|
 Peg's
Polemic
Every
month, philosopher Peg Tittle casts off the calm, measured and qualified
style of her profession to deliver her opinionated and impassioned
column, exclusively for the TPM philosophy café...
Number
35. Calling
for Ms. Goodbar
Sky-diving
and the stock market. Both involve risk. In one, the risk is physical;
in the other, it's financial. But in both cases, it's the risk,
the risk of injury, that is attracting. Why? Because it's exciting.
Biochemically speaking. Danger - the risk of injury - sends a surge
of adrenaline through our body. We like adrenaline.
But
it's not just the danger that makes risk so appealing: it's the
putting of one's self, one's money, into the hands of fate. It's
the giving up of control, the abdication of responsibility. This
is mistaken for freedom. We like freedom.
So
we go rock-climbing and bungee-jumping, we become soldiers and cops,
we drive our cars way too fast.
Or
we just have sex. See, if you're a heterosexual woman, ordinary
sex with ordinary men is risk enough; it's our danger for the day.
Maybe that's why we sometimes like rough sex. It provides that risk
of injury, that adrenaline.
And
again, it's not just the danger that makes it good for us, it's
the giving up of control, the relinquishing of responsibility for
our bodies, our selves. Maybe that's why we have rape fantasies.
(Fantasies. Remember it's the risk that excites; the
injury just hurts.) Maybe that's why we like a bit of bondage sometimes.
Or, failing that, a bit of bingo.
But
the thing is this: when you play with the stock market, you're playing
with entire industries and putting other people's livelihoods
at risk; when you drive your car with reckless abandon, chances
are someone else will get hurt; when you become a be-all-you-can-be
soldier, someone else will probably not get to be all they
can be.
Life
would be so much better, then, if men, like women, could get their
danger fix from sex. But they don't. They don't perceive any risk
of injury in sex. They're not even a little afraid of us.
Such total trust would be so sweet...
If
it weren't so stupid! I mean, think about it: it would take so little,
a quick twist instead of a caress, a knife in the back when they're
not paying attention to us (and there's always at least a
good minute or so when they're not paying any attention at all to
us). (For some, it's a good decade or so.)
So,
the solution is simple: if more of us become Ms. Goodbar, more of
them would stop endangering the lives of others in order to get
their adrenaline fix - they'd stop driving like maniacs on our roads,
they'd stop gambling with the world's economies like they're playing
a harmless game of monopoly, they'd stop signing up for wartime
adventures in other people's backyards. (They can still go jump
out of planes though.)
.
Peg's
Polemic will next be updated mid January 2004
Previous
polemics
34.
33.
32.
31.
30.
29.
28.
27.
26.
25.
24.
23.
22.
21.
20.
19.
18.
17.
16.
15.
14.
13.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
|
