Antiseptic,

How do I decide who's vulnerable and helpless?

I would get a medical assessment from the nearest
medical practitioner - how else?

Anti

Who's a naughty, naughty boy.

Now you are making complete fabrications of what others have written. You do understand that all the gentle reader has to do is go back to see what I have written regarding healthy men and women?

That I have never even suggested consternation that " a healthy man might survive at the expense of a healthy woman". I did say that healthy men and women are quite capable of taking care of themselves.

But never let the truth get in the way of total distortion, hey?

And Poirot...

You do understand that it is Anti I find so lacking in credibility that my earlier posts to this thread were directed at him? Not you, m'dear.

That I agree New Orleans was an example of class and race discrimination.

That while we have made progress with regard to aiding those most in need (Victorian Bush fires - of which I have direct experience, Queensland floods) rather than according to race, gender or age, we still have a long way to go. (Refer above mentioned).

What a soap opera of a thread.

Looking forward to the next instalment.

I suppose it's in character for you to be looking for someone to tell you what to think, Lexi. Shame...

Houellie, you're reaching.

'Does it have any validity beyond the present time of abundance?'

You crack me up. Why does it matter? It's like in Layer Cake when the dumb gangstar says 'You wouldn't be so tough if you didn't have him behind you!', and 'Him' says, 'Yeah? But he does. Doesn't he.'

Or, as my mates old man used to always say, 'If? If your aunty had balls she'd be your uncle'. Think Alf Stewart.

That said, it is a fine way to pass the time.

'Mind you, that may reflect the strength of the man-as-protector meme.'
Not as strong as the man-as-misogynist-objectifier-and-abuser meme. There's a trade-off for all this Bermuda triangle power of the pussy stuff you're aiming at.

Is it just that the guy dies before getting laid as payment for his gallantry in this instance that you're upset about?

The Bermuda Triangle, map of tassie etc, has tormented many a man, but the trick is to just be an alpha, or a really scary angry looking beta. Free market ideology has moved into the sexual and relationship realm. Winners and losers abound in a free market without all this forced monogamy. I think that's the crux of the angst at the bitter mens brigade. This fear at the destruction of the family is really fear of guaranteed sex.

The losers in the economic stakes used to revolt in strikes and aim at revolution. Now we're going to have losers in the sexual stakes. Perhaps older chicks are happy with their cats and tubs of iccreams and rom-coms, but the single guys are forming fight clubs. Whatever floats your boat I suppose.

Hard not to be smug, so I don't bother to hide it. Soz.

'of which I have direct experience'

Hahaha. That's made my day! I want you to start talking about 'Nam next. Just drop into every post something about that hell hole in Hanoi. How is the acting coming along BTW? Do you think you'll ever meet Cate? If you already have do tell!

'What a soap opera of a thread.

Looking forward to the next instalment.'

No doubt. Especially since the drama was creatd by yourself and designed to revolve around your good self. The trouble is, or not, that you're probably the only one really invested in the whole 'drama'. As a victim of course.

See this sort of stuff makes me doubt you're all real people. It reads like a Keeping Up Appearences script.

Anti,

In my opinion, the modern Western construction of gender assignment is a response to "the time of abundance" and the relative freedom and safety of our societies.
If it all fell in a heap tomorrow, we'd be straight back to traditional gender roles. So its validity, in my opinion, is predicated on the construct of our societal model.
There are more people currently existing in the world who operate their social systems of gender assignment along traditional lines than those who, like us, have fashioned an alternative.

I'll make the point again that, although all societies consist of individuals, a community could be construed as an "organism' which derives its sustenance and continued validity by optimising its choices regarding gender roles.

Houellie,

You're too deep for me.....