'even though I realise that Antiseptic wants all us bad women to say'

That's your female-gender-guilt talking. Get him back by making the next topic about rape and bring on the male-gender-guilt.

I like the tables being turned for a change and watching you chicks squirm.

'All we ever get is how violent, how brutal, how exclusivist, how patriarchal, how misogynist, how generally second-class men are.'

Agreed. But you just proved Ammonite's point. As I comprehend it.

Then again it's not as if anyone was under any illusions. It's a bit like saying Andrew Bolt has a 'secret' agenda.

'in her squirming efforts to place herself squarely on the side of the angels'

Yeah I always get a chuckle out of that. An angel with exquisite manners, that you just don't see so much these days!

But, to the topic. If the lifeboat was not made in an environmentally sustainable way, I would have to reject it. In Poirot's rampant consumerism, oh, baaaaaaaaah. You lot never change! And neither do I. Its enough to send me to the pub at 9AM today.

In fact, one day I might write a whole topic and play all the parts of anti and poirot, and pelican and Foxy. Wait a minute, was that a glitch in the matrix. YOU LOT AREN'T REAL. Real people aren't so predictable. Hang on...

Anti,

I'm with sonogloin in that I believe there are good evolutionary and social reasons why men strive to protect women and children.

Modern urban life tends to give us a skewed version of reality. However, all human communities emerged from smaller groupings where the core of the organism was encompassed in its ability to nurture and sustain itself - and also to continue its existence through the procreation and survival of the next generation.

Men, in that situation, were the hinters (for protein) and the protectors. women were the nurtures and domestic workers - the division of labour was well defined. Most of human experience of life on this planet was within that proposition. It's only been in the comparative blink of an eye in an evolutionary sense that humans have constructed the means to go about their business relatively free of the constraints imposed on them in former times.

Ammonite,

The plight of those left behind in New Orleans struck me as quite pertinent to the class aspect of this thread...but I'll add here, since your assume I;m out to disagree with you, that you're the one that came out with all guns blazing in my direction deliberately misconstruing my points and then sarcastically responding to them.

Houellie,

Most refreshing perspective (your inimitable self :)

Houellebecq:"Real people aren't so predictable"

Oh yeah? Why do you think this site exists? Graham isn't just a child of the enlightenment, he gets a quid pro quo in the form of what are effectively focus groups in some respects. That allows real people's behaviour to be somewhat predicted.

I'm also a bit disappointed nobody was prepared to think about anything that might show them in a bad light. As you say, hypotheticals are meant to stimulate a broad consideration of the subject. Mind you, that may reflect the strength of the man-as-protector meme.

Poirot, I think it's an evolutionary thing as well. One man may impregnate many women after some form of disaster and all that. So if that's the case, where does it leave the case for social construction of gender roles? Does it have any validity beyond the present time of abundance?

Antiseptic,

You state that "even Lexi did not suggest that she
would give up her seat for a man."

At no time did I differentiate between genders as you're
doing. I don't classify people according to gender.
If you're vulnerable and helpless that was my only concern.

Lexi:"If you're vulnerable and helpless that was my only concern."

Everyone is vulnerable and helpless. Now how do you decide?

Haha that reminds me of that episode of The Thick of It when one woman in the focus group was so accurate they sacked all the others and just picked this woman's brains. She WAS mainstream opinion. Then they thought she was a plant/leak from the opposition, and then they abused her for it and found out she wasn't, in the process revealing the secret they thought she had leaked. It's great stuff.

In our democracy the most powerful people in the land are those on focus groups, or the ones rung up by Galaxy. Counts heaps more than voting. I never felt more empowered than the day they rang me to ask my opinions on Keneally. The questioner didn't understand how I liked her, but wouldn't vote for Labor. I was waiting for him to say 'but don't you find her attractive?'

Anyway, I must deny once again that Graham pays me to generate clicks. I am not click bait, I am real.

'One man may impregnate many women after some form of disaster'

Yeah I anticipate using that line; 'Hey babe, we're going to die, how 'bout it? '. Easier than picking off bridesmaids at a wedding;-) I reckon I'd score because I have an irresistable cheeky grin. I can guarantee I'd be thinking about sex as the Titanic went down. Why the hell not. I can objectify women in a crisis! Hey I wonder how many chicks got groped as they were helped onto the lifeboat. New question anti, is it 'fair trade', a grope of a breast for a life? I think that more captures the zeitgeist.

Poirot would like that. Not the grope, the zeitgeist.

You have neglected to discuss is the attractiveness of the ladies that get let on the boat. I reckon the breast size of the chicks on the first boat would be bigger than on the last boat.