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Sunday, March 23, 2014

We Have To Talk

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  I wish visual artist Malcolm McNeil had taken that wisdom to heart before he published this essay in Paraphelia.  I've edited this passage not only to respect copyright law, but also because the bloody thing runs 1000 words long -- just to reiterate the same old tired evo psych bullshit in the windiest way possible.  Judging from Mr. McNeil's prose style, and in direct opposition to his thesis, he seems to be the kind of guy that likes to hear himself natter on.

"We have to talk." To a man, the four most terrifying words in the English language... Women accept that men don’t talk as much; men accept that women talk a lot more – a whole lot more sometimes, often seemingly for no reason or the need to make sense... As hunter, the human male became predator. His success was contingent on stealth and strategy. Only essential information would be exchanged during the process and it would be directed with specific intent. Unnecessary sound would not only be contrary to the purpose but potentially life threatening... Verbal communication among males therefore, would have inevitably become imbued with characteristics of economy and efficiency. For human females [in contrast] Their inherently compromised mobility definitely made them potential prey to other life forms – including other, out-group, male-humans...   ‘gathering’ is a more methodical activity in which economy of sound is irrelevant to success... As Chris Rock points out, “…it’s impossible for a man to win an argument with a woman, simply because men…” – in keeping with the hunter paradigm – “are handicapped by the need to make sense. Women aren’t going to let a little thing like sense get in the way of a good argument.” Women simply “have to talk”; it makes them happy, it makes them feel secure. It’s been that way for a very long time..."
 

5 comments:

  1. Didn't that "myth" get debunked? Starting from false premises to reach faulty conclusions?

    Evopsych as usual.

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  2. Responding in a purely knee jerk non scientific way, but assuming none of us have evolved emotionally since the stone age, wouldn't it make sense for women to be vewy, vewy quiet? If early women went around in constant fear of their lives, vulnerable to everything around them while they scrabbled for berries, then it would make sense not to make any noise so as to be on the alert for approaching predators? Or is the assertion that stone age woman spent all day in the cave eating bon bons?

    I think the idea that women talk more than men comes from a presumption that women don't have anything valid to say, therefore any talking at all is dismissed as needless chatter.

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    1. The idea that women talk more has been debunked by plenty of studies. Although I think it was Deborah Tannen who found women engage in more "private" talk, men talk more "in public." And any academic committee meeting will bear that out (of course I am the exception that proves the rule).

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  3. These references to "as a hunter, man" always crack me up. I can see that it lets one sound very authoritative. But it also makes one sound like Commander McBragg—as full of shit as a country hog. As soon as he typed those words, this guy probably got a hazy euphoria (i.e., crush) thinking about sinewy, Johnny Weissmuller-looking cavemen stalking the big game. I don't think this "evolutionary" mythos would get half the mileage it does if these authorities pictured a bony, filthy runt, crawling with body lice, desperately chasing a quail across a field with a sharp stick. I just wish they'd stop with the caveman fantasy, though. It was 20,000 years ago. None of them were there. And the "hunter" era of our past that is more accessible to memory and substantiation is hardly the essentialist heyday these yutzes have a hard-on for (sorry for the language).

    Honestly, just freaking say "we don't know" when you don't know!

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    1. Puts me in mind of this scientifically accurate portrayal of the Flintstones:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WLrM8wx6Bk

      I wonder how that would fit in with those lauding the paleo diet?

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