I for one am increasingly tired of the constantly escalating level of sexual white noise in the culture. In summertime a lot of females parade around practically naked. For a long time I wondered why it is that women seem to have an overwhelming compulsion to bare their bodies in public; in winter I’ve seen them sometimes with serious gooseflesh when they could just as easily wear a little more clothing and be comfortably warm. Finally I recalled reading in Desmond Morris’ classic The Naked Ape (highly recommended) the simple, scientific observation that while other species’ sexual signals may be olfactory (scents–which is why dogs urinate on fireplugs) or auditory (birdsong), human sexual signals concentrate on our most developed sense, i.e. sight. When a woman bares another half-inch of skin, it’s never an accident: it’s an escalation, either of an attempt to capture male attention, or of competition with other females to do the same.

Once again, women don’t make sense, at least on first observation: they behave in a manner obviously calculated (though often subconsciously so) to attract male attention, then they complain that males “can’t keep their eyes to themselves.” It’s just more testing. If nothing else, it’s a test of the male’s ability to deal with the stress caused by female irrationality. “I’m not logical. Deal with it.” What does not destroy you … makes you a promising candidate as a mate. From the point of view of Nature, their (and our) ultimate Boss, this makes perfect sense. Nature knows no restraint; she will escalate every contest to the ultimate.

To keep the sexual noise to a level that wouldn’t cause a total collapse of social order. This is the origin of all the restraints which feminists complain so bitterly about, from marriage to the seclusion of women to the burkha: simply varying, often desperate attempts to govern the overwhelming sexual power of the female so that we can have human societies, rather than the life of chimpanzees.

 

Women themselves are caught in the situation: as the level of competition rises, even women who don’t feel inclined to act like prostitutes feel they have no choice. Few women other than Camille Paglia are willing to admit that under the “patriarchy” women were far safer to walk the streets at night than they are now, in our “enlightened” social order, where women are “free to be themselves.” The simple fact is that (most) women, like children, on their own don’t know what’s best for their own welfare.

Why advertise so aggressively unless you’re selling what you’re showing? But of course, as our “modern” culture spreads across the world, traditional cultures’ restraining patterns are breaking down as well. A recent issue of National Geographic shows this quite graphically, with a cover photo of an Indian woman and her daughter: the mother is dressed in a traditional sari, the daughter is dressed like a typical American teenage wanna-be whore, complete with pout. No culture can last when this behaviour becomes the norm.

Some years ago I had the opportunity to meet a woman shaman from the Iroquois nation. She was impressive: one of the few real, grownup women I’ve encountered. Calm, restrained, gentle, completely aware and in control of herself, she glowed with power. I sat in a room full of women at her feet, and was struck by the behaviour of a middle-aged, white-haired Anglo female sitting across from me. She didn’t know how to comport herself; she had her legs up so her underwear was clearly displayed to the room. I thought, “This is the best model our culture can offer as an adult woman?” It was sad.

I was amused to see the following passage in the Seneca Falls “Declaration of Sentiments”:

The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.

And thus the absolute rule of unconscious, ruthless Nature, by creating social constructs which, whatever their imperfections, at least offer us a life less “nasty, brutish and short” than that of the animal world from which we came–and back into which we may fall at any time. This is the real meaning of “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”