Shulamith Firestone, author of
The Dialectic of Sex
Gender Wars
So he cuts himself on a book
in her apartment. A firestorm of outrage at the millennium of male domination, each private act of trust ripped from its context and exposed as violence. Bleeds down into the crevice between his dignity and his desire. Watches the fire eat greedily all pretense of compassion. Lets her have the upper hand. Just hands it over, the movement of the species from hunter/gatherers to stalker/batterers. The well known abhorrent fact: that girls (women) don't fight fair... they kick and bite, they ignore the "rules", or make them up then change them when advantage slips away. But then, she suggests, most men are batterers, have thought of battering. Stalking.
The man whose emotions ignite in a moment, who feels himself "in love" without a lengthy period of deliberation and bravely/foolishly expresses himself is suspected by the collective of being obsessive: a potential stalker. The man who "feels" "no-thing" or is not aware of his feelings or "expresses nothing" is also suspected. There is, among the sisterhood, a proper, respectable time table for the alchemy of passion.
Meanwhile the boys, in their encampment, measure success in terms of numbers of conquests. Not a duration event, the straightest line between two points: "hello" and "I'm coming", and the dialogue is optional. "Feelings" mean little to the brotherhood. The spoken/written word another weapon in the arsenal. Both sides have lost faith in the sanctity of truth. Will debate epistemology with limited zeal depending upon relevance to stated/perceived goals. Is this the legacy that nature has bequeathed?
He heals slowly. He feels beaten, abused, emptied, confused. Discourse resumes, but it is not the same. It is an act of violence to speak a woman's name. Let the fire starve to death. Let words of consolation go unheard. Let her be stalked by his absence, battered by his bitter words.
