in a k hole

17May10

The only thing more distasteful to me than a swaggering blockhead is a puerile, passive woman.

Is it misogynistic of me to forgive machismo but not female weakness?

Didn’t think I was such a woman-hater, but I cringe thinking of all the women who are happy to play servile, domestic roles.

I do love the idea of “woman” (the more empowering version, anyway), and I’d crusade with the rest of my sex to break down glass ceilings, fight discrimination and equal the playing field in traditionally-male areas.

I adore powerful women – not needy, not sexualised, but competing with other men and women in a way that makes their sex or gender irrelevant. I like successful women for whom the fact that they are a woman is not relevant.

But on the other side of the gender spectrum, girlishness makes me feel queasy. So Eve Ensler’s Ted speech – in which she explains how misogyny has been spreading so insidiously in the world that we are forced to hate and repress the weaker feminine part of ourselves (what she calls the “girl” cell) – really struck a nerve.

But whereas she equates “girl” with positive values like empathy, sensitivity, wisdom, intuition and kindness, I equate “girl” with puerility, silliness, indulgence and vapidness.