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Big Brains, Bewigged and Gender
North Miami Beach, FL July 17, 2001 Aaron H.
Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then, Opinions pro or con are welcome.
BIG BRAINS, BEWIGGED AND GENDER
A New York Times Science article and the course on the Arthurian legend I
am taking via earphones and audiocassette occasion this. There are also
overtones of Biblical reference that I cannot excise.
Male brains, like their brawn, are larger than those of females are.
Females, however, have connections. One of these is to the fashioner of
wigs and hairpieces to enhance the crowning glories with which they are
endowed. Men have always gloried over this unfair distribution of head size.
But women have had it way over men through the ages - they have hair they
can tease up into fantastic creations while the poor guys lose theirs and we
all are aware of the baldness that is uniquely "Male Pattern". My father
had that but I am blessed with most of my hair although it IS thin on top.
There was a time in history, just a few centuries ago, that wigs were
adopted by men as well as women, hence the opportunity to dueling by hair.
The cartoonists of the day caricatured the lengths, or the heights, to which
owners of wigs would go - hence, "bigwigs". We still have them amongst us
although these are usually just rich or powerful or both.
When females have "connections" they have the ability to see things most
poor guys with no imagination cannot. Thus, while being subjugated through
time by size they have manipulated, with their connections, the hairy, bald
and big-brained men in their lives.
Now today's lecture (Number 5) about Arthur, the medieval King in Camelot
that was somewhere in the British Isles, compared him to El Cid and
Charlemagne. These gentlemen were credited as being heroes, accumulators of
clients (supporters and warriors), charismatic leaders and, especially
heroic towards women. They were mostly the "Pater Familias" of their clans,
tribes and nations. Again they recall the Abrahams, the Gilgameshes, the
Alexanders and the Caesars who all functioned as chiefs, warlords, kings or
high priests of all those responding to their banners.
The men in history who have been remembered are mostly those who led
successful armies in wars. They had the biggest horses, the longest swords
and the best armor. They won the most beautiful women.
It was probably a woman who suggested to her lord that he could benefit the
people as well as enlarge himself by spreading his sperm amongst the ladies
of his court and kingdom. She knew that inevitable childbearing would wear
her out and she had discovered his warts and bunions. So, she used her
connections and did up her hair and he exercised a lot or got others to do
it for him.
Brains need not be big and hair is a bother. Connections make a lot of
sense. What do you think?
Carol's Evaluation:10 out of 10.
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