“Why, ” asks Bob’s wife, as he sits on the sofa mindlessly fondling his genitles, “are you such a fucking slob?”
“Because,” replies Bob, swilling another beer and ejaculating into a potted plant, “of evolution.”
“Are you sure it might not have something more to do with who you are as an individual?” his wife insists, trying desperately to clean the stain from the new terracotta.
“Shut up bitch and get back in the kitchen,” Bob says, throwing his half-full can at her “because that’s where women are supposed to be. Evolutionarily speaking, of course”
***
Hello dear reader and welcome to Pulp Culture 101. And today I’m going to be explaining to you the science behind why Bob is completely wrong.
Of course we all know Bob is behaving abhorrently. The situation above is completely socially unacceptable and a good thing too. Women should be allowed to do whatever they want with their lives, whether that is be a housewife, mother, working professional or travelling with her lesbian lover. The reason we innately feel that Bob is wrong is because we are socially conditioned to think so. This part of our personality is a product of the culture we grew up in and the culture we live in.
In the scenario above, Bob may have had a father who acted in a similar way. His friends also probably act in a similar way. And because he has always been surrounded with this point of view, this is how he behaves. He reinforces his own behaviour pattern by surrounding himself with those who also behave this way, allowing him to think that there is nothing innately wrong with this mode of life.
Well, I’m afraid I’m a rather strong advocate of universal democracy and, dare I say it, freedom. My job here today isn’t to address Bob’s personal life, but to explain why his argument is wrong. Bob has tried to excuse his negative attitude towards women using pulp science. That is, essentially, a remedial grasp of a scientific concept that is actually far broader in scope than he believes it to be.
Hiding behind his ‘science word’ –in this case evolution – he believes his argument is made immune to criticism. It is very important to understand that this isn’t merely an opinion of Bob’s. Bob has put forward a scientific argument, which by its very definition has to be open to criticism. But Bob will nonetheless try to hide behind his right to express his ‘opinion’, as if it is not an argument. Unfortunately for all the Bobs out there, we are all allowed to express our opinions.
So, let me begin by fully explaining Bob’s argument. Bob believes that over millions of years men and women have evolved in such a way that they are all only capable of doing certain tasks. Men, he says, are hunter-gatherers. Men are naturally stronger than women; they are the ones who must provide. Men are emotionally detached because they evolved to kill. They express themselves violently because they have evolved to be violent. Women, he claims, are naturally weaker. They have evolved to cope only with raising babies. They need the protection of big strong men. Women are emotionally oriented because they need to be able to empathise with children.
A more uninformed scientific argument based on evolution simply couldn’t be possible. The most simple and obvious way to put this mangy dog of an argument down is to address homosexuality. If humans really were that dependant on evolution and base instinct, then there would be no homosexuals – everyone would simply be driven to ‘breed’ as much as possible.
Instead we can see that the reverse is true. There are gay people. The reason? Humans have evolved an incredibly advanced frontal lobe. This is the part of the brain that deals with social interaction. It is involved in what is sometimes called ‘high mental function’. That is to say, it sort of negates our baser instincts. Sex for humans isn’t just about breeding. It is a way of interacting with other humans; our sexuality is part of our identity. Social stereotypes in our culture lead us to believe that people of certain sexual preferences should behave in certain ways. When we discover what our own preference is, we begin to behave that way to fit in. It is a clear case of nurture over nature.
For Bob, if a man or woman is gay, then something must have ‘gone wrong’ with them. But an enlightened society knows that there is no right or wrong way to be. People simply are. We exist in a world full of moral ambiguities that certainly can’t be solved by examining evolution. Morality is the domain of philosophy, not science.
I think the main misconception people, like Bob, have about evolution is that it is a form of fate or destiny. That your genetic code determines entirely your physical appearance, your identity and your mental prowess. This is typical pulp science. Overextension. Evolution doesn’t determine any of these things to that great a degree. It certainly doesn’t determine your identity. All your genetic code does is grant you with a range of potentials. Genetics determine the limits of your physical strength. Whether or not you actually fulfil that potential is entirely a question of nurture. Do you spend enough time exercising to be in the kind of shape a hunter-gatherer would have been? I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman, if you’re obese the chances are that you can’t throw a spear with any accuracy or range whatsoever.
What’s more, we inherit traits from both our male relatives and our female relatives. Many men, for example, will inherit their mother’s eyes. This has nothing to do with what they should or shouldn’t do with their lives. Nor does it make them any more feminine than men who have their father’s eyes. The way you behave, the identity you construct for yourself, is dependant on the culture around you, the stereotypes you are exposed to, not biology.
To sum up. Don’t let sexists hide behind a false wall of pulp science. Their arguments are weak and unfounded, completely failing to take in the wider picture of human psychology and culture. People’s personalities are shaped by their own environment, not by their ancestors’. Men like Bob would do well to remember that.
WHAT TO DO NOW?