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November 8, 2005

Why do Men Join the Military

To go to war. The only people that this should surprise are those who ignore all evidence and common sense about the reality of gender roles, and how humans developed. Let's face it: men are genetically predisposed to protect and provide, and women are genetically predisposed to nurture children and provide a safe home environment. Not all the hand waving and cultural conditioning in the world will do more than make people angry and lonely when they deny their nature.

I came to this belief relatively late in my life, after I had children. Before that, I was perfectly happy with either traditional or culturally-approved gender roles (still am, really), but figured that child rearing and cultural conditioning was the chief determinant of behavior. Having had four boys, and seeing them turn a baby doll into a gun when they had never seen a gun or had a toy gun, I've been forced to change my mind on that one. Some of the effects of public schooling take a long time to be worn off by experience.

Posted by jeff at November 8, 2005 9:43 AM

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Comments

Yes, the indoctrination does take a while to wear off. Watching my daughter turn into a stereotypical girl who likes to play with dolls and cook, even though we also encouraged her with science experiments and some sports, just seemed disconcerting for a while.

Posted by: Nemo [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 8, 2005 1:06 PM

Never seen a gun? Interesting!

I wonder what other classes of weapons, besides handheld ranged weapons, human males naturally invent in play.

Posted by: Dan tdaxp at November 12, 2005 12:10 PM

In my experience, boys are capable without antecedent of coming up with club-like weapons, gun-like weapons, and spear-like weapons. I suspect in the case of turning a doll into a gun, Connor must have heard a description at least. The others he could have done without description: they're pretty obvious ways to use tools. Of course, once Connor saw a gun, there was no way that any of the following boys would not know about them (generally in laser gun form) from the moment of being aware of the play behavior of their older brothers.

Posted by: Jeff Medcalf [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 12, 2005 12:19 PM