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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 22. 1973

Man vs Woman

page 19

Man vs Woman

Dear Sirs,

A couple of Salients ago J. Olsen, in an endearingly honest disclosure informed us that a man's main fear was his fear of sexual failure.

The Men's Club-Playboy atmosphere which permeates our society would hardly be one which would dispel this sort of fear. In that atmosphere pretentions to and recipes for the attainment of instant and everlasting stiffness would be an impossible achievement which could only be upheld by myths maintained by the Brotherhood.

It would not take many women to dissolve these myths — hence my conjecture that this is one of the keys to the apartheid-like situation which exists between the sexes — at least in the big world outside university (a situation 'explained' by J. Olsen's "equal but different" theory). The fear of sexual incompetence is one reason which makes it imperative for men to keep control over women (John Stuart Mill called it "keeping them in subjection") so that it is men who make the rules and call the tune — in sexual relationships as in the larger society. The particular "system" doesn't seem to make much difference although we do hear some hopeful reports from Sweden occasionally.

The divide and conquer approach seems to have applied fairly universally and so we have the dichotomy of "pure" and "evil" women (not men, note), virgin and prostitute. The need for female eunuchs — pure and ignorant virgins and monogamy (for women only of course) can be seen. These people have no basis for making invidious comparisons.

Then on the other hand is that very convenient category of evil women ranging from the high-class call girl to the common or garden-variety prostitute, who serve the twin function of sewer and scapegoat for the baser instincts of none-the-less noble man.

This is a sad and hypocritical situation to say the least but I would remind J. Olsen that reputable experts assure us that male "sexual failure" (so much more visible than the female variety) is more a psychological thing than a physiological one. It should also be of interest to note that some female experts have made the astounding (?!) claim that "a man without a penis could make a very good lover." This statement should be recognised as a liberating idea and not as a castrating one (because a penis in its more usual place is lovely too) — its just that its not always essential and there should therefore be no need for talk of "sexual failure".

The sooner we get away from the Kama Sutra thirty-day-crection performance mentality the happier we might all be.

Yours sincerely

Susan Tanner