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The result? We send our men to war, but keep women safe at
home. When ships are sinking, it's women and children to the life
boats first. Let the men founder in the sea. You need each precious
woman-- she's a vessel for procreation.
An Arab poem of Mohammed's day--1,400 years ago--is a
testament to the indispensability of women. In it, a man is on the road
with the ladies of the tribe when a raiding party from a nearby village
descends on them. The man's duty is to risk his life to save the girls. He
fights with the raiders for as long as he can, giving the women an
opportunity to get away from the site of the raid and as close as
possible to their own tents, where other men will protect them. In his
fight, the hero sustains a spear wound in the side. He rides to the top
of the hill, blocking the path between the raiders and the fleeing
women. Knowing that his life is about to end, he jabs his spear into the
ground, wedges its butt under his armpit and leans against the shaft,
propping himself up on his camel's back. The enemy raiders, seeing the
figure on the top of the hill astride a camel and knowing how fiercely
he has fought, are afraid to attack. The sun is at the hero's back. The
raiders cannot discern his eyes. But they warily watch his silhouette.
Finally noticing how little he moves, the marauders come to a strange
realization. The hero is dead. They have been cowed by a corpse.22
Like men all over the world, the Arab hero knew the old maxim:
nobility consists in sacrificing oneself for the ladies. The male is
expendable, the female is not.
Just how disposable males are becomes obvious in the light of
statistics revealed by anthropologists William Divale and Marvin
Harris in 1976. The pair scrutinized data from 561 primitive social
groups. They found that societies constantly engaged in war are very
selective about the babies they allow to live. They want boys--male
children who can grow up to be warriors. So they weed out the female
infants, killing them outright or undernourishing and overworking
them. The result: they end up with 128 male children for every 100
females. So far, it sounds like the males have made out quite well. But
when the "treasured" young boys pass the age of fifteen, their fate
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