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“[I]n my profession, …it’s not an exaggeration to say that masculinity is viewed as the root of all evil. If you were to take a literary theory course, you might think it would be about literature, but it’s really not. It’s about all the various forms of oppression on earth and how we can see them playing out in literary works. And behind all these forms of oppression is a guy. So in a humanities department, masculinity is associated with everything oafish, violent, and oppressive.”

Jonathan Gottschall talks with Sam Harris.

Margaret Soltan, May 3, 2015 3:16PM
Posted in: guns

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4 Responses to ““[I]n my profession, …it’s not an exaggeration to say that masculinity is viewed as the root of all evil. If you were to take a literary theory course, you might think it would be about literature, but it’s really not. It’s about all the various forms of oppression on earth and how we can see them playing out in literary works. And behind all these forms of oppression is a guy. So in a humanities department, masculinity is associated with everything oafish, violent, and oppressive.””

  1. Jack/OH Says:

    I read the interview, and learned something.

  2. Van L. Hayhow Says:

    UD: Your reaction?

  3. felonious grammar Says:

    For anyone who actually believes in gender and sexual equality, patriarchy is clearly a major obstacle. How can a college educated person not understand this? I’m all for self-defense; it’s why I haven’t been raped, but what they’re afraid of is being beaten up by a man, and what women are afraid of is being beaten up and/or raped by a man.

    And, dear Gawd, the projection onto human history— “…hundreds of thousands of years of hominid evolution, during which it really was damaging to suffer a slight to your honor.”

    Really? Is this why women have evolved to crush the rapist’s skull with a rock while they sleep?

    Oh. They haven’t. Guess women don’t care about their honor, then.

    ““The psychological forces here—honor and shame—are very captivating… If a man wants to reliably avoid violence in bars, soccer stadiums, and so forth, he has to somehow scrub this programming from the hard drive.”

    Poor thing. I’m all for learning self-defense, but perhaps he should be challenging patriarchy and men who use violence to “defend” them from “honor” and the “shame” of losing a fight.

    Bites knuckles— the horror, the horror.

  4. Stephen Karlson Says:

    Summarize in one sentence the self-beclownment of the humanities.

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