Unlocking the Power of Women

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Great video. Unfortunately, the goal experienced a big setback with the holy administration of GWB. We now need to make up lost ground. AND we need to concentrate efforts on the lands of that religion of 'peace'....Islam.

I'm male. After many years of studying psychology, history, and anthropology, I have come to the conclusion that civilization would be better off if all males (save a few necessary for procreation) were eliminated. Our psychological constitution is that of hunter-gatherers. Hunters just don't fit into modern civilization. Gatherers do.

This suggests an opportunity for profit. What if some genetic technology company came up with a genetically modified male who wasn't a jerk? I realize that de-jerkifying males would require extensive genetic modifications, but the rewards for such effort would be enormous. Think how much money women all over the world would pay to marry your "Jerk-Free Males". Why, you'd have so much money, you could hire Bill Gates to be your butler.

By Chris Crawford (not verified) on 18 Sep 2010 #permalink

Chris, I am sure that Greg can comment on this better than I can, but I don't think it is "hunter gatherer" psychology that makes some men jerks. It is alpha male psychology.

The problem is that women don't really want men that are not jerks. They just say they do, but when a man who is a non-jerk shows up, he is too boring.

daedalus2u, that's just offensive.

By Janice in Toronto (not verified) on 18 Sep 2010 #permalink

Daedalus and whiners like him:

1) please support your self-diagnosis of "not a jerk."
2) assuming you can provide a substantive answer to 1, is it really not even worth considering that there might be some other salient trait you possess that a majority of women find unattractive, unrelated to whatever it is you claim makes you "not a jerk?"

i am confused about this video. i believe this certainly can be a truth for a counrty like the United States. But globally? Has this woman ever been to Mother Africa?

You know that 'War on Terror,' or how about on Malaria? I have a magazine from 1960 that sets the goal of malaria eradication by the year 1980.

Is this a war on poverty? little bit skeptic: I've seen women hauling shit on their heads that don't fit in the bed of my pick up truck, with a man behind her hearding a chicken. ideals, as unreasonable as they are, happen...are these counted in the statistics shown to us?

anyway it's a great thought. go team.

"Chris, I am sure that Greg can comment on this better can, but I don't think it is "hunter gatherer" psychology that makes some men jerks. It is alpha male psychology. "

In the relevant HG societies, i.e., tropical or subtropical, mainly African, etc. (i.e., supposed to represent our EEA), women prefer men who are nice, and other men do as well. Everybody has to be nice.

In recent years, less than well informed evolutionary psychologists have wrapped into the "HG" label numerous groups that simply should not be there, such as the Yanomamo.

Chris @ #3, Many men aren't jerks. If you haven't learned how not to be one, try harder.
Deadalus2u, did someone tell you you weren't a jerk? They were lying. People who make blanket statements against the opposite sex just because they can't get a date a sexist-piggy, jerky JERKS.

Now, you'll have to excuse me, I'm going to go feel up my non-jerk husband.

By Samantha Vimes (not verified) on 19 Sep 2010 #permalink

I am sorry if I offended anyone, but I was not speaking from my personal experience (so much). There is a whole blog by a woman who has written books about the subject for women in transition between being attracted to men who are jerks, recognizing it and trying to change to be attracted to men who are not jerks.

http://www.baggagereclaim.co.uk/

As I said, I think it derives from alpha male type stuff. From reproductive strategies where males fight to the death over females, and the winner then kills the offspring that are not his so the females devote resources to his offspring. Like in lions.

So which is the âbetterâ choice for a woman, a guy who would never kill any child, even children who are not his, or the guy who would kill any child that is not his? Children by the first guy would be vulnerable to being killed by the second guy. Children by the second guy would not be vulnerable to being killed by the first guy.

It is a Sophie's choice, but those are the kinds of choices that our ancestors had to face. The most successful ones, the ones we are mostly descended from, made the âbetterâ choice and sometimes (often?) chose the jerk and then rationalized her logical Sophie's-type choice with illogical feeling-type rationalizations, âI love himâ, âhe makes me feel xyzâ, âthe other guy doesn't feel rightâ, âthe other guy is a loserâ.

I think this is how groups such as the Yanomamo could develop.

I am not faulting women for their choices (so much) (and is is only a fraction of women), but for their rationalizations of their choices and externalization of their choice by magnifying their perception of the âfaultsâ of the non-jerk and minimizing the âjerkinessâ of the jerk to the point where the key aspect of being a jerk (not respecting her and treating her as a person) isn't even in the picture. Where the feelings of being attracted to someone get confabulated into perceiving that person to be a non-jerk no matter how badly he treats her.

You can't ignore what Daedalus is saying even if he initially did not say it very well.

Great video, thanks for putting it up. I think it's worth repeating that one of the best ways, possibly the very best way, of acheiving multiple Millenium Development Goals (or at least quantitative progress towards multiple goals), is to educate and empower women and girls. This will require some pretty deep cultural shifts in many, many cultures (all current cultures?), so I certainly don't expect it to be easy. Glad to hear CARE and other organizations are on this, though of course they can always use more help.

But, was this video shot in wide-screen? The right-side edge was cut off for me... did I miss some cool graphics or anything?

By TheBrummell (not verified) on 20 Sep 2010 #permalink