Moron Creativity May 19, 2013

Posted by FCM in books! Tags: anne llewellyn barstow

we have discussed creativity before here. this post is more on that subject, and its also about men. get it? moron. i always assume people get that, but maybe its just me. sometimes i just make myself laugh and thats good enough, but as vonnegut once wrote, maybe people would like art more if the artist explained it a little?

i am currently reading about the witchcraze and one thing ive noticed, indeed its rather difficult not to, is that men were very creative in the ways they treated witches. more to the point, they were creative torturers. men came up with shit that would blow your mind if you only knew about it, and it *is* mindblowing to read about this stuff. its mindblowing in the same way as reading the work and ideas of any creative genius is mindblowing as a matter of fact. its shit you could never come up with yourself in a thousand years. of course, the destructiveness of mens torture, when coupled with the creativity of it creates a mindfuck experience as well. we have no words for this, as “create” and “destroy” are supposed to be opposites. but they arent. not for men anyway.

you see, i think its very obvious by now that men are creative torturers and creative destroyers. in light of recent conversations about the innateness of mens destructiveness and violence, the idea of creativity hits the right note. a good thing, too, because im getting sick of going around and around on this one. because all of us, i think, are quite aware that some people are just naturally gifted in certain areas, and that this giftedness cannot be taught. although we do not fully understand where natural giftedness comes from, we accept and admit that it is real. we are perfectly comfortable saying people are naturally gifted in certain areas, music, sculpting, cooking, that kind of thing. arent we? naturally. gifted.

welp. men, as history and experience shows, are gifted at torture. they really are. and torture is violence taken to an artform, its violence imagined, designed and implemented with creativity. isnt it? if we are going to use other artforms or abilities as analogies, we could say that a naturally gifted person (like a painter or an athlete) can be coached or inspired, and that the gift can be developed and helped along. but what we know we cant do is teach it. okay? creativity, and true creative talent, cannot be taught. it is innate, and we fucking well know this.

and as men are creative in the area of violence, otherwise known as torture, we can see that men are in fact naturally violent. i think this is indisputable, and again, that the proof of innateness is that they are able to be creative about it. they are gifted. and the existence and pervasiveness of torture, perpetrated by men, globally, across time is absolute proof of this natural propensity and that men share this innate tendency because they are men.

now. this does open up areas for discussion, and even hope. because just as we know that creativity can be nurtured, we also know it can be stunted. we can take away opportunities instead of providing them. leisure time, money, and an understanding of what is possible based on what other people have done in the field, for example, are used to increase and encourage creative pursuits, and withholding these things can be used to stunt them. we have lost many geniuses and natural creative talents this way in fact, and i daresay most of these lost geniuses were women due to womens general lack of all conditions and materials known to foster and nurture creativity. we do this to female talent all the time. and we have evidence, dont we, that creative talent can be stifled, if not snuffed out completely.

and now that ive thought this through a bit, i can see mens propensity for creative torture, including their torture devices everywhere. its not just the political torturers and witchhunters, although they might be extreme — that is, different in degree but not kind. womens clothing and shoes for example — known torture devices. “restraining orders” that are naught but a piece of flimsy paper, creating a mindfuck. get it? and humiliation. tampons and “pads that feel like diapers.” as mundane as this kind of torture is, it is still creative.

of course, i could go on and on. we all could because we all know. ex-husbands paying child support late every month, in order to make women squirm. by “sexualizing” intercourse, the only thing *in life* that creates unwanted pregnancy. that kind of thing. and in general by turning womens bodies against them in the many ways men do. indeed, the “body being turned against the agent whose body it is” is the whole point of torture and this is accomplished through both pain and fear (in male terms). of course, male bodies cant be literally hijacked, but ours can — through unwanted or forced pregnancy. if anyone needs examples of the creative ways men torture other men, just google. trigger warning for extreme and graphic (and creative!) male violence.

but what im also thinking is not whether but how and how soon we can stunt mens natural propensity for violence? if we cant do this, or if we dont want to, at least we know that it is possible. and understanding and accepting, knowing, that men choose to nurture their gift for creative torture and violence instead of stunting it, when we all know they could, is evidence of something too. oh yes it is. maybe, maybe just talking about this will help.