Easy Targets

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It's fun to throw rocks at people. It's even more fun when they can't throw rocks back at you.

The picture is a comic that's been making the Facebook rounds recently. It's one of several that is used to make the point that women are far tougher than men; that men will take to their beds and demand service at the slightest sign of the sniffles, while a woman will still be shopping, cooking for the family, and walking the dog while wearing a full-body cast.

Maybe that's true; childbirth, after all, is supposed to be the most painful thing a human being can experience, and it's reserved for women - some of whom endure it without drugs, for their babies' sake.

And certainly women have been treated poorly by our male-dominated society. For centuries they were little better than chattel, and even today no one will seriously debate the continued existence of the glass ceiling.

Unfortunately, Christianity has been used to enforce this arrangement; Paul said that women should be sure to dress modestly and not speak in church. A lot of preachers have tried to weasel out of those words, and re-interpret them. But they're there. Some other religions are much worse; some, like Buddhism, are rather better, in this regard.

So maybe there is a right to throw rocks, using comics like this one. But what makes this case a bit singular is the use of breast cancer as the defining condition for the woman. It's a woman's disease, and to say, "Hey, that's really not fair" puts one in the position of being unsympathetic to those who suffer from the disease.

So...I guess I'll go back out tomorrow, keep working, and make sure you don't see the blood I've been vomiting, from the illness that's tearing through my guts. After all, I'm only a guy.