Gender

I am taking Gender and Society this semester. It is pretty interesting to me. I do find that I have to really pay attention to what the teacher is saying constantly. He jumps around somewhat on his topic matter but I can usually follow if i am paying attention. It is like watching a foreign movie, in fact, like an indie foreign movie. If you miss something you will probably get lost. and the class is three hours long so you do not want to get lost.
All in all though, I find it interesting. Could be because of my own personal life experiences, especially the ones I am going through at the moment.
We are reading through "Manhood In The Making" by David D. Gilmore. The last two chapters we went over I thought were pretty interesting. One dealt with performance excellence and the Circum-Mediterranean male. Then we read a chapter on performance anxiety and the Mehinaku people.
It is fascinating how all over the globe our societies are different in so many ways but a lot of the same values hold even if they are in different forms. Why do men every where feel they have to "prove" themselves? And why do women not feel this way? This is in general terms, there are always exceptions. All these societies hold in low regard men who will not even try to prove themselves and provide for their families. Parasites, in other words are the same in every culture. They have different names such as "flojo", a weak and pathetic impostor. Then there is the term the Andalusians have , a "wastrel" or "gamberro". He is despised, less than a man. The lateter term means irresponsible and reprobate who lives like a parasite off women. I know there are bad women too, but these societies seem to regard men much higher than women so the man just does not get off easy.