Susan Faludi : Conan the Vulgarian [View All]

[Manix]

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He comes out of the testosterone-ruled world of weight rooms and action movies, where women are the designated observers and adorners, and where men find their place in the wolf pack through a well-established ordeal of hazing and humiliation.

The men who don't make it to the top in that world still have the compensation of identifying with the one man who does, as long as they don't identify with any of the women, as long as they don't "say nothing." They still belong to the pack, by virtue of being male.

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Women's anger about rape and harassment is exacerbated by the knowledge that their attackers are after power, not sex. In American politics, it's the opposite. Harassment is deemed more acceptable if it's not about sex but is part of a locker room power dynamic between the boys. The gender gap is really between those afraid of bullying and those afraid of intimacy. Women will forgive a politician's lapse if it at least seems motivated by a susceptibility to desire or emotion. Men afraid of sensuality will forgive the same act (and actor) as long as the behavior can be laughed off as winner-take-all sport.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-faludi5oct05,1,7785362.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions