With regards to gender roles: is your criticism 1) desire to play that role (in women) is not as common as Athol claims 2) such gender roles are bad regardless of whether people want to play them 3) something else?
Gender roles of any sort are fine if consciously negotiated by consenting adults. When presented as the default, however, or as biological facts, with no chance for negotiation, they become oppressive. Kay’s suggestions would be fine as suggestions for husband and wife to discuss and decide on together, but as presented they dangerously mislead their audience.
Why is explicit negotiation, as opposed to say ‘looking for what your partner seems to respond better to’, important on this topic? Lots of people cannot or do not want to verbalize what they like when it comes to relationship behaviors.
I do agree that treating such roles as immutable facts with no chance for negotiation is bad. Is treating such gender roles as default bad because you don’t think desire to play those roles is common enough to justify it or for some other reason?
Why is explicit negotiation, as opposed to say ‘looking for what your partner seems to respond better to’, important on this topic? Lots of people cannot or do not want to verbalize what they like when it comes to relationship behaviors.
Exactly. Interacting with your partner, even implicitly, is a form of negotiation and communication.
A century of feminism is enough to convince me that, at the very least, a large minority of women are seriously, deeply upset at the lot they’re traditionally given. In more recent years, some men have started to come forward and say they’re not too happy about their own default either. If it were only a tiny handful of people who felt this way—say one in a hundred million—then it wouldn’t make sense to adopt the more progressive approach by default, although we would still have a responsibility, if we chanced to meet one of these people and if they expressed their views, to take them into consideration.
Explicit negotiation is important because of the immense variability of romantic and sexual drives in humans, and because of the dreadful ease of misunderstanding (and even if you really are a perfect mind reader, you probably don’t need to visit PUA websites). In my experience, and that of other people in my community, “cannot or do not want to” is an ephemeral state arising from the awkwardness of a new form of dialogue. All it takes is a bit of practice and it becomes the easiest thing in the world to communicate your desires, plus it improves your romantic life tremendously.
Almost every post he writes is mostly applicable to a stereotype, he just assumes readers know by now that he isn’t saying it will work for everyone. Not very conducive for attracting newcomers, but that’s his decision.
If you want proof, click this and do a control f search for the word mileage.
With regards to gender roles: is your criticism 1) desire to play that role (in women) is not as common as Athol claims 2) such gender roles are bad regardless of whether people want to play them 3) something else?
Gender roles of any sort are fine if consciously negotiated by consenting adults. When presented as the default, however, or as biological facts, with no chance for negotiation, they become oppressive. Kay’s suggestions would be fine as suggestions for husband and wife to discuss and decide on together, but as presented they dangerously mislead their audience.
Why is explicit negotiation, as opposed to say ‘looking for what your partner seems to respond better to’, important on this topic? Lots of people cannot or do not want to verbalize what they like when it comes to relationship behaviors.
I do agree that treating such roles as immutable facts with no chance for negotiation is bad. Is treating such gender roles as default bad because you don’t think desire to play those roles is common enough to justify it or for some other reason?
Exactly. Interacting with your partner, even implicitly, is a form of negotiation and communication.
A century of feminism is enough to convince me that, at the very least, a large minority of women are seriously, deeply upset at the lot they’re traditionally given. In more recent years, some men have started to come forward and say they’re not too happy about their own default either. If it were only a tiny handful of people who felt this way—say one in a hundred million—then it wouldn’t make sense to adopt the more progressive approach by default, although we would still have a responsibility, if we chanced to meet one of these people and if they expressed their views, to take them into consideration.
Explicit negotiation is important because of the immense variability of romantic and sexual drives in humans, and because of the dreadful ease of misunderstanding (and even if you really are a perfect mind reader, you probably don’t need to visit PUA websites). In my experience, and that of other people in my community, “cannot or do not want to” is an ephemeral state arising from the awkwardness of a new form of dialogue. All it takes is a bit of practice and it becomes the easiest thing in the world to communicate your desires, plus it improves your romantic life tremendously.
He actually does that, but not in every post.
Almost every post he writes is mostly applicable to a stereotype, he just assumes readers know by now that he isn’t saying it will work for everyone. Not very conducive for attracting newcomers, but that’s his decision.
If you want proof, click this and do a control f search for the word mileage.