Rufus T. Firefly wrote:MurphOnMillerAve wrote:Did anybody ever notice that such daredevil recklessness is most often performed by males, esp. boys, adolescents, and young men.
The male of the species usually matures between the ears later than the female and at times never quite gets there,
I think there is far more to it than that.
I theorize it all goes back to our hunter-gatherer days in pre-history, The men went out to hunt for food. The women, largely useless in such endeavors due to needing to be careful about their bodies esp. when carrying children, stayed in one place and developed language skills further and in a different way than the males. Men gave a premium to being furtive when out hunting, using hand and other such signals (just like in football "huddles" and in locker-rooms with the pre-game simplified diagrams and planning) to communicate. And they certainly could not have a baby along with them, yapping and crying, identifying their location for predators and prey alike. I think that is why a baby's crying is so irritating to male ears, whereas with women, that crying evokes a need to comfort.
Our sports are outgrowths of hunting. Whether it be in such obvious artifacts such as a "pigskin" (literally, a
pig's skin, with the head at one end and the butt at the opposite end) in football, as the prey, or accurate javelin throwing and shot-put hurling, all related to accurate hunting, in my estimation. Throw running into that group of hunting-based skills as well. Accurate hitting and aiming. All are related to hunting.
AND take for example what the loyal fans yell to their teams, when referencing what should happen to the opposing team, "KILL Them!" Hunting and warfare. (Remember what the children yelled in "Lord of the Flies" when planning to attack the unknown force, "Kill the pig; slit his throat!" )
Males like bashing things up and slitting throats, as well as the adventure of it all. Females would set up a committee to discuss matters, instead. Of course, the women sure like it when their warriors and hunters are out there defeating enemies and bringing home stuff, too, and "bring home the bacon". Large homes (the old home-fires) and large jewelry, large cars and boats, etc. all signify that the woman has a strong hunter cleaved to her, easily viewable in the wealth of possessions.
I further suggest that kingship, originally, had the notion of "royal blood line" being based in who could aim and kill the best, having trained sons to do so well for the benefit of the whole community, no matter the size. There was reluctance in many cultures to having women take a man's place as king or as chief warrior. For example: Egypt: Hatshepsut and her propensity for wearing a full stylized pharaoh's beard and male headdress when out in public.
Just a thought or two.
Murph