Saturday, March 15, 2008

Furthermore


Let's just go, for a while, with the negative character of innate, butch and manly, masculinity. You have, though, first, to get your mind around Colette's "[La] pudeur d'homme, presque toujours plus delicate et plus sincere que [celle des femmes]."  "Pudeur" is almost impossible to translate.  It means "modesty," yes--but the French already have that word, and they'd use it if "modesty" were all they meant.  It also means, or implies, "chaste/prudent/bashful reserve," or even "purity" or "chastity."  It is that part of themselves which men feel violated (encroached upon with violence) when they are forced (by females or imperious circumstance): to tango or fox-trot; to watch ballet, musical theater, or women's gymnastics; to attend church, wedding or baby showers; to carry a woman's purse; to "share" in the sense of "impart" or "divulge;" to consider the facts or the material consequence of menstruation.  There can be no doubt that Masculinity in this sense is Misogynist, defining itself by what it is glad it is not.  Straight men, wanting nooky, conceal it; gay men, not wanting nooky, don't have to.
    

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