The tendency to dismiss women's concerns as "silly" is linked psychologically to the fear of men of appearing silly. Nobody wants men to appear silly. Therefore we allow men to release their hot air by attributing silliness to women, thus consolidating their positions in their own minds as "non-silly" people.
Unfortunately what seems to be of little consequence -- the tendency of puffed up patriarchal men to let off a bit of steam -- has broad implications as to how women are viewed in society.
* * *
The thing about conservatives is that they cannot see their perspectives from the outside. They take their views as necessary and hegemonic and they aim to make them that way. But there is no God, no stabilising mechanism, that would guarantee that their views remain fixed and hegemonic. Secular conservatives are more vulnerable to this fact than religious conservatives are. In the corner of their wee, little minds, they must realise that the cartoons that they hold as archetypal representations of human affairs can be easily dismissed.
Take Erick Erickson's recent notion of "women backseat drivers" (Obama's advisers)supposedly misdirecting him, according to this ideologue, concerning the last U.S. military intervention. It only takes one woman to come along who is aware that her mode of travelling by car is very different from the one depicted. Her innate ability to compare reality to the gender stereotype of an air-headed "backseat" driver will play havoc with the conservative's goal of stabilising this cartoon within his mind as a depiction of what is serious and necessary about the world.
Unfortunately what seems to be of little consequence -- the tendency of puffed up patriarchal men to let off a bit of steam -- has broad implications as to how women are viewed in society.
* * *
The thing about conservatives is that they cannot see their perspectives from the outside. They take their views as necessary and hegemonic and they aim to make them that way. But there is no God, no stabilising mechanism, that would guarantee that their views remain fixed and hegemonic. Secular conservatives are more vulnerable to this fact than religious conservatives are. In the corner of their wee, little minds, they must realise that the cartoons that they hold as archetypal representations of human affairs can be easily dismissed.
Take Erick Erickson's recent notion of "women backseat drivers" (Obama's advisers)supposedly misdirecting him, according to this ideologue, concerning the last U.S. military intervention. It only takes one woman to come along who is aware that her mode of travelling by car is very different from the one depicted. Her innate ability to compare reality to the gender stereotype of an air-headed "backseat" driver will play havoc with the conservative's goal of stabilising this cartoon within his mind as a depiction of what is serious and necessary about the world.
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