September 1, 2008

They did it with words. 

They took the words we used to talk about the sexes, words we used to talk about the sacred, and any references to traditions hallowed by time, and they loaded each of the words with a blasting cap and turned the words into mines, laid out in the minefield of conversation.  I realized this when so many words I'd use, and phrases, would trigger a reaction in that woman. I'd say one thing, and she'd hear it through her conditioning.  I had to often insist she explain to me how the hell did she get THAT of something I'd said.  Rather than a 'debate' in the same language, her technique was to keep me on the defensive stammering to explain, 'but I didn't mean THAT!'  Women didn't come up with such advanced Sophistry on their own, it was packaged and taught to them over many semesters of university training.
  
I wouldn't have seen it in action so well if I hadn't gotten involved with a feminist soldier, by that I mean not just one of the girls who decided one morning to tell everyone at the table in the student union, "I'm a feminist", but one who had been indoctrinated into their real network, with a master's degree in educational psychology/sociology with emphasis on "women's studies" straight down the line.

One of the terms she was triggered by was 'division of labor'. By definition, division of labor refers to breaking down a larger task into sub-tasks handled by specialists.

I must give you the example of my 'error' of using this term with were once. Feminists make every exchange between a male and female two things.  1. it's always about gender, no matter what, to them. 2. they make everything complicated.

This came up because on Sundays, we'd take mornings to straighten up the house.  I had no problem with this 'sharing'.  I always enjoyed mopping floors, and vacuuming.  First week she'd actually made a list of tasks, and let me pick what I wanted to do.  So far so good.  I did everything to do with floors; she did the laundry and dishes.

But the second week,  I went and got out the broom, mop and bucket, and she stopped me and said, "no, this week it's your turn to do laundry and dishes."

I said, "huh? Whaddya mean my 'turn'?  Last week you said you hated mopping floors.  I don't, I like it.  I don't mind doing it at all, no problem".

She said, no no, we're going to switch chores each week.

"But why?  I like floors, you don't.  I hate laundry, you're better at it."  

She was gradually moving into her patronizing, one-up attitude and raising her voice a bit.
'BECAUSE we must do everything equally.  That means trading off 'roles' on a rotational basis.'

I was really losing track of her line of thinking.  'What the hell are you talking about?  It's just scutwork.  I like doing floors and you like laundry, and we each suck at the other thing.  What's wrong with having a division of labor..."

That's when she went ballistic.  "WHAT DID YOU SAY MISTER?  DIVISION OF LABOR!! " and best I got out of the tirade was something about me being a throwback for wanting to keep the 'little boy's work' separated from the 'little girl's work'........by now she was triggered and became loud. vitriolic.  The day went straight to hell.  I ended up sleeping in my car.

So that's what a feminist hears, using a term that was never intended to mean what she's been taught in 'gender politics'.  (yeah, that's a course, it's even a degree now.) What they do is interpret EVERYTHING in terms of gender, premise being that gender is an adversarial relationship of one to the other.   You can argue with them that's a fallacy, but they have the weight of their accredited feminist studies departments now to back them up...and law.

Now I should add that this woman wasn't entirely stable.  She had the degrees, had worked as a psychologist counseling people with their problems....
But this was not stable conversation.  It's neurotic as hell.