Progress II
Technological Progress
So I was happily sitting in front of my computer, configuring Gallery for six.idlethink.com (ps: Launch in 3 days), and doing quite well considering that I am a complete computer spaz, when something went pop, my screen went blank, and the lights in the whole of my area of Petaling Jaya went out. I lost everything. I am so tempted to dredge up a similar set of sentiments that went into writing my "Technology...you can have it" diatribes (see May archives), but I think I'll spare you the pain.
idleThinK Progress
Anyway, idleThinK slowly but surely moves up the Top 200 of RBJ...up to rank #23 from #113 last week, baby. Yes. Anyway.
Societal Progress
On a completely different topic, I have a theory that gender discrimination is all due to the sexual inequalities between men and women. You see, sex is most essentially a process of reproduction of the species. So it happens to be fun as well, but that's basically what it is. And if you think about it, the male orgasm is fundamentally necessary for fulfilling this purpose. Sperm is required in order for propagation of the species to take place, and ergo, so is the male orgasm. The female orgasm, on the other hand, is - for a lack of a better word - largely incidental. It doesn't need to happen for us to release our contribution to the propagation of the species - the egg (because it happens every month, and incidentally I hate it). Immediate power, therefore, is weighted on the side of the male.
Now let's take rape as an example of assertion of male power over females. It is pretty impossible for a woman to rape a man, because it can't happen without the male gettin sexually aroused, which requires a certain amount of...willingness...on the man's part. This, again, puts men in a higher position.
Sex aside, man's basic skills happen to be valued higher by society because of their ability to fulfil the basic, primal needs of human existence - food, shelter, clothing, water. Men are biologically equipped to be better hunters (visual/spatial reasoning is much more advanced, physical build is inherently better for hunting), and therefore in any human society's view, their contribution to the wellbeing of the "tribe" is more essential. Elevation of the male status again.
Having said that, though, as our society moves towards a less "blue-collar"-orientated workforce and a more "white-collar" world, physical endowment is beginning to matter less and less...hence the empowerment of women. Also, there's definitely something in the fact that all those "qualities" that are normally associated with men, e.g. burping the alphabet, farting the alphabet, etc., are exactly the same qualities that are deemed socially undesirable or unacceptable :D And rape, too. Hahah. Shows you who's really in charge, huh.
And ideally we'd probably like to think that the rise of women's social status will eventually lead to the woman's orgasm becoming equally mandatory...but I suppose there's only so far societal progress can take us.
Aight, I'm outta here man. There's grammatical progress for ya.