Under Watchful Eyes
I find this image disturbing.
It gives the impression of a man under the watchful eye of a couple of angry, possibly alcoholic middle school teachers. He stutters and stammers, losing his lines. He recovers, to the approving nods of the masked women behind him.
There is no strength here. There is nothing for anyone to admire. This is the end of stories left unpublished, because they traced a sorry, meandering line descending to a feeble non-conclusion.
The whole time I grew up, I was surrounded by women who were absolutely certain that if they were in charge, and not the men, then by God, there would be no more war, and everything would be amazing.
Well, that spirit which animated those long-ago ladies of my youth has never let up, and finally they've achieved success:
By installing a weak man who they can control.
Now, it well may be that "the feminine" would run the world 1000 times better than "the masculine" ever did. But to inaugurate that new era of plenty and peace, ruthless people will exert control.
And who knows? Maybe those ruthless people, having achieved their ostensible goal of removing the masculine from all contact with power, will melt away, their services no longer needed. And then the feminine age of glory will begin.
But it could also happen, that what appears to be change is only stasis.
In the faces (the non-obscured part) of the women behind, I see condescention. I see an emphasis on control, on signaling virtue through the entirely unnecessary masks.
I don't want to be governed by these types. They will look at me and my life and find nothing to approve of. By virtue of my sex and skin color they will find much to deplore. There is no future for me, with them.
Today, man goes from the female dominated home, to the female dominated school, into a marriage. There are few male-dominated spaces left. They are all under attack. I'm really glad that I went into the mountains for (when all the trips are added up) years and years. I had either no company or the company of men.
Funny, those are the only experiences about which my feelings are entirely unified: it was good. Not mixed, or debatable. Simply good.
I will not "pre-judge" anyone. Any individual, any man or woman is capable of relating to the other in what I'd call a Godly way. A way that only wishes positive outcome for your wishes. That wants you to succeed in your dreams.
Do men do this more? Or women? I don't know. I only have my experiences.