A feminist confession from The Misanthrope

The Misanthrope
By ETHAN CHATAGNIER

I think paintballing is a guy thing. At least, that’s what I told my date on Friday, when she said she didn’t see what was so fun about it. A few other women I spoke with echoed the same sentiments.

The next morning, my roommates and I strapped on our gear, filled our hoppers and spent a few hours popping each other.

At the end, of course, we compared welts to see which of us had taken the worst of it. I had a couple nice shoulder shots that I was proud of. And other men I’ve known, athletes especially, have traded old injuries like a currency.

I got myself in some hot water with the campus feminists earlier in the semester, and I walk that line again, talking about differences between men and women.

What I embrace, and where I’m a feminist — whaaa? Yep, you heard it — is essentialism, the belief that there is an essential difference between men and women, and that those differences should be celebrated.

But I also won’t play coward and shy away from criticizing one gender for its tendencies.

And today, that gender is my own. For some reason, we enjoy war games. As liberal and as anti-war as I am, I have a lot of fun hunting my buddies out in the woods.

Some say a female president would be bad for the United States because a woman would not be tough enough to take necessary military action.

Ignoring the blatant sexism of the comment, perhaps it’s time to take the testosterone and adrenaline out of foreign policy. The 2008 presidential election is touted as the time a woman might just win the White House. It will be interesting to see what will happen when we get a commander-in-chief less prone to view war as one big war game.