By : Misunderstanding of anisogamy and anti-men bigotry in evolutionary psychology support the devaluation of men’s lives relative to women’s lives. The psychology of devaluing men’s lives doesn’t depend on failures in modern evolutionary thought. The medieval evolutionary analysis also devalued men.
Consider a widely disseminated medieval story of a king and his wife. They discovered under the wall of their castle two snakes, one female and one male. The king interrogated his wise men about the significance of those snakes. The wise men declared that if the male snake were killed, a man would die. If the female snake were killed, a woman would die. The king then displayed his false consciousness about men’s subordinate class status:
Consider a widely disseminated medieval story of a king and his wife. They discovered under the wall of their castle two snakes, one female and one male. The king interrogated his wise men about the significance of those snakes. The wise men declared that if the male snake were killed, a man would die. If the female snake were killed, a woman would die. The king then displayed his false consciousness about men’s subordinate class status:“If this is so,” said the king, “kill the male snake, and let the female snake live. A man ought to be more willing to die himself than to permit the death of his wife.” He gave the reason for this: “If my wife lives, she may bring forth many sons who may succeed to my throne. But if she should die, the kingdom would lack an heir.”That’s faulty reasoning. If the king died, a new ruler would be promptly selected. That wouldn’t necessarily be the king’s widow.
