Do women need building up?

I've written about Brett before. He's the Australian liberal who not only wants to get rid of countries, but even the very concept of countries:

Personally, I would like to see the abolition of the concept of "a country".

Brett also wishes to transcend being human:

I dream of a time when medical technology allows us to transcend the notion of being human ...

I dream of a time when our basic bipedal form, replete with somatotype and genetic heritage means nothing ...

And now we can add to the list Brett's ideas about masculinity. This is a comment made by Brett about OzConservative:

One thing I find amusing is that they lament the end of "the traditional patriachy", which in my eyes was bollocks in the first place.

After all, anyone with a working sense of sight knows that the only real advantages that men ever had are that we're generally taller and stronger than our female counterparts - women have everything else, from being able to multitask to having more senses (most guys don't really do intuition or empathy) to everything else...

So according to Brett the only thing men have got going for them is height and physical strength. He thinks it's obvious that women are superior in "everything else".

Brett made this comment at a feminist site. Did any feminist readers, given their supposed commitment to gender equality, jump in to correct Brett when he asserted female superiority? Not a single one.

So Brett was left entirely unchallenged in making what appear to be self-denigrating comments. His views on men appear to be a species of self-hatred.

If Brett is, in fact, denigrating men what could be his motivation? Perhaps it represents, psychologically, a flight from masculine responsibilities (Brett has confirmed that he has no interest in marrying or having children). Perhaps it reflects a nihilistic view of life. Perhaps it reflects a denatured geekiness (he describes himself, in part, as a geek). Or maybe he thinks it makes good flattery for liberal women.

I have a hunch, though, that there's something else at play. Liberals are committed to a certain ideal of equality, one which implies that all groups are fundamentally the same in their capacities.

Lawrence Auster has already noted that when minority groups behave badly, the response of liberals is sometimes the opposite of what you might expect. Instead of criticising the minority group, they will sometimes move to "build up" the minority group relative to the majority. They might compare their [the minority's] behaviour favourably to the majority, or even blame their behaviour on their treatment by the majority.

This is how some liberals, at least, seek to preserve the appearance of group equality.

So when Brett makes such an unrealistic claim on behalf of women and against men, perhaps the same kind of psychology is at play. It may be that Brett is paying women a backhanded compliment. Perhaps a man who thinks that women need building up in an artificial and exaggerated way, doesn't really accept a natural equality of the sexes.

What seems like self-denigration or self-hatred, might just be a failure to appreciate what women naturally bring to the equation.

This is, of course, speculation on my part. I do believe, though, that men who love women are unlikely to give way in their masculinity in the casual way that Brett does. It is, after all, through our masculinity that we are brought most closely into relationship with women.