Seeker of Truth
06-01-2003, 02:47 PM
The Right Breed of Alpha Male
Elizabeth Nickson
National Post
Friday, May 30, 2003
The battle of the sexes rages on. My about-to-be-former-beloved spent last weekend -- as he does usually at my house -- being fed and watered, lying around like a Pasha, interspersed by little outings planned for his pleasure, broken by two 45-minute periods of furniture moving and thistle removal, this latter taken on his own decision. "Honey," he said, as he retired for his second afternoon nap, "wouldn't it be nice if we had more friends over for dinner?"
Get out the lawyers. That would mean I have to find the people, plan the evening, plan the meal, buy it, cook it, serve it, and do most of the talking, not to mention quite a lot of the mop-up, although he will do the dishes, and complain mightily for hours afterwards. I put that at about eight hours of physical labour. On a weekend. For pleasure. After the weeks I have, which are fraught. I don't think so. I got to musing as to how those few years I spent deliberately celibate were the happiest of my adult life. Yes I was lonely, as even a woman with a good, even statusy job and a lot of friends can be, but there were no endless hoops being held up every time I managed to hurl myself, heaving and exhausted, through the last. Feeling positively nostalgic here.
Maybe I shouldn't have been listening to Tom Leykis, who is, I promise you, even more annoying than me. Leykis, who -- recently on Vancouver and Toronto's Mojo Radio, and in the States, for several years now -- expresses his gender's most visceral feelings. Leykis believes that a man with a six-figure income should have a very thin girlfriend (5'9", 125 pounds is ideal), and that no man should fall in love with either a single mother or a woman with debts -- on the grounds that you shouldn't pay for the fallout of other relationships. Have sex with them, for sure, as much as possible, but nothing else. Plus, "if she hasn't put out by the third date, kick her to the curb." He won't go to his high school reunion because he wouldn't "touch any of those women with a 10-foot pole. Why? Because now I can afford your daughters."
The Alpha Male ascends. Pop sociologists believe the reason Leykis is so popular -- and trust me, in that cash-rich 18-44 male bracket, he rules -- is that young men have been thoroughly soured by the rights revolution. Political correctness and the re-dressing of past opportunity deficits have made life in the 20s, 30s and 40s, for your red-blooded male, a minefield of bend over boy, and let's see how hard you like it. In California, for instance, Leykis claims, if a man even forms a bond with a child, he can be sued for lifetime child support. Leykis, who started out in radio as the liberal counterpoint to Rush Limbaugh, has a solution: "I've been responsible for four pregnancies," he announces, "and forced four abortions."
More @ nationalpost.com (http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html?id=5B33119C-AB39-40C2-ADC4-E77B640DF736)
Elizabeth Nickson
National Post
Friday, May 30, 2003
The battle of the sexes rages on. My about-to-be-former-beloved spent last weekend -- as he does usually at my house -- being fed and watered, lying around like a Pasha, interspersed by little outings planned for his pleasure, broken by two 45-minute periods of furniture moving and thistle removal, this latter taken on his own decision. "Honey," he said, as he retired for his second afternoon nap, "wouldn't it be nice if we had more friends over for dinner?"
Get out the lawyers. That would mean I have to find the people, plan the evening, plan the meal, buy it, cook it, serve it, and do most of the talking, not to mention quite a lot of the mop-up, although he will do the dishes, and complain mightily for hours afterwards. I put that at about eight hours of physical labour. On a weekend. For pleasure. After the weeks I have, which are fraught. I don't think so. I got to musing as to how those few years I spent deliberately celibate were the happiest of my adult life. Yes I was lonely, as even a woman with a good, even statusy job and a lot of friends can be, but there were no endless hoops being held up every time I managed to hurl myself, heaving and exhausted, through the last. Feeling positively nostalgic here.
Maybe I shouldn't have been listening to Tom Leykis, who is, I promise you, even more annoying than me. Leykis, who -- recently on Vancouver and Toronto's Mojo Radio, and in the States, for several years now -- expresses his gender's most visceral feelings. Leykis believes that a man with a six-figure income should have a very thin girlfriend (5'9", 125 pounds is ideal), and that no man should fall in love with either a single mother or a woman with debts -- on the grounds that you shouldn't pay for the fallout of other relationships. Have sex with them, for sure, as much as possible, but nothing else. Plus, "if she hasn't put out by the third date, kick her to the curb." He won't go to his high school reunion because he wouldn't "touch any of those women with a 10-foot pole. Why? Because now I can afford your daughters."
The Alpha Male ascends. Pop sociologists believe the reason Leykis is so popular -- and trust me, in that cash-rich 18-44 male bracket, he rules -- is that young men have been thoroughly soured by the rights revolution. Political correctness and the re-dressing of past opportunity deficits have made life in the 20s, 30s and 40s, for your red-blooded male, a minefield of bend over boy, and let's see how hard you like it. In California, for instance, Leykis claims, if a man even forms a bond with a child, he can be sued for lifetime child support. Leykis, who started out in radio as the liberal counterpoint to Rush Limbaugh, has a solution: "I've been responsible for four pregnancies," he announces, "and forced four abortions."
More @ nationalpost.com (http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html?id=5B33119C-AB39-40C2-ADC4-E77B640DF736)