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Notes -
Not this again, this whole furore over man the hunter is so fucked. Here is my recreation of a conversation I had with my SIL on the subject:
"Why does anyone give a shit if men hunted more than women or vice versa?"
"Well because hunting implies agency and strength and therefore prestige! Which is more admirable - keeping the village fed and safe by killing dangerous creatures or keeping the village fed and safe by gathering crops and keeping people clothed and healthy?"
"You already know my answer."
"Both are valuable, but you only value hunting more because of your patriarchal ideals! Gathering is just as valuable!"
"No, I value truth and if gathering was just as valuable as hunting it would have been deemed just as valuable as hunting in matriarchal societies, which doesn't seem to be the case. And it seems by your own admission that hunting is more valuable than gathering, if it wasn't you wouldn't care who did what except out of curiosity and you would feel as confused about all of this as I do."
"But how much of that is our own internalisation of patriarchal concepts? Besides if you think about it, hunting isn't just stabbing tigers with spears, it also includes trapping rabbits and sharpshooting quail and fishing and if you include that kind of hunting women did plenty of it, so women were hunters too!"
"Ok yeah, I guess women did lots of hunting if you redefine hunting. Wouldn't it be easier to just not value hunting more?"
"That's easy for you to say, you're a man."
thinking "If I were luckier a meteor would drop from the sky right now and wipe life off the planet."
Damn, that’s obnoxious.
Perhaps I should add to the list of things I’m grateful for—that I generally don’t have such female biological or in-law family members who shit-talk as such. Much less male members.
My female in-laws (wives of my male biological family members) are generally quite respectful.
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