, that stick to sharks. Actually, I question whether or not her opinion is that high. Perhaps my metaphor should have included some sort of intestinal parasite.

That particular teacher is a feminist.

The thing that strikes me about feminists is the notion that perhaps things would be better if women had been involved or if, perhaps, the roles were reversed and women lead history.

My multicultural sensibilities are offended by the notion!

How dare anyone suggest that my mental faculties are somehow deficient or impaired by virtue of their relative proximity to a pair of testicles?

The sexism doesn't actually bother me because, well, I have a hard time taking feminists seriously. They're like Al Sharpton to me: ridiculous, racist/sexist, and not worthy of any serious intellectual consideration.

Tragically, my disregard for them is likely a costly mistake in terms of intellectual warfare.

But I am about to lay a revelation on y'all: when it boils right down to it, men and women don't actually think all that differently.

Yes, yes, they display some different tendencies in the way they communicate and relate to one another. But the core motives of men and women are much the same. And when it comes to solving the problems of the world, men and women usually come up with the same ideas.

It is patently absurd to think that if women were in charge that -- somehow -- WWI and consequently WWII would not have happened, or that the Cold War would have amounted to little more than a intercontinental brunch with cucumber sandwiches and a dab of borsht.

There are right ideas, wrong ideas, and none others. Men and women alike have them.

One might pose the question to this feminist: if men are so incompetent and women so capable, then why did women follow about for so long? Why did this alleged paucity of feminine influence ever happen? Why didn't women rise up and bring some enlightenment to our poor little male heads?

I'll gesture now broadly to women like Hilary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Ann Coulter and Mary Maitlin as examples of my point and counterarguments to the feminist thesis. I don't see a single woman in politics today who is proposing any idea that has not already failed, been disproven, or been shown to repeatedly lead to ruination.

I'm not saying that I see any males in politics who aren't proposing the same, I'm just pointing out that men and women who are in the mainstream and making history today are a lot of the same. There's no reason to qualify any statements about them by saying "men and women" because bad ideas abound and they aren't exclusive to either sex.

Fortunately, there are people -- with testicles and without -- with good ideas out there who are fighting to get the right ideas heard and practiced. We have along way to go.

P.S. History Boys is an OK movie. I got really annoyed with the lack of the subjunctive mood in much of their speech. That may have been the point because they do mention the subjunctive a lot, but it was really, really bothersome to hear these British people abusing their verbs like that. And they're supposed to be teachers!