what a man's gotta do ?

Man has a thirst for knowledge (he wants to know what the world around him looks like and how it functions). Man thinks (he draws conclusions from the data he encounters). Man is creative (he makes something new out of the information achieved by the above processes). Man is sensitive (as a result of his exceptionally wide, multidimensional emotional scale, he not only registers the commonplace in fine gradations but he creates and discovers new emotional values and makes them accessible to others through sensible descriptions, or recreates them as an artist). Of all the qualities of man, his curiosity is certainly the most impressive. This curiosity differs basically from that of woman.

A woman takes interest only in subjects that have an immediate personal usefulness to her. For example, if she reads a political article in the newspaper, it is highly likely that she wants to cast a spell on some political-science student, not that she cares about the fate of the Chinese, Israelis, or South Africans. If she looks up the names of some Greek philosophers in the dictionary, it does not mean she has suddenly taken an interest in Greek philosophy. It means she is trying to solve a crossword puzzle. If she is studying the advertisements for a new car, she is not doing it with a platonic interest in its technical features, but because she wants to own it.

[...]With his many gifts man would appear to be ideally suited, both mentally and physical, to lead a life both fulfilled and free. Instead he chooses to become a slave, placing his many discoveries at the service of those who are incapable of creation themselves - at the service of `mankind', man's own synonym for women, and of the children of these women. How paradoxical that this very sex, which is capable of leading a life as nearly perfect as possible, is prepared to give it up, to offer it all to the female sex, which is not interested in such perfection. We have grown so accustomed to the blunted mechanism of one-sided exploitation of one group of human beings by a parasitic clique that all our moral values have become completely perverted. Without really giving the matter any thought, we consider the male sex as a kind of Sisyphus: he has come into the world to learn, to work and to father children: his sons, in their turn, will learn to work, and produce children, and so it will continue forever; it has become almost impossible to think why else men should be here.

If a young man gets married, and starts a family and spends the rest of hise life working at a soul-destroying job, he is held up as an example of virtue and responsibility. The other type of man, living only for himself, working only for himself, doing first one thing and then another simply because he enjoys it and because he has to keep only himself, sleeping where and when he wants, and facing woman when he meets her on equal terms and not as one of a million slaves, is rejected by society The free, unshackled man has no place in its midst.

How depressing it is to see men, year after year, betraying all that they were born to do. New worlds could he discovered, worlds one hardly dares even to dream of could be opened by the minds, strength, and intelligence of men. Things to make life fuller and richer - their own life, that is, of which women are ignorant - and more worthwhile could be developed: all these things could be done by men. Instead, they forsake all these tremendous potentials and permit their minds and their bodies to be shunted onto sidings to serve the repulsively primitive needs of women. Man has the key to every mystery of the universe in his hand, but he ignores it, he lowers himself to the level of woman and insinuates himself into her favor. With his mind, his strength, and his imagination, all intended for the creation of new worlds, he opts instead for the preservation and improvement of the old. And if he happens to invent something new, he needs to prefix it with the excuse that it will one day be useful to `all mankind,' i.e., to women. He apologizes for his achievements, for making space flights instead of providing more comforts for his wife and children.

[...]We have absolutely no idea what the world would be like if men really used their intelligence and imagination instead of wasting it. Inventing pressure cookers that cook faster, wall-to-wall carpeting that is more stain-resistant, detergents that wash whiter and lipsticks that are more water-resistant is a waste of time. Instead of producing children who will in turn produce children, thus pushing the enjoyment of life, still further out of their own reach, they should try living themselves.

Instead of probing the depth of woman's 'mysterious' psyche - 'mysterious' Only because there is nothing behind it - they, should study their own psyche. perhaps even that of creatures possibly inhabiting other planets, and think of new ways and means of establishing contact with them. Instead of inventing ever more deadly weapons to fight wars destined only to defend private property, i.e., women's, they should be developing ever more efficient methods of space travel - travel which would tell us more about worlds we never dreamt of.

[...] Without thinking, men fight women's wars, father women's children and construct women's towns. Women just sit back getting lazier, dumber and more demanding and, at the same time, richer. A primitive but effective system of insurance policies policies for marriage, divorce, inheritance, widowhood, old age and life - ensures this increasing wealth. For example, in the US half of the total private capital is in the hands of women. Yet the number of working women has constantly decreased over the last decades. The situation is not much different in industrial Europe. At this time women already have complete psychological control over men. It won't be long before they have material control as well. Men seem to be quite unaware of these facts and go on finding happiness in their own subjugation. There could he justification for their attitude only if women really were the charming, gracious creatures men believe them to be: fairy princesses, angels from another world, too good for men themselves and for this earthly existence. It is quite incredible that men, whose desire for knowledge knows no bounds in every other field, are really totally blind to these facts, that they are incapable of seeing women as they really are: with nothing else to offer but a vagina, two breasts and some punch cards programed with idle, stereotyped chatter; that they are nothing more than conglomerations of matter, lumps of stuffed human skin pretending to he thinking human beings.

[Source: Esther Vilar - The Manipulated Man]