Open Admissions
Hello. Welcome to the Weekend Gene Pool, where — in exchange for entertainment — I ask you for your thoughts and observations for use next week.
I just got the following question in my inbox: “Have you ever struck Rachel?”
My first answer is, yes, I believe I have struck her as being urbane, witty and amusingly immature.
My second answer is that, no, I have never physically abused Rachel, for three equally important reasons:
I love her and respect her.
I think male violence against women is dastardly; and,
If she had to, she could kick my ass.
Rachel is a little taller than I am, and, unlike me, she is in good physical shape, and is 30-plus years younger. She has written that in the gym she has power-lifted, with her butt alone, three times the weight of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As a young adult, she lived in a group house on G Street in Southwest D.C. with three close friends with whom she had gone to college. (The women called it “The G Spot.”). Each tenant had a role in the house’s maintenance — one collected and paid the rent, another handled general bills, etc. I once asked Rachel what her role was, and she looked at me like I was nuts: “I’m the muscle, of course.” Her bedroom was next to the door an intruder would probably choose to jimmy open in an attempted rape spree. Rachel was the designated first line of defense.
So, my point here is that if she had to, my girlfriend could easily beat me up. It’s a somewhat embarrassing admission about the state of my manhood, which is the subject of today’s Gene Pool.
What embarrassing admissions about the state of your man- or woman- hood do you have — things that might betray and solidify unfair negative stereotypes about your gender? Rachel once ditzed out by locking her keys in her car for hours with her engine running and headlights on. I never change my own car oil because I’m not entirely sure which “hole” the oil goes in. Stuff like that. Rachel has never figured out how or why she is supposed to use “lip liner,” thereby betraying all women’s claims of competence and basic maintenance.
As always, send your stuff here:
—
Okay, good.
Today’s Gene Pool Gene Polls:
And finally, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, which only costs $4.15 a month. Or, if you need an excuse not to, it costs $5,000 every 100 years.
Okay, we’re done. See you Monday or Tuesday.
Before evangelical Christians worked their way into government through Republicans who saw them as lucrative allies; and before Republicans made common cause with the Catholic church over matters of sex and sexuality; it was taboo to talk about religious beliefs in public. Those were the days. People stayed home and prayed in their closets where no one could see, as the bible commands, unlike the hypocrites who make a show of their piety on every street corner. But these days, pious believers join the hypocrites and constantly put their antisocial convictions on display, trying to dictate public policy. (It's always the antisocial ones who mouth off, thinking they are more virtuous than thou for it.)
When people kept their beliefs to themselves it was a happier, live and let live, time. Today, I consider conservative religions our most villainous enemies of democracy. Let there be no more respectful silence or unearned respect for another person's beliefs once they brandish them as weapons. They will be in for a fight.
If Rachel ever does kick your ass, can you please post video of it? There are probably folks who would like to watch.