Two Thought Experiments

[adam2]

IME, women do tend to take a different view to men, on many subjects.

Women IME tend to have more faith in TPTB and tend to see less need to hold doom stocks.
Women tend to be more house proud and less keen on clutter. My sister for example CANT keep more 6 spare toilet rolls, because she only has room for 6 in bathroom cupboard.
I keep at least 100 and often twice that.

I am sorry if this sounds sexist, and I appreciate that it does not apply to ALL women, but in general it seems to be so.

[vtsnowedin]

IME, women do tend to take a different view to men, on many subjects.

Women IME tend to have more faith in TPTB and tend to see less need to hold doom stocks.
Women tend to be more house proud and less keen on clutter. My sister for example CANT keep more 6 spare toilet rolls, because she only has room for 6 in bathroom cupboard.
I keep at least 100 and often twice that.

I am sorry if this sounds sexist, and I appreciate that it does not apply to ALL women, but in general it seems to be so.

Well assuming a roll per week she only has to buy more on every third two week shopping trip so her reasoning is understandable. Why you need close to a two year supply is the more difficult plan to justify.

[Potemkin Villager]

And do women take a different view point to men? Are we allowed to ask that any longer?

I don't see why not. According to Emor "Round where I live, it's the women who tend to be the doers." I wonder if he would care to expand on that? I have often wondered if a more matriarchal society would be much better or just different. One of the better local groups I work with has women very much to the fore and seems to work much more effectively than the more male dominated affairs.

Thanks to all who have responded and particularly the long thoughtful pieces from Ken and Tess.

"I think that arguments in person, face to face, would be a lot more civil than those that take place online. There is a lot more understanding when face to face as the level of communication is much deeper and, as has been said before, a lot of our disagreements would not be relevant anymore once TSHTF."

Yes Ken I can only heartily sat amen to that.

[RevdTess]

I always read Tess's and Renewable's posts even if I read no others. I'm sexist that way.

Despite the inherent patronising sexism of this comment I find myself warmly heartened

[Catweazle]

My neighbours are mostly farmers, they have land, a lifetimes experience, and barns full of equipment. They also have roots here and relationships going back generations, I have little doubt that if TSHTF they will favour each other over a newcomer like me. However, I have a barn full of the machinery needed to maintain their equipment and the knowledge of how to use it, so perhaps I'll get by.

As for living in a community of PS members, that wouldn't be so bad, everyone would have a headstart over 90% of the population. There's nobody here I dislike, even RGR would be OK face-to-face.

[RevdTess]

I have often wondered if a more matriarchal society would be much better or just different. One of the better local groups I work with has women very much to the fore and seems to work much more effectively than the more male dominated affairs.

Have you ever read the novel "The Power" by Naomi Alderman?

It's a present-day 'what if?' story about a genetic mutation that affects only women and gives them the ability to generate lethal electric current in their bodies much like electric eels. As a result, physical, political and economic power shifts from male to female, and the novel is about the gradual (at first, and then sudden) collapse and reshaping of society that results. The fascinating (and I think accurate) result centuries later is that men come to be seen as the gentle, strong nurturers, while women become warriors and leaders.

I guess the assumption behind this premise is that any male or female 'perspective' is most strongly influenced by our relative physical strength and presence, and any consequent social roles kinda follow from that. Physical strength used to be a lot more important than it is now, of course, and that might be why women have a lot more authority in many spheres than we used to.

There's no question that some people can still command obedience by just walking into a room, and most of those people are men. It's a physical thing, no getting around it.

Anyway, the book is an interesting thought experiment.

[kenneal - lagger]

The human race has evolved over a million years to how we are now and our social and physical attributes and practices have evolved along with us. Those practices must have had an evolutionary advantage and pretty much worldwide males have dominated societies.

Times have changed though in recent years and the dominance of the male, through his superior strength, is not so important in our current societies and so in the west, at least, we have seen more of an equalisation in the power structure. The importance of the strength of the male in the protection of society from interlopers is not as important now as wielding a sword or drawing a bow has been replaced by pulling a trigger on a light weight firearm; something that most women could do as well as a man.

What mat not have changed in women though is the long ingrained wish to nurture life coming from the mothering instinct. A male's instinct is more to shield his own offspring and that of his family and local community or tribe, that would, at one time, have been mainly his own family or close relations.

We have not as a species had sufficient time to evolve mentally to fit our new, only a few hundred year old, lifestyle so ladies will have to be patient and let us males evolve from the cavemen that we still are mentally so that we can share the power more equally.

[emordnilap]

I'm in the west of Ireland and the women, generally (not a hard and fast rule) are more likely to be selling at markets, general market stalls, farmers' markets and craft markets. Things they've grown or made. The male sellers are predominantly spuds-and-cabbage, the women cover the whole gamut.

Also in the growing groups online, it's almost all women. At agricultural shows, easily more than 50% of entries are from women.

Even personally, I've not much interest in growing but the wife produces prodigious quantities of food.

I'm not sure specifically why women outnumber men in these areas. There's a wide-ranging cultural mix over here: I know as many 'foreigners' as Irish. Maybe that has an influence. Many nationalities come looking for cheap land, space, relative freedom. The native Irish west of the Shannon have always been independent and largely left alone (neglected?) by The Pale. They're also a supremely tolerant bunch. You can be as eccentric as you like; I sometimes think they prefer you to be, in fact. So I suppose the women who arrive have to be a bit different, bringing stronger characters into the mix.

I dunno, it's complex. Like all societies.

[RevdTess]

I'm in the west of Ireland and the women, generally (not a hard and fast rule) are more likely to be selling at markets, general market stalls, farmers' markets and craft markets. Things they've grown or made. The male sellers are predominantly spuds-and-cabbage, the women cover the whole gamut.

Also in the growing groups online, it's almost all women. At agricultural shows, easily more than 50% of entries are from women.

I guess this thread has totally derailed into a discussion about gender differences, which is fine. It's an interesting topic.

I don't know why it's the case but women generally seem to prefer micro-businesses - selling craft on etsy, small-scale food production etc. It probably hasn't changed much over the centuries. Women once did all the spinning and weaving and then when men got involved they wanted to build machinery to do production on a massive scale.

Not sure why the gender difference, but I must admit I share the apparent female preference for micro-businesses rather than a penchant for building mega-corporations and large-scale farming and engineering works.

[Little John]

It's not a "gender" difference (though there is overlap). It is a sex difference and it is not a "mystery". It is scientifically well understood and is based on the different behavioral consequences of the production of estrogen and testosterone. The intricacies of the process eventually leading to those consequences itself may be complex, but the hormonal source of that process, its direction of travel and behavioral destination is not. Testosterone makes people more competitive, more aggressive and less empathetic. It also makes people physically stronger with all of the learned behavioral consequences that entails. Estrogen has the opposite behavioral effect. Or, at least, does not have those effects to anywhere the same degree. Having said all of the above, the similarities between men and women, behaviorally, overwhelmingly outweigh the differences. But, those differences are real and are measurable.

[RenewableCandy]

I always read Tess's and Renewable's posts even if I read no others. I'm sexist that way.

Despite the inherent patronising sexism of this comment I find myself warmly heartened

I missed the sexism - though I'm like that. You have to be a bit less subtle for me to notice such things.

I feel guilty now because I don't really know many of our neighbours, though I suspect if things were to change suddenly we'd get to know each other pronto!

We're a suburb, with plenty of garden space and some solar roofs, woodburners etc. Also a large playing-field bits of which could be used to grow food. The Residents' Association used to meet regularly in our dining-room but C19 has knocked that on the head. On the other hand C19 has got a few more folk to get to know each other while clapping (etc) for the NHS every Thursday in the spring.

Our local councillors are green. Our local council are LD, who are great once us Greens have lit a fire up their derriere.

If the internet went down, the people I work for would find their job extremely difficult! OTOH people were working roads and railways without it, so you never know.

I think I'd stand about the same chance with the PS posse than our neighbours. I'd probably end up asking VT to give me a go on their farm's tractor/rifles/etc just because I've never done that sort of thing irl

[vtsnowedin]

I think I'd stand about the same chance with the PS posse than our neighbours. I'd probably end up asking VT to give me a go on their farm's tractor/rifles/etc just because I've never done that sort of thing irl

That would be fun if we can get you over here.