« The much-vaunted sex appeal of American women is drawn from films, reviews and pin-ups, and is in large print fictitious. A recent medical survey in the United States showed that 75 per cent of young American women are without strong sexual feeling and instead of satisfying their libido they seek pleasure narcissistically in exhibitionism, vanity and the cult of fitness and health in a sterile sense. American girls have 'no hang-ups about sex'; they are 'easy going' for the man who sees the whole sexual process as something in isolation thereby making it uninteresting and matter-of-fact, which, at such a level, it is meant to be. Thus, after she has been taken to the cinema or a dance, it is something like American good manners for the girl to let herself be kissed - this doesn't mean anything. American women are characteristically frigid and materialistic. The man who 'has his way' with an American girl is under a material obligation to her. The woman has granted a materia! l favour. In cases of divorce American law overwhelmingly favours the woman. American women will divorce readily enough when they see a better bargain. It is frequently the case in America that a woman will be married to one man but already 'engaged' to a future husband, the man she plans to marry after a profitable divorce. » ("American 'Civilisation')
« In Anglo-Saxon societies, and especially in America, the man who exhausts his life and his time in the dulling world of business and in the pursuit of wealth – a wealth that is used, to a great extent, to pay for woman's luxury, whims, vices and "refinements" - such a man, who is interested at most in sports, has willingly left to women the privilege, if not the monopoly, of "spiritual matters".» (idem, “Le Madri e la Virilità Olimpica”)
The two following chapters of a book with twenty-three of them, which was recently made known to me by M. van den Heide, who should really participate in the forum more often, can be considered as an amplification of Evola's above-quoted remarks on American women, and of some parts of “Metaphysics of Sex”, as well as a complement to “Sex and Character”, or rather, Weininger's considerations, as an aperitive introduction to it. Following the publication of “The Manipulated Man” (originally published in German as “Der dressierte Mann”) in 1971, her author was invited to an American TV show for an interview. She was not invited again. Two years later, however, she was invited to a German TV show for an interview, during which she was called a « sexist » and a « Fascist » (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESaWjTAqzNQ). She was not to be seen again on TV. She claims she received death threats as a result of her book. We have no difficulty believing her.
« THE SLAVE'S HAPPINESS The lemon-colored MG skids across the road and the woman driver brings it to a somewhat uncertain halt. She gets out and finds her left front tire flat. Without wasting a moment she prepares to fix it: she looks towards the passing cars as if expecting someone. Recognizing this standard international sign of woman in distress ('weak female let down by male technology'), a station wagon draws up. The driver sees what is wrong at a glance and says comfortingly, `Don't worry. We'll fix that in a jiffy' To prove his determination, he asks for her jack. He does not ask if she is capable of changing the tire herself because he knows - she is about thirty, smartly dressed and made-up - that she is not. Since she cannot find a jack, he fetches his own, together with his other tools. Five minutes later the job is done and the punctured tire properly stowed. His hands are covered with grease. She offers him an embroidered handkerchief, which he politely refuses. He has a rag for such occasions in his tool box. The woman thanks him profusely, apologizing for her `typically feminine' helplessness. She might have been there till dusk, she says, had he not stopped. He makes no reply and, as she gets back into the car, gallantly shuts the door for her. Through the wound-down window he advises her to have her tire patched at once and she promises to get her garage man to see to it that very evening. Then she drives off. As the man collects his tools and goes back to his own car, he wishes he could wash his hands. His shoes - he has been standing in the mud while changing the tire - are not as clean as they should be (he is a salesman). What is more, he will have to hurry to keep his next appointment. As he starts the engine he thinks, `Women! One's more stupid than the next'. He wonders what she would have done if he had not been there to help. He puts his foot on the accelerator and drives off - faster than usual. There is the delay to make up. After a while he starts to hum to himself. In a way, he is happy. Almost any man would have behaved in the same manner - and so would most women. Without thinking, simply because men are men and women so different from them, a woman will make use of a man whenever there is an opportunity. What else could the woman have done when her car broke down? She has been taught to get a man to help. Thanks to his knowledge he was able to change the tire quickly - and at no cost to herself. True, he ruined his clothes, put his business in jeopardy, and endangered his own life by driving too fast afterwards. Had he found something else wrong with her car, however, he would have repaired that, too. That is what his knowledge of cars is for. Why should a woman learn to change a flat when the opposite sex (half the world's population) is able and willing to do it for her? Women let men work for them, think for them and take on their responsibilities - in fact, they exploit them. Yet, since men are strong, intelligent and imaginative, while women are weak, unimaginative, and stupid, why isn't it men who exploit women? Could it be that strength, intelligence, and imagination are not prerequisites for power but merely qualifications for slavery? Could it be that the world is not being ruled by experts but by beings who are not fit for anything else - by women? And if this is so, how do women manage it so that their victims do not feel themselves cheated and humiliated, but rather believe to be themselves what they are least of all - masters of the universe? How do women manage to instil in men this sense of pride and superiority that inspires them to ever greater achievements? Why are women never unmasked?
WHAT IS MAN? A man is a human being who works. By working, he supports himself, his wife, and his wife's children. A woman, on the other hand, is a human being who does not work - or at least only temporarily. Most of her life she supports neither herself nor her children, let alone her husband. Any qualities in a man that a woman finds useful, she calls masculine; all others, of no use to her or to anyone else for that matter, she chooses to call efeminate. A man's appearance has to be masculine if he wants to have success with women, and that means it will have to be geared to his one and only raison d'etre - work. His appearance must conform to each and every task put to him, and he must always be able to fulfil it. Except at night when the majority of men wear striped pajamas with at most two pairs of pockets, men wear a kind of uniform made of durable, stain-resistant material in brown, blue or gray These uniforms, or `suits,' have up to ten pockets, in which men carry instruments and tools indispensable for their work. Since a woman does not work, her night or day clothes rarely have pockets. For social events men are permitted to wear black, a color that shows marks and stains, since on those occasions men are less likely to dirty themselves. Moreover, the bright colors worn by women show to advantage against it. The occasional red or green evening jackets worn by men are acceptable, since, by contrast, all the real men present seem so much more masculine. The rest of a man's appearance is also adapted to his situation. His hair style requires only fifteen minutes at the barber every two or three weeks. Curls, waves, and tints are not encouraged as they might hinder his work. Men often work in the open air or spend a considerable amount of time in it, hence complicated styles would be a nuisance. Furthermore, it is improbable that such styles would make a hit with women since, unlike men, they never judge the opposite sex from an aesthetic point of view. So most men, after one or two attempts at individuality, realize that women are indifferent to their efforts and revert to a standard style, short or long. The same is true of beards. Only oversensitive men - usually ones with intellectual pretensions - who want to appear mentally tough by letting their facial hair grow indiscriminately wear a full beard for any length of time. It will be tolerated by women, however, for a beard is an important indication of a man's character and therefore of the way in which he might be most easily exploited. (His field of work will usually be that of the neurotic intellectual.) Generally a man uses an electric razor for about three minutes every morning to keep his beard in check. For his skin, soap and water are considered good enough. All that is required is cleanliness and an absence of make-up so that everyone can see what he is like. As for his fingernails, they should be as short as possible for work. Apart from a wedding ring - worn to show that he is being used by a particular woman for a particular purpose - a proper man wears no ornaments. His clumsy, functional watch, worn on the wrist, is hardly decorative. Heavy in design, waterproof, shock-resistant and showing the correct date, it cannot possibly be called an ornament. Usually it was given to him by the woman for whom he works. Shirts, underwear, and socks for real men are so standardized that their only difference is one of size. They can be bought in any shop without difficulty or loss of time. Only as far as ties are concerned is there any degree of freedom - and then a man is usually so unused to choosing that he lets the woman buy them for him. Anyone visiting this Earth from another planet would think it is each man's goal to look as much like the next as possible. Yet, to fulfill woman's purposes, masculinity and male usefulness vary to a considerable degree: necessarily, because women, who hardly ever work, need men for everything. There are men who carefully manoeuvre a large limousine out of the garage at eight o'clock every morning. Others leave an hour earlier, traveling in a middle-class sedan. Still others leave when it is not yet light, wearing overalls and carrying lunch boxes, to catch buses, subways, or trains to factories or building sites. By a trick of fate, it is always the latter, the poorest, who are exploited by the least attractive women. For, unlike women (who have an eye for money), men notice only woman's external appearance. Therefore, the more desirable women in their own class are always being snatched away from under their noses by men who happen to earn more. No matter what a particular man does or how he spends his day, he has one thing in common with all other men - he spends it in a degrading manner. And he himself does not gain by it. It is not his own livelihood that matters: he would have to struggle far less for that, since luxuries do not mean anything to him anyway it is the fact that he does it for others that makes him so tremendously proud. He will undoubtedly have a photograph of his wife and children on his desk, and will miss no opportunity to hand it around. No matter what a man's job may be - bookkeeper, doctor, bus driver, or managing director - every moment of his life will be spent as a cog in a huge and pitiless system - a system designed to exploit him to the utmost, to his dying day. It may be interesting to add up figures and make them tally - but surely not year in, year out? How exciting it must be to drive a bus through a busy town! But always the same route, at the same time, in the same town, day after day, year after year? What a magnificent feeling of power to know that countless workers obey one's command! But how would one feel if one suddenly realized one was their prisoner and not their master? We have long ceased to play the games of childhood. As children, we became bored quickly and changed from one game to another. A man is like a child who is condemned to play the same game for the rest of his life. The reason is obvious: as soon as he is discovered to have a gift for one thing, he is made to specialize. Then, because he can earn more money in that field than another, he is forced to do it forever. If he was good at maths in school, if he had a 'head for figures,' he will be sentenced to a lifetime of figure work as bookkeeper, mathematician, or computer operator, for there lies his maximum work potential. Therefore, he will add up figures, press buttons and add up more figures, but he will never be able to say, `I'm bored. I want to do something else!' The woman who is exploiting him will never permit him to look for something else. Driven by this woman, he may engage in a desperate struggle against competitors to improve his position, and perhaps even become head clerk or managing director of a bank. But isn't the price he is paying for his improved salary rather too high? A man who changes his way of life, or rather his profession (for life and profession are synonymous to him), is considered unreliable. If he does it more than once, he becomes a social outcast and remains alone. The fear of being rejected by society must be considerable. Why else will a doctor (who as a child liked to observe tadpoles in jam jars) spend his life opening up nauseating growths, examining and pronouncing on human excretions? Why else does he busy himself night and day with people of such repulsiveness that everyone else is driven away? Does a pianist who, as a child, liked to tinkle on the piano really enjoy playing the same Chopin nocturne over and over again all his life? Why else does a politician who as a schoolboy discovered the techniques of manipulating people successfully continue as an adult, mouthing words and phrases as a minor government functionary? Does he actually enjoy contorting his face and playing the fool and listening to the idiotic chatter of other politicians? Surely he must once have dreamed of a different kind of life. Even if he became President of the United States, wouldn't the price be too high? No, one can hardly assume men do all this for pleasure and without feeling a desire for change. They do it because they have been manipulated into doing it: their whole life is nothing but a series of conditioned reflexes, a series of animal acts. A man who is no longer able to perform these acts, whose earning capacity is lessened, is considered a failure. He stands to lose everything - wife, family, home, his whole purpose in life - all the things, in fact, which give him security. Of course one might say that a man who has lost his capacity for earning money is automatically freed from his burden and should be glad about this happy ending - but freedom is the last thing he wants. He functions, as we shall see, according to the principle of pleasure in non freedom. To be sentenced to life-long freedom is a worse fate than life-long slavery. To put it another way: a man is always searching for someone or something to enslave him, for only as a slave does he feel secure - and, as a rule, his choice falls on a woman. Who or what is this creature who is responsible for his lowly existence and who, moreover, exploits him in such a way that he only feels safe as her slave, and her slave alone?”
(http://clanrossi.org/Wordpress/the_manipulated_man.pdf ; a spoken version is available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESaWjTAqzNQ)
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