Eve’s Seed – McElvaine – Millsaps College It wasn't, and the rest is history—just about all of it. If I had to reduce history to one sentence, it would be: Hell hath no fury like a man devalued.
Verbal Mounting How that history has unfolded has been influenced enormously by insecure masculinity and another metaphor that is based upon it, which can accurately be termed the Master Metaphor. Sexually insecure men often seek validation of their manhood by pursuing power. This is one of the reasons that the notawoman definition of manhood has had such an impact throughout history. All men do not suffer from such sexual insecurity, but those who do have frequently made their way into positions of power and so have had a disproportionate influence on the shaping of cultures and institutions. The basic means by which insecure men demonstrate their claims that they are "notwomen" is through a sexual metaphor. The ultimate sources of this metaphor must be sought deep in our past: beyond what is usually called “history”—in fact, back beyond what is generally thought of as human “prehistory.” The origins of the master metaphor predate the evolution of Homo sapiens; indeed, they predate the emergence of hominids. The idea that other animals use metaphorical behavior may be surprising, but it is plain that this is what is going on when a dominant male among several species, including mountain sheep and macaques, mounts a subordinated male and simulates intercourse with him. The former is, in effect, “saying” to the latter: I am so dominant over you that I can treat you like a female. Such male animals apparently have some concept of “male-hood” in terms of being “notafemale.” Such symbolic mounting is an unexplored but highly significant aspect of human male behavior. It is, obviously, a means of asserting a vertical distinction between individuals; it provides an answer to the question: Who’s on top? Accordingly, it is similar to another practice we use to categorize people. One of the more consequential human tendencies is that toward pseudospeciation: falsely treating another member of our species as if he or she were a member of a different species. It is this capacity that allows us to turn off our natural identification with other members of our species and so be able to kill them. It is difficult to brutalize and kill human beings, but it is not so hard to commit atrocities against “Gooks,” “Niggers,” “Honkies,” “Spics,” “Micks,” “Nips,” “Krauts,” or other creatures we have used language to de-humanize. Clearly this ability to engage in pseudospeciation is a major part of the basis for warfare. The Master metaphor is based on a similar, but generally unnoticed, process that can usefully be termed pseudosexing—falsely treating another member of the
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