Gender Traits & Functions

Male & Female Traits, Functions & Potentialities

History has been dominated by men's acts and wild dreams. This always was a man's world. It is also a bizarre place, where 3 opinions prevail as to what life would be, if there weren't any women at all:
1) I wouldn't like it as much, I don't think... It wouldn't be as good, not much fun—and it'd lose a sense of meaning!
2) Why, it'd be half a world!...
3) Life would hardly resemble life, had God left women out of it!

In fact call it the Big Bang, if you will—it couldn't have happened at all, without the Feminine Principle!

Chauvinism isn't a state of mind that some men put themselves through, to prove that they, too, are capable of hysteria... Nor a dislike of women strong enough to turn to hatred, at times. It is an attitude—and one is stuck with it! In practical terms, Chauvinism is an obligation to keep wearing that same shirt! —either because one has nothing else for a change of clothes, or—more often, because one has outgrown one's wardrobe!

Chauvinism always develops out of sheer ignorance. This social nuisance affects both genders and in tender age, for the early mind isn't so keen on subtle differentiations between words & meanings

Chauvinism academically takes after Nicolas Chauvin, a French soldier under Napoleon. So devoted was he to the latter's ideals, his name was made into an immortal symbol of excessive patriotism.

But conventional dictionaries often sin—by chauvinism, as it happens!

Thus is chauvinism officially defined:
Excessive patriotism or devotion; excessive or blind patriotism; undue partiality or attachment to a cause or ideal.

Only the latter is worth remembering. Patriotism is excessive in itself—no need to say excessive patriotism! And, doesn't devotion already contain the idea of some sentiment beyond any normal range of expression, or capacity to maintain?

PHAEDRA believes that the value of language—in any grammatical culture—is phenomenally unique, in terms of possibly sorting out human differences!...

Chauvinism is all the formal dictionary says it is! It is also synonymous with exclusive zeal. Here again, zeal does tend to be exclusive, but PHAEDRA makes this mistake on purpose—because it is an original! Who has heard of exclusive zeal? It doesn't even sound boring.
Chauvinism is a kind of zeal that leaves out whatever it deems foreign to its own policies. It is probably safer, or how long would it survive in its ideological cage?... Such a club is as all-embracing as the KKK used to be—it accepted anyone who would reject everything else, in order to join in...

Patriotism shows in a capacity to act with pure sentiment—courage, altruistic dedication, and no less than heroism! Regrettably Patriotic zeal produces emotional heat in excess of normal tolerance.
Heroism is too strong an energy for casual experience.
Passion is pleasant for a try, when it is available at all. It is the most intolerable human experience, if it gets stuck on one's back—as happened to Hercules. He died from it, and he was a semi-god!... The SUPERMAN our much regretted Christopher Reeves incarnated for a time too short—but not wasted, by any means!—would be a modern equivalent to what ancient wisdom knew of heroism's side-effects.

No one is born chauvinistic, because life in a womb simply does not encourage psychological indulgence.

One becomes a Chauvin as one joins certain clubs, where applications are signed with a blindfold... The advantages of a blindfold: new members forget the pain of being somewhere they shouldn't be in. They know it, too, if only because they don't feel exceptionally different before & after membership. This probably happens to suicide-bombers: receiving wisdom in a blindfold often exacerbates confusion to fatal ends.

How could such high-speed sentiments as heroism or altruism penetrate someone who doesn't even accept the reality of sentiment!?

Not that sentimental expertise ever was a prerequisite to bravery! The valiant ones, who give up their lives that we go on trying, often are quite ignorant in this regard, even as they go down in battle—or a whole generation of college boys.

Patriotism works in two ways:
Those who advertise it, and those who die for it! Often amounts to a display of heroic feeling CAPACITY APTNESS APTITUDE. Too many chapters episodes in history show that certain temperaments sincerely enjoy cretinism, and try to pass it on—to a point where they may not even REALISE be aware that OF the heroism they try to sell is nothing short of fanatic zeal FANATICISM!

Chauvinism is not recommendable, because partiality cannot exist unless it excludes. Being partial demands that one exclude anything outside one's reference & preferences. This process of exclusion is very seldom deliberate and never wholehearted, or comprehensive. Bigotry is always gradual. One becomes a bully more or less unwittingly, as it were. Fanaticism always begins as a casual affair... On the contrary, heroism has no feelings, no emotional orientation—which is why it pleases everyone, including fierce rivals!

But zeal doesn't work, unless one is going to be thorough about it and chauvinism, eventually, finds itself quite alone. Faith, or strength of belief, enables an individual to move mountains—or destroy them...—but it also gives one a capacity to endure an illusion of having ventured out into the high seas, when one hasn't left the shores... For better or for worse, belief must be inexorable. This definitely explains why religion kills as often as it saves! In fact, men do not kill for the love of God—the inflexible nature of belief itself does!

Speaking through His prophets, and appointed translators, how often has The Eternal warned us against being stiff-necked?... We could probably have a better time on this planet if we realised—by any means, even statistically!...—just how unpleasant, sad and irritating mental rigidity must be unto the Creator!

Too, instead of preaching every decent behaviour at random, we could observe that God has never been as upset by any of our mistakes—or all of them combined—as by our continuing stiff-neckedness!

This is the final biblical explanation:
God is Love, and love does not germinate in a concatenated perception.
Any profession of chauvinism, any fanatic exertion must be regarded by educators, and society's caretakers, as a loss of faith in life—rather than too much of it! Far from being a manifestation of some puerile behaviour, or tease, chauvinism is part of a network of morbid human tendencies ultimately converging on a death wish, to put it plain.

Lemmings Mysteries

Animals do not accept group-death out of exasperation, nor because it might be fashionable, all of a sudden... Whereas humans tolerate hysteria—accept self-annihilation, even—so long as they aren't alone doing it!

Heroes, Tall Poppies &Fanatics

Heroes alone may be both praised and excluded!... The latter happens when the former has happened for too long, or because too much praise eventually irritates the human spirit. In that case, one speaks of a Tall Poppy —a species of revertible individual icon, used mainly as a punching-bag of sorts, but still capable of reflecting a sense of greatness, or national pride even, in times of need.

Chauvins & Fanatics exclude themselves right out of life, should they maintain course beyond the age of reason and yet another call to sense—or despite any progress of science!

A woman can be chauvinistic, though she had something else on her mind, at the time... However it happens, accusing a lady of chauvinism only shows a desperate lack of imagination. Not that referring to either gender as being pig-headed, blasé, bigot or sexist has ever made anything clearer, or produced social enlightenment during a conversation...

Insults & Gossip

Animals gossip as good as humans. They can't do profanation, however, for one good reason: it is easier to spell out an insult than explain how one means it—and only a human can get away with half an act.

Walking away with a couple of feathers...
By sheer semantic coincidence, chauve is French for bold, as in hair-less...and bats [as in BATMAN& DRACULA] are chauve-souris-bold-rats!... PHAEDRA prefers to work the meaning of chauvinism from chauve, for bold, rather than from Nicolas Chauvin. Take it or leave it, a chauvinist is someone whose perception of reality is bare as a tree in Winter —a precarious biological predicament which can make someone nasty, even if they don't mean to! No one is born mean, by the grace of God. Chauvinists become a social nuisance for being stuck with a vision of life in black & white. After 10 odd years in a perceptual regime that doesn't allow for frivolity, someone could become unpleasant to look at, and not know it.

Typically, a blasé mentality will justify itself by proclaiming that beauty, charm or sympathy hardly make for survival. Bigotry occurs when one who holds such claims fails to admit that survival works better—because other people make an effort to keep looking good!!

Chauvinists often are kind, sociable, compassionate—quite normal people! But they stand to lose these congenial qualities in one clean sweep, should they keep demonstrating acute ignorance of certain facts, past a certain age. Ideological fanatics can be more or less fierce, or unwittingly destructive; but then again, anyone who lacks elementary subtlety may equally perform as a cretin, in various instances. The hyenas of human happiness often have been protected by this fact alone.

Feminine franchise on scalp!...
The Hair always was a feminine symbol. Yet, men who favoured a short-cut always were a minority. Nor can a mane stand for refinement—or History must be mistaken on the identity of pirates, bloodthirsty conquerors, Vikings, ogres & villains!...
The reason behind this feminine franchise is clear:
Girls can do subtlety, when they like it or if it just happens... Whereas boys tend to feel better—even in a migraine—so long as they don't have to deal with that thing! Subtlety doesn't merely threaten men, it is perceived by many of them as some technical error on Nature's part... Or, a calamity that evolution was unable to stop!...

The Hair embodies nothing less than spirituality!!

Depending on who speaks and how they perceive anything, the hair can be a sign of wisdom, reveal a peaceful disposition, reflect a sense of taste—or self-neglect. And so on.

Historically, greed for power often has liked a long hairdo—probably because the human scalp is able to acquire magical properties, and so be used for deceptive purposes. But since power & delusion tend to walk in a pair, it isn't unreasonable to suppose that a strategy of trying to deceive everyone all day long is only a feeble masochistic excuse for setting oneself up for a failure. The hair is both, an illusion of self-importance, and a superior strength—as demonstrated by what Delilah did to Samson. The woman obviously was a fool—no less than Salaambo—for having caused the destruction of that which she couldn't live without!

Nothing in the whole image of personality is more central than the hair! Adornment or luxury, lust or plain vanity—all combined hardly make for second place.