Before I begin, I must warn you that this content is for adults and may cause extreme negative emotions, as well as some trigger reactions. Reader discretion is advised.
Women these days often lament the issues associated with being single and unable to find a partner who can be a true human companion. Married women or those supposedly in a committed relationship also offer up commentary about how their significant others misbehave. We, as women, are having a tough time in this age of what we call enlightenment.
In my lifetime, I have seen men degenerate from treating us like we deserve equality and respect to acting as if we’re despicable lower life forms. I could go on to write a full-blown rant about how the relationship dynamic has changed in a few decades, but I want to focus on one thing: the “O” word.
That peak of pleasure sought after by any living creature with a hint of hormonal activity in their bodies is, in my opinion, undervalued as a commodity. Male creatures with antlers (such as rutting moose in mating season) have died entangled while jousting over who gets the females. Male praying mantises will seek out a female and lose their head for that opportunity. Really, she will bite his head off and remain conjoined with the corpse afterward, and the males don’t care; instinct overcomes all common sense.
Of course, we are humankind and should know better.
I could go the easy route and say that one second of bliss for us humans can set you back over a third of a million dollars; the average cost to raise a child to age 18 is about $375,000 (US), so if sperm are anywhere in the vicinity of their pre-programmed target ovum, that’s the expense you’re talking about for the next two decades. The quest for sexual pleasure has brought down kingdoms, divided nations, and ruined countless lives. All for a few seconds of existential nirvana.
This past week I was subjected to a social media post from somebody I greatly admire for being a decent man; his name is Robbie Harvey. He has a wife whom he stood by and gave loving support during a cancer battle. He talks about human decency and values, and isn’t afraid to call his fellow men out for being anything from simple jerks to totally inhumane monsters. When a recent article he posted came into my feed, I was just as shocked as he was to watch it (link is at the end of this post).
I will give you my best slightly enhanced TLDR (too long didn’t read) version.
A woman delivered a baby by Caesarian section. This is the surgical birth of a baby through the abdominal wall, meaning a doctor cuts through the belly’s many layers and opens the womb to free the infant inside instead of being forced through the birth canal. This is major surgery. Women are expected to recover over many weeks while their abdomen heals. There are still baby activities (feeding, changing) needing to be done while handling breast milk, post-partum depression and all that comes with it, and post surgery comes with the specific warning of no intimacy for the duration of recovery time.
This woman’s husband wasn’t having it. He “had needs.” She felt compelled by him to disobey the doctor’s orders, and she gave in to her spouse’s demands for sex. She ended up returning to the hospital and having additional emergency surgery, and she want into cardiac arrest during the procedure to repair her ripped-up surgical scars, which were likely pounded open by her husband’s quest for that one second of release.
So the “big O” can also nearly cost human life, and one can only guess how much that husband cared.
What have men in these times done to deserve us? What have we done to deserve treatment like this? The man had needs? What about the woman’s needs? I had several viscerally unprintable thoughts about how to nail the point home with that Neanderthal of a husband.
I don’t blame Robbie Harvey for posting the story, because it brings to light some of the terrible mindsets men have these days. He has done compilations of awful things men have said to women about their looks, or after miscarriage, and brought attention to the cringe-worthy fringe men of our society who don’t seem to have a clue about how to be human. The videos are thought-provoking and worth attention. However, this one haunted me all week. What kind of person is so desperate for that one moment of what amounts to a sexual sneeze, that he would put the life of his child’s mother at risk?
What we don’t know is whether she has left him. For all the difficulties of single parenthood, I would hope that would be the better choice for her than dealing with that buffoon.
Yes, it makes me glad I’m single.
https://www.facebook.com/therobbieharvey/videos/1453233082523841
