Elle Beau ❇︎
3 min readMay 16, 2023

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Exactly - but that's not a human nature thing. That's a living in a patriarchal dominance hierarchy thing. Patriarchy isn't just about gender stratification, it's about social stratifications of all sorts, and the maintenance of those via intimidation, coercion, and even violence. Not allowing Black people and women the same legal rights as white men up until about 50 years ago is a perfect example of this. But even so, not all white men had the same levels of power or privilege, because it's a pyramid shaped structure - and you must always be looking for ways to climb to a higher rank in this imaginary pecking order, even if it means stepping on others to get there. People at the "bottom" of the hierarchy - poor people, homeless people, those in prison, disabled people - they get almost no consideration in a truly meaningful sense because we are so indoctrinated into this system that we mostly don't even see it as particularly wrong to not treat them well as a society.

And even if the woman having a seizure was well-dressed, we don't know what engaging with her will do to our own status or sense of safety - because this extreme level of individualism comes at the expense of the well-being of everyone in the group. The "I got mine" attitude is compounded by things like frivolous law suits, and just generally shitty behavior towards anyone not in our immediate "clan." But that's a social attitude that is only about 5k years old. For 97% of human history, we didn't treat each other that way - not just in tribal bands, but in early villages and cities as well.

I don't disagree that it is harder to care about a group of more than about 100 max, with 10-20 being the average range for everyday interactions and behaviors. But, Star Fleet is made up of millions of people and they seem to find ways to keep the ethos of peacefulness and cooperation, as well as respect for different species within the larger culture - because that is the societal ethos. And yes, I realize that Star Fleet is fictional, but it's also aspirational. One of the key aspects of the original series was that they were always highlighting how different Mr. Spock was because he was a Vulcan - meanwhile, he was actually the one who often displayed the most humanity.

The Minangkabau of Indonesia are a matrilineal culture of about 4 million. Even though they are an Islamic culture, women are highly valued and mothers are greatly respected.

"Minang women uphold these pre-Islamic adat customs, which not only trace ancestry through the female line but also involve a complex social system in which women and men share power and control based on the principle of interdependence and mutual responsibility. When couples marry, the groom moves to the bride’s house. Nearly all household decisions are made only after being deliberated by both husband and wife."

So, in other words, it doesn't have to only be within a small tribe or a fictional universe that these very different value that we have in our culture can and do exist.

And, as an aside note, testosterone doesn't actually cause aggression, although aggression does tend to raise T levels. "As Brown University anthropologist Matthew Gutmann puts it, one would have to be either castrated or “a gym rat on steroids” before testosterone levels began to correlate with the inclination to pick a fight (Gutmann)."

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Elle Beau ❇︎
Elle Beau ❇︎

Written by Elle Beau ❇︎

I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother, I'm a sinner, I'm a saint. I do not feel ashamed. I'm your hell, I'm your dream, I'm nothing in between.

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