A book “Men Explain Things to Me” by Rebecca Solnit touches upon the most common problem between men and women, that is misunderstanding or the lack of willingness to understand each other, but it just seems to be so.
A problem which is raised is rather deep, and some parts of the book are not comic at all. Somebody may say the book is feministic, and use this adjective with a kind of sarcasm. It is not just a whim to be equal, to be listened to, to be heard and to feel respect, it is a real disaster when women are not believed (as it is shown in the example with a wife screaming of her husband try’s to kill her).
The first thing that is absolutely correct about some of the men (“some of the men” is worth emphasizing) is they are sure they are always right, they know everything, they understand everything. It seems sometimes they are like initiate in something that is so far from women, that is inaccessible for them. Some of them are so sure in their own intelligence or to be exact they are so sure in the lack of intelligence in women around them that it is alright to tell anything you want and women will believe you.
The second thing that is worth mentioning here is that some of them believe in their own impunity (Solnit 7). It seems like who has more strength has more rights. The question of violence was, is and unfortunately will be a big challenge for us to fight with.
The third thing is inseparably connected with two mentioned above. It is the ability to stand corrected. It is rather difficult for everybody irrespective of the sex, but some of the men cannot do it at all. They are sure it is the demonstration of weakness that is impossible.
If to speak about what I cannot agree with, I should mention the following: it is commonsense and it is something that we learn from the very childhood. We should judge all the people by the behavior of one person.
Moreover, it is important to state that examples of women violence against men are taking place as well, but it is not that the society is ready to accept as a norm. A man cannot be offended by a woman, the society thinks. But he can and he is.
I cannot agree with example of Rebecca Solnit about the FBI woman and her warnings concerning al-Qaeda (Solnit 6). It was not the inability to hear her, such a situation has probably political background, but not the fact that she is a woman.
The book is full of real-life examples and it is crucial to speak this problem out loud, that what Rebecca does and she does it perfect. Her book is like a call for struggle and call for peace, call for joining up, call for mutual respect and understanding.
The comparison of a woman with a reliable witness of her own life by Rebecca is so precise. Unfortunately, there are lots of countries where women have no rights, it is even difficult to call their life as life. And they are only in the very beginning on the way to freedom, to respect, to joy. But the start of the strive for life is a big deal. The international community is listening to them and ready to provide assistance.
It is all about future generations of girls and women and the way they communicate with men, it is all about upbringing of boys and girls, and that is that every mother can do and does and will do because it is the future of their children.
War is touched upon in the essay of Rebecca a lot, she speaks about different kinds of wars, so another conclusion is war is not a good tool in facing challenges, communication that presupposes an ability to speak, an ability to listen to and an ability to hear is a key to success.
Works Cited
Solnit, Rebecca. Men Explain Things to Me. Guernica. A Magazine of Art & Politics, 2012. Print.
