The column this week actually came out well. I figured it was time to introduce a classic bully’s taunt into these fast paced cyber-times.

Here’s an excerpt:

Given that we don’t believe in equality here at Social Matter, it’s easy for us to know where we stand. But what of the hoped-for allies to whom she is speaking?

There used to be an insult which boys used to use against one another — ‘momma’s boy’ — to taunt a kid thought to be weak, coddled, and dominated by his mother. In more contemporary times, we call men dominated by their wives ‘whipped.’ Why do men feel this almost instinctual need to heap shame their fellows for deferring to women? Is this just cruelty for the sake of it, or is there some moral purpose behind the taunts?

There are some clues in history as to why it’s useful for men to toughen themselves up. For one, war, crime, famine, economic depression, tyranny, and disorder are ever-present, cyclically recurring problems. The only way to return chaos to order is through the use of power. And men are the more powerful, emotionally resilient, and physically strong sex, regardless of all the technological fantasies that people might have about gap-closing.

Male allies make their weakness, their willingness to be dominated, their eagerness to defer, into a sign of holiness. Their weakness stops being a source of shame to them, and becomes a source of glowing pride.