Isn't It Time for the Human Race to Grow Up?

Sexism is alive and well in the U.S. today. Take my own profession, medicine. A male doctor who is not a complete dick is treated as something special. A female doctor who is not 100% Mary Poppins is a "bitch." Another way to say the same thing: patients will not tolerate a female physician who does not act motherly, but they often respect--and continue to consult--- a male physician who is curt, abrupt or even downright rude---like the one who started a visit by saying to me "I will ask the questions and you will answer the questions and you will not say anything else." Yeah, he was an asshole, everyone knew it. But a man like that can maintain a practice. His god-complex is a sign that he is good at his job.

On a related note, if the corporation is run by "good old boys" who thank the Lord each day that they were born men and not women, because being a man makes them "better", lower level staff will be tempted to scapegoat females, even females in positions of power--i.e. their bosses--- because they know that the Good Old Guy(s) at the top are so eager to discredit the female competition that they will readily believe that the woman executive caused the latest disaster--even if she had nothing to do with it. The female executives will be required to "prove" that they are loyal and up to the job---but the harder they try, the more threatened the men will become, and the more eager they will be to accept any criticism of their female colleagues. Hillary Clinton is a victim of this. We have all seen how often she is "accused" of doing the same things that male politicians do. She can only get a break when she is practically doing a Mother Theresa routine. Those who write and read the mainstream news know that their Good Old Boy bosses are scared to death of not being better than even a single woman, and so they level vicious attacks on her as a cheap, fast way to earn favor. Everyone wants to get ahead. If they can get ahead by blaming their mistakes on a woman---then "cherchez la femme".

Of course, anyone who has to label him or herself "better" than someone else in order to sleep at night is a bundle of neurosis and self doubt, and really should not be in a position of power. But it is these same scared little boys and girls who crave power--or rather the illusion of control---so that they can stop being frightened. And so they claw their way to the top of the dog pile. But no matter high they get, they never stop being afraid. And their fear paralyzes the organizations which they control, preventing them from enacting meaningful change in order to 1) increase profits 2) improve services and 3) build a lasting enterprise. They create a house of cards which looks flush on paper but really has no more substance than a soap bubble, and if they are lucky they cash out. And if they are unlucky, they go bankrupt--and find a woman to blame. All because 10,000 years ago, before the advent of agriculture, those who did not have wombs had to have a different mindset and different hormones in order to track and kill mammoths in order to feed those who did have wombs.

Of course, the third world has it twice or maybe even a hundred times as bad. There, women are treated as chattel, property. There, the poorest man knows that at least he isn't a woman. It helps him bear the indignity of his life. And if it all gets to be too much, he can use his woman as a punching bag and know that his culture will say "She had it coming. She gave him lip. She showed her ankles." You have to wonder, if all that rage against social injustice wasn't being channeled against women, maybe the victims of oppression would notice who the real enemy is. Maybe they would create a well organized, effective resistance, rather than houses of cards, like ISIS and Al Qaeda which temporarily boost their machismo, but in the end are just "sound and fury signifying nothing."

All this effort spent keeping women suppressed---excuse me, I meant to say safe--is a drain on our time and resources. Dwindling resources. Our overpopulated world can no longer afford sexism. There are no more mammoths. When we want to eat, we no longer have to hunt. We no longer have the option of hunting. We have to work together to create a social and economic structure capable of feeding and providing shelter for the billions who now live on our planet.

Isn't it time for the human race to grow up?