After three weeks of fencing lessons, I've come to a rather startling realization.
If there's going to be a fight, I'll fight a man rather than a woman any day.
Women are crazy. They have no predictability, no method. They swing their foils wildly, madly, eager to poke you. (There are a few female students who fence coolly and calmly, but not many) They confuse your mind, disorient you, then jab. Your mind goes wild and your steady discipline vanishes. Before you can get it back under control enough to consider your task at hand, the maniacal female gets in another jab.
It's so different with the guys. They play by the rules. Their moves are ordered, structured, cool in execution even if driven by adrenaline. They are "semi" predictable. Yes, they have advantage in height and strength, but when I fence a male, my mind isn't driven mad. I can fence with complimentary coolness, organization, and ordered maneuvers. Yes, I'll fight a man any day. Be he much more skilled than I, at least he has a steady method and is slightly predictable. I don't mind being stabbed as long as I can see it coming or recognize fair play.
Is there a lesson in this beyond fencing? I mean, do these characteristics extend to the ways men and women act in life, toward life, and toward each other too?
Sometimes it can seem like it. I'd be interested to hear from both sides.
At least in my experience, females seem to leave the boundaries of emotional "fair play" with greater regularity than males. The female mind can be bewildering to understand and dizzying to watch. I'm sure that all girls have felt those unexplainable bursts of rage, hurt, and frustrated glee propelling them into a fury of metaphorical stabs and jabs into anything and everything withing reach.
But must this be the case? Can a woman overcome - at least outwardly - this wild manner and train herself to a steady hand and cool purpose?
And is the masculine calm more than skin deep or is it but a veneer? Is the (sometimes irrationally infuriating) male logic part and parcel to masculinity, or is it cultivated and entrained?
And why should the calm, the solid, the purposefulness of man evoke a strong longing and feeling of security in a female, then irritate her an hour later?
I'd be glad for any illuminating thoughts, insights, comments, etc.
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2 comments:
I so sympathize with that last little sentance. :-) And yes, I think women can train themselves to be calm and collected. At least in public. Think mothers.
I have a goodly number of brothers and I think it's safe to say that they also can loose control and become totally illogical, yes, even in public. What you say about the hard outer shell is also true.
Lucky me is all too good at keeping up that hard outer shell, though those who can truly read my many and varying facial expressions can tell the difference between a truly calm and content Anna and the alternative.
hmm.
Do you think women in general desire so much for others to see beyond their mask? If we did, that would explain alot of female idiosyncracies.
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