Random Male Hite Report #6
Yo, yo, yo! My latest Random Hite Reports have been of the female variety, and I know you've missed reading about the male side, right? Well, wait no longer. Here is another Random Male Hite Report. I would normally tell you that I randomly flip to 1 page and transcribe it directly, no more no less, onto this post. However, that's not exactly true this time. The many Hite Reports that I found on Amazon for like 10 cents a piece (although I've given away all but 1 now) and the 1 treasured Hite Report on Male Sexuality that I have are all suffering from the same affliction. They just break apart at the spine. So one book becomes many, and I have to settle for just stacking the partial book pieces in the correct order. So, what I did this time was just take one of the book pieces and use the last page, so here it is.
Alfred A. Knoff. NY. 1981
Yet other men felt that the women's movement and the critique of society which it poses had improved their relationships:
"Women's liberation is a good thing. It has opened women's and men's eyes to the fact that basic rights and needs apply to all people, and that self-sufficiency and self-love must exist before people can hope to find security and completion in a relationship. I think that humanity and relationships will benefit from the women's liberation movement-mine certainly have. I think my wife and I have gained a new respect for each other. This was a direct result of my understanding how my expecting her to still be responsible for all the household upkeep, entertaining, etc., in addition to a full time job, was unfair. Since, I have been taking as much responsibility for it myself-and it's hard. I have never done it in my life before-she seems to have opened up to me more, to like me more, and we have more fun together! We're more of a team now than we were before."
"I like feminist women. Feminism is non-sexism to me, it frees me from being forced into the role of rough and tough , provider, insensitive male. I went with a feminist for a while, and we worked through (translation: fought through) a lot of this. I have noticed that my relationship with other women since then have been more relaxed, I don't assume what they want, I ask, and they in turn respond with a greater degree of openness and spontaneity than I used to notice. It's a question of seeing women as equal human beings, not as inferior, or out to get me."
"Women's lib-great. My wife is more independent and more aggressive-more fun to be with."
"It has given me more opportunities to relate positively in a nonsexual way to women."
My relationship with my wife and family has definitely improved. Basically I was trained to 'take care of'a family, to be head of a family, and to provide for my wife and children's physical needs. Now I am working at learning how to care for others, to show my caring in small ways, to listen to them, and to share myself with them. I still think it's important for me to support them, but I certainly would listen if my wife wanted to talk about working too, or how she felt about my earning all the money. Funny, but before the last few years, we had never discussed it. I think we will probably discuss it some more, though-maybe we haven't talked about it enough. I have found it hard to believe that small things I do could matter as much to my wife as my supporting her and our home. It makes me feel more human. More loved."
"Since I first became aware of women's liberation, a few years ago, I have been consciously, forcefully, amending the way I think and feel, trying to unlearn the subtle and not so subtle sexism of my childhood (and adulthood!), and trying to treat women as people. It all started one day in my office. I am the supervisor of the duplicating machine floor of a large corporation. Most of the people who come to use the machines are women-secretaries, etc. I always thought of them as the 'enemy' somehow, the ones who broke the machines, ran them wrong, and made me seem inadequate in maintaining the equipment (since they were always breaking it). Of course, those machines just break any-....