Althouse: "Entertain the possibility that you are the shallow one..."

March 7, 2013

"Entertain the possibility that you are the shallow one..."

"... and that you are a sexist pig."

37 comments:

Michael said...: Ouch!

I have known a number of suicides but only one who hanged himself where he would be found by his wife. I have always found this significantly more disturbing than the suicides of those who shot themselves. To walk in on a body on the floor, in a pool of blood presumably, is less of a shock than opening a closet to see a corpse at eye level.; 3/7/13, 6:30 PM
chickelit said...: How does one "entertain possibilities"? Invite them over into one's mind for a chat? Beg them be seated like Arnold Zifel (sp) and offer him refreshments? Lead or follow the wallow?; 3/7/13, 6:31 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: The strangest things get your goat, Althouse.

Like the rest of the erstwhile bigots, the sexist pig is mostly non-existent.

"Sexism" is after all, a bizarre attempt to render the normal human condition and attitudes toward it as a negative. A nonsense term.; 3/7/13, 6:33 PM
edutcher said...: I don't think so.

Ann and I have had a couple of go-arounds on gender and I'll say what I said in the original post, "Darwin Award".

Getting into a confined space with A) a wild animal (not just a big pussy cat) and B) a predator sounds about as stupid as you can get. These animals can be very territorial (even our Yorks go berserk if anybody (even people they know) come in our house).

A shark will drop his pectoral fins if you get too close to him. I'm sure a lion has the same kind of signalling.

We all have knowledge and experiences that form our opinions and all the bunny-hugging good intentions (and the Lefties are big on good intentions) doesn't change that.; 3/7/13, 6:33 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @chickelit Reminds me of an old Mad Magazine gag.

But seriously, it's my way of saying something that is one of my main reasons for writing this blog. Think about other perspectives. Put yourself in a different position. I think that is one of the most important moral insights.

If we are talking about suicide, it would help!

Your presumably loved one will find your body. The violence you do is not only to yourself.; 3/7/13, 6:34 PM
Baron Zemo said...: Why does everyone hate on the pig?

The pig is our friend.

Look at what the pig gives us.

Bacon. Ham. Sausages. Pork roast. Pork chops.

Even sex if you buy her enough drinks.

Why pick on the pig?

Why can't he be a sexist Chimp? Or a sexist duckbilled platypus?

Hey teacher....leave that pig alone.; 3/7/13, 6:39 PM
JAL said...: Bit nippy after a walk with the dog, I see.; 3/7/13, 6:39 PM
Baron Zemo said...: Many pigs have been beloved performers in stage and screen.

Arnold from Green Acres. Charlotte of Charlottes Web. Babe. Ava Gardner. Lena Dunham.

How many duckbilled platypuses have their movies. None I tell ya!; 3/7/13, 6:41 PM
chickelit said...: Speaking pigs, Pink Floyd's use of the f-word in "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" was--besides the FISH Cheer--the first use of the word on a vinyl LP that I remember. Anyone else antedate 1977?

cue'd it up for you even; 3/7/13, 6:49 PM
chickelit said...: The unedited version the Door's "The End" (which iTunes sells) had "f*ck* all over the place but Elecktra Records edited it out for release in 1967.; 3/7/13, 6:57 PM
Deb said...: "Your presumably loved one will find your body. The violence you do is not only to yourself"

I have struggled with this since an acquaintance hung herself, and she had to know - she *had* to - that her husband would find her. To live teh rest of your life with that image...how horrible. There is no explanation.; 3/7/13, 6:57 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Your presumably loved one will find your body. The violence you do is not only to yourself."

You have your own life to own, control, and express as you you wish. Isn't that enough to keep you busy and satisfied? Can a person have just one damned thing of their own to do with as they please?; 3/7/13, 6:58 PM
bagoh20 said...: BTW, nobody here is disturbed by any of this.; 3/7/13, 6:59 PM
Brew Master said...: Thread hijack starting with that question from chicklit?

The Fugs - Nothing, 1966

The Fugs - Nothing; 3/7/13, 7:04 PM
Dante said...: Think about other perspectives. Put yourself in a different position. I think that is one of the most important moral insights.

But for certain topics, you seem not to entertain other positions, and even seem to approve of efforts to shut down unhindered expression. For instance, homosexual marriage.

Insofar as the girl who stupidly got into the lion's cage, what can one say? Or the guy who wanted to live with grizzly bears. Or the crocodile guy. Maybe they simply have a bizarre twist of the need to entertain and an that odd gene that causes people to seek out adrenalin rushes.; 3/7/13, 7:05 PM
Sam L. said...: I met a guy whose wife had blown her head off with a shotgun. He found her when he got home. Also found out she had a big gambling problem.; 3/7/13, 7:07 PM
rhhardin said...: Sexist pig is practically a cliche nowadays.; 3/7/13, 7:07 PM
Baron Zemo said...: I thought you had that on your business card rh.; 3/7/13, 7:09 PM
bagoh20 said...: Entertain the idea that living as long as possible is not the ultimate goal of life.; 3/7/13, 7:14 PM
Dante said...: Entertain the idea that living as long as possible is not the ultimate goal of life.

That's a tough one. Right now, would you be willing to trade your life with any dead person?

I'm not talking being a zombie with no real life left in you.; 3/7/13, 7:18 PM
bagoh20 said...: Modern men can only pine to be called a sexist pig. Every time I see a man that truly fits that description rather than the ones getting it from lazy unchallenged feminists, I think to myself, that dude has it going on, and how come women love him so much?; 3/7/13, 7:21 PM
rcocean said...: Althouse shows her age. No one under the age of 50 uses the phrase "sexist pig". It went out with bra-burnings and Bella Abzug.; 3/7/13, 7:28 PM
rcocean said...: RH is the nearest thing at "Althouse" to a sexist pig.

Which is why he's so pithy and interesting.; 3/7/13, 7:29 PM
bagoh20 said...: "That's a tough one. Right now, would you be willing to trade your life with any dead person?"

Oh hell yea. Even though they lived only to about 40 if lucky, I'd love to have been someone on Lewis and Clark's trip, or a hand on board with Captain James Cook. I'm pretty sure that my life will never match that. To be the first to see things, people, and places that were never the same again - to make history, to open up the world. Yea, I'd trade.

We will all be dead someday, and then it's only the life that was lived that's differentiates us, and the time spent trying to extend it is probably the least valuable of any of it.; 3/7/13, 7:29 PM
edutcher said...: rhhardin said...

Sexist pig is practically a cliche nowadays.

Only because it always was.; 3/7/13, 7:33 PM
bagoh20 said...: Are there as many men that are sexist pigs as there are feminist who are? Seriously, the number of one sex who believe the other is inferior. I think the women are winning that contest.; 3/7/13, 7:44 PM
XRay said...: "...and then it's only the life that was lived that's differentiates us, and the time spent trying to extend it is probably the least valuable of any of it."

You are a Zen kind of guy, sometimes, Bagoh.

Move your company to Arizona. To extend your life.; 3/7/13, 8:11 PM
Synova said...: I actually read a romance the other day where the hero says "I don't like feminists and I'm not a feminist." I just about fell out of my chair. And then he goes on to explain that he's all for equality, he just doesn't think that a women should have to be in charge all the time about everything (him, having had a hyper-controlling ex.) Romances are fantasy, but they tend to be either about domination (at least in certain, very limited subgenres) or most usually about the super liberated assertive woman. (Even (or particularly) when it's an Historical.) And these heroines often insist that they know better than the men they "love" because "respect me!"

I suppose that I what I think this has to do with the subject is... I think that it's true that a lack of introspection does result in not *seeing* when things are out of balance in the other direction and the battle against sexist pigs itself becomes sexist piggery.; 3/7/13, 8:12 PM
XRay said...: Synova, another font of wisdom at the AA blog.

"I actually read a romance the other day where the hero says..."

Read Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series.

O'Brian has a focused eye on relationships. And does them well, in an ageless way, far as I'm concerned.; 3/7/13, 8:24 PM
William said...: Entertain the possibility that being a shallow, sexist pig is an entertaining possibiity. There are worse lives than Charley Sheen's.....Also, St. Bernards are what we at the Lion Mauling Prevention Center call a gateway pet. Start frolicking with a full grown St Bernard and you lose your sense of discretion and restraint in the presence of larger animals. It's not long before you want to bury your face in a lion's golden mane and give it a great, big hug. I'm sure further research will show that that poor woman owned a Dobie or mastiff.; 3/7/13, 10:24 PM
dunce said...: I am a sexist pig, but i am also 74 and divorced so no one cares. I was always a sexist pig though, i blame my testicles. Seriously i think that suicides that stage it to be found by the spouse are making sure that they get the last word.; 3/7/13, 10:47 PM
William said...: In the annals of malicious suicides, Ted Hughes second wife deserves special mention. She took the trouble to commit suicide in the exact same way as his first wife, Sylvia Plath. The latent content of that suicide was not to end it all, but to keep it going.; 3/7/13, 10:56 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Move your company to Arizona. To extend your life."

Every person that has retired from the company so far has moved to Arizona. I'm looking at Nevada, because it's more business friendly, but they could stand to import a few trees. Nevada is like Mars for the most part. I'm going next weekend to look at homes and business property there. I've been looking at houses with some land. You can get a nice big new house and 5 acres out in that desert for half of what a 50 year old house with no yard costs in L.A. I may have to become a hermit, but having no neighbors in sight is really appealing to me. I want to walk around outside naked, and let my dogs run free. Doesn't everyone?

I looked on line for homes, and it's amazing where some people have decided to build a single family home in the desert. Some are miles from the closest building. The kind of place where aliens could probe you for weeks without anyone interrupting. In fact, that may be the motivation for building there. We're talking UFO central station out there. Must be some unique individuals.

Entertain the possibility that we are not all the same, and that's OK.; 3/7/13, 10:59 PM
Anonymous said...: What do gender issues have to do with @byondplitics comment? Was it edited? I saw a bunch of stuff about tragedy and young, warm, recently dead people of both genders.

Anyway, it's pretty simple. If you (impersonal) are an asshole when human beings are freshly dead and we can assume their relatives are suffering extreme anguish, you (plural) are being frigidly flippant. It's very common on the internet, but it is nevertheless true. For the moment, you have made your heart cold, angry, and distant for reasons of your own.

To retort with "why shouldn't you be disturbed" is not the remark of a hard-nosed, facer-of-reality, it is also frigidly flippant.; 3/8/13, 1:02 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: XRay-

O'Brien had a very, um, dim view of women. It comes out in his books.

His books can be read as a middle-aged man's fantasy. The characters have the benefits of having a family without any of the day to day hassle. It's much more fun to sail around the world than have to stay at home and listen to their wives. Stephen even moves out to his own apartment while on shore.

There's not a whole of warmth for their children, either. They exist, I guess.

With the exception of Diana, the female characters don't really do much of anything, with a couple other exceptions.

Patrick O'Brien had an amazing eye for human nature, but it wasn't all-encompassing.; 3/8/13, 3:09 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: I've heard the Aubrey/Maturin series described as "Jane Austen for men," and that's very accurate.; 3/8/13, 3:10 AM
XRay said...: "His books can be read as a middle-aged man's fantasy."

Of course they can be, and should be as far as that goes. Though there is a great deal within the series that is historically accurate.

"O'Brien had a very, um, dim view of women."

Dim, perhaps. Though one might be generous and say naive just as well.

"It's much more fun to sail around the world than have to stay at home and listen to their wives."

Considering Aubrey's profession, and England needed men of his profession, it wasn't really a matter of choice, was it.; 3/8/13, 2:44 PM