For example, the reason that men catcall women is, or should be, well known to everyone (see e.g. Berne))
I realize that I’m being lazy, but is there a way you can summarize this reason ? I have not read the book, and I fear I may not have the time to do so.
Humans, in any situation, invent something to do, simply because “doing nothing” is not an option. A stupid social interaction is usually preferable to no social interaction. On the other hand, an intimate interaction increases the risk of being hurt, so with strangers people prefer rituals. Ritual provides some small social interaction at almost zero risk.
If I understand it correctly, Salemicus suggests that catcalling is simply a ritual. It is more than nothing. It is less than a personalized message. It is what other people (of the same social group) in the same situation would do.
Why exactly this ritual instead of something else? Dunno. Tradition. You usually don’t invent rituals, you inherit them from your ancestors. Somewhere in the past, there was some reason. Maybe a good reason, maybe a random incident. Doesn’t matter today. This is the ritual we have. This is what we do when we want to do something, but not something personal.
And of course anyone who gives [the reason] will be the designated patsy and thereby validate the feelings of moral superiority the coalition has been endowing itself with.
is there a way you can summarize this reason?
As I already stated in the original post—no!
Besides, you don’t need to read the book to know the reason. It’s the obvious reason. I simply referred to that book because it explains the entire social dynamic around it.
Your comments on this thread seem to be evidence that there is no such “obvious” reason, and that you are in fact pretending that such an “obvious” reason exists, as some sort of status play, or perhaps for didactic reasons. Do you agree that this is the reasonable conclusion that readers of this thread should reach? If not, why not?
Honestly, I’m curious too—I can think of several candidate reasons, but nothing blindingly obvious.
If you’re concerned about looking like a patsy, or about possible retributive behavior from being un-PC or perhaps excessively PC, there’s nothing stopping you from spinning up a throwaway account and using that. I’d say sockpuppetry is acceptable in that case.
It’s not even obvious to me that only one of several reasons is right (i.e., I suspect there are several different reasons each of which explain a sizeable fraction, but not the near-totality, of cases of catcalling).
I realize that I’m being lazy, but is there a way you can summarize this reason ? I have not read the book, and I fear I may not have the time to do so.
Let me guess (I read the book years ago).
Humans, in any situation, invent something to do, simply because “doing nothing” is not an option. A stupid social interaction is usually preferable to no social interaction. On the other hand, an intimate interaction increases the risk of being hurt, so with strangers people prefer rituals. Ritual provides some small social interaction at almost zero risk.
If I understand it correctly, Salemicus suggests that catcalling is simply a ritual. It is more than nothing. It is less than a personalized message. It is what other people (of the same social group) in the same situation would do.
Why exactly this ritual instead of something else? Dunno. Tradition. You usually don’t invent rituals, you inherit them from your ancestors. Somewhere in the past, there was some reason. Maybe a good reason, maybe a random incident. Doesn’t matter today. This is the ritual we have. This is what we do when we want to do something, but not something personal.
As I already stated in the original post—no!
Besides, you don’t need to read the book to know the reason. It’s the obvious reason. I simply referred to that book because it explains the entire social dynamic around it.
It is not “obvious” to me. I am a man, and I’ve never had the desire to catcall; from my perspective, catcalling is something cartoon characters do.
Your comments on this thread seem to be evidence that there is no such “obvious” reason, and that you are in fact pretending that such an “obvious” reason exists, as some sort of status play, or perhaps for didactic reasons. Do you agree that this is the reasonable conclusion that readers of this thread should reach? If not, why not?
It is also possible that he’s operating here under an illusion of transparency.
Honestly, I’m curious too—I can think of several candidate reasons, but nothing blindingly obvious.
If you’re concerned about looking like a patsy, or about possible retributive behavior from being un-PC or perhaps excessively PC, there’s nothing stopping you from spinning up a throwaway account and using that. I’d say sockpuppetry is acceptable in that case.
It’s not even obvious to me that only one of several reasons is right (i.e., I suspect there are several different reasons each of which explain a sizeable fraction, but not the near-totality, of cases of catcalling).