On Female Needs and Star Trek

What follows started as an email response to Joey on Sunday, then turned into a blog post, then I didn't post it and went to bed.

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This is why I don't write anymore.

Because women need to be desired to be aroused? No.

I don't write much because you have to manufacture an opinionated topic in order to gain any sort of interest.

This author could have written a more balanced piece about the role of external sexual interest in a persons sexual self-confidence, and contrasted some of the likely minor differences between men and women. But instead, she writes a heavily biased article with the tired tropes of support for "most real women" (read as not angry feminists) and revolution against "political correctness" (which doesn't exist anywhere, it's a strawman).

Of course you can't just write a piece stating that human sexuality is an almost infinitely complex thing, with as many different motives and responses as there are human beings. That would be accurate, intellectually useful, and likely not sensational enough to generate page views.

Instead, massive generalization is used to foster animosity, and reduce the level of the discourse to a point where the entire populace can find something to take a stand for or against. No real benefit can come from this discussion now, it's reduced to a political/religious type argument where people just opine angrly at one another, and no progress is made to finding out anything new about human nature. All we're doing now is reinforcing the most well known of human traits, generalization and discrimination in order to support one's own life choices and values.

And that's just the article structure. The subject itself is also offensive in more specific ways.

You, as a woman, are proporting to speak for the other 3.5 billion registered uterus-drivers on this planet? Really? You are saying that regardless of the obvious diversity of sexuality across continents and cultures, you've finally gotten to the heart of the matter with no scientific analysis or even so much as a web survey. I may be supposed to infer that the likely target of this article, and the one you are speaking on behalf of is the same 30-55 white female demographic that you are part of, but that isn't mentioned anywhere. After all, proper qualification and speciation of your point would dilute it's provocative intent.

So you've managed to establish yourself as the visionary for your gender. What do you do now? Reinforce traditional gender stereotypes which are specific to your own insecurities of course!

It really couldn't be any more transparent. It would be like me stating that ALL men inherently, genetically, and without any ability to self-moderate, really only want women who will have sex while watching Star Trek. And like it.

And then I'd claim that any men who claim this isn't specifically true for them are just fooling themselves. Just admit it. You want to do it while watching the saucer-section separate. I KNOW that you do, because I do, and I'm a normal man. You, also being a normal man, must also want this. Unless you're some kind of freak.

There is no doubt that the degree to which a person receives sexual attention will effect their sex drive, but so will an untold number of other things. And if you want to write an article about how, FOR YOU, this external validation is the primary driver of your libido, that's great.

But don't try give one of your own insecurities a higher level of perceived legitimacy by trying to tie it your entire gender as a whole.

And don't artificially polarize a subject just for page views. There are enough genuine problems that could use discussion, we don't need to make up new ones.

Link - Rise of Russian Neo-Nazi's

It's hard to find good purely web-based news of the traditional kind. Even CNN rarely does what could be considered real journalism anymore. That's why I was so impressed when I came across this piece on current. (Click the photo below for a link to the video)

Current's Christof Putzel investigates a growing movement in Russia where neo-Nazi groups are brutally attacking immigrants and spreading their hate by posting violent videos online.

Not only is it a very interesting subject, but it also serves as a great example of the legitimacy of web-based investigative journalism. This wasn't a re-posted AP or Reuters story, this is a real journalist and camera crew going to a foreign country and getting real interviews on subject that serves as a potent example of racism taken to the extreme. You would never see something of this quality on MSNBC or Fox.



As for my opinion on the actual content of the story, it is pretty scary stuff. It would seem that there is a fairly large contingent (50,000-70,000) of neo-nazi-like people in Russia who have influence in government and are actively preparing for what they view as the inevitable riots and civil war to come. Their goals are to sieze power in Russia and expell or otherwise remove the immigrants that they view as the source of Russia's ills. Powerful stuff.