The Negotiation: Part 5

c/o smilingmom.com

Part 5: EXAMPLE: PRO FOOTBALL

Are things making a little more sense now? Can we all see why it is that women are so upset over 'male privilege' and the issues this brings to their own interests? In order to get and achieve what they want, women have little choice but to submit to men and our desires. They can’t do it on their own and feminism was the means for them to attempt to bargain for more, raising the bar so they could level the playing field as far as the negotiation is concerned. Once more, this is the reason why Average Joe may not have institutional power per se, but he still commands quite a bit of leverage over Average Jane.

 I liken women’s situation to being a football player in the NFL. Aspiring pros have to start hard training relatively early so a good college can notice them. Once there, they receive even better training from the college in order to increase the odds that they win games. This works to our pro’s benefit because better training assists them in improved performance so an established football club can notice them. If they are lucky enough to generate interest from some ball clubs, they grab an experienced agent who has to haggle like hell in order to finance the rest of their lives. They know full well that their playing days are far shorter than most 'normal' careers (the average pro career is 6 years) even though they are paid much more than the average wage slave.

Remember, they have to be strategic; they have to leverage their skills while they possess something the NFL values. More importantly, the more successful their on field output, the more they can therefore ask from the League.

They can't ask for too much however, because doing so may sour the team against signing them. This is the reality; there will always be other football players willing to take their place. In fact, consider the pressure on any starter in the game. All they need do is look to the bench and they will see many hungry eyes chomping at the bit to replace them if given half the chance. Injury, dismal performance, a downward spiral of attitude can and will eventually mean you and these 'youngry' players will switch seats. Does anyone need to state that NO athlete EVER wants to be on the bench?

chompin' at the bit to get your starting position c/o ESPN.com

Additionally, the NFL has given teams the rights to release players at their discretion, so you toe the line and play nice, or face an uncertain future outside of the NFL. There are many players that the League can choose from and more every single year, but there is only one NFL for players to choose. Unless you play for the CFL that is, however you will receive one-tenth the pay there. It hurts for me to say since I'm Canadian, but the CFL is made up of players who couldn't make the NFL.

The bottom line; the league makes the rules, they say jump, you say how high. They say you will be paid this much and then they go about their business and you then bust your @$$ to improve your value IN THEIR EYES so you have some leverage to ask for more money. This is their show, you just live in it, and they have so many other potential players to choose from that they can call the shots without giving a rip about you or your interests. Get your nose out of joint too much and it curtains for you my boy. Then there are other situations one has to worry about. As you age, the body will get to a point where it simply can’t do what it used to. At this time you will see younger players vying for your spot on the roster. What can you do, you can’t travel back in time, all you can do is adapt and continue to perform to the best of your ability, while you still have something the league or the team finds valuable.

I’m sure it can be a little scary from time to time, you can be released from a team even if you’re still performing, but simply too old. Just ask Marvin Harrison of the Indianapolis Colts.

Then, after a few more years, you will get to a point where you simply can’t ‘do it’ anymore. You will hang up your pads and start life somewhere else. Maybe you’ve invested your earnings, maybe you’re headed to the broadcast booth, but the bottom line is that your days on the gridiron are over whether you wish them to be or not. Even if your heart is still in it, your body isn’t and therefore, the one thing you could leverage to the League is now gone. It’s at this time where your past decisions now become very crucial and living for the future instead of the moment, has either made you, or it will break you.

Lots of pressure wouldn't you agree? While the money may be phenomenal, would that pressure to perform be worth it? How many men reading this are glad they never have to face such pressures? Joining the NFL is a choice some men are able to make, but it’s still a choice they have available to them. Men can have very successful and satisfying lives outside of the pressure cooker which is the NFL or other pro sports, to this we all agree. This is the situation; women face those very same pressures just by being born female and they have no choice in the matter. That's why women are so p!ssed off at men and one reason why the constantly speak of their lack of power and choice. It isn't men per se, but the lack of leverage women have with men in terms of 'the negotiation' and having to supplicate to men, as they have no other alternative. Due to our unique characteristics, we set the rules, whether we realize it or not, and women have to follow them, which is why they get their backs up so much at telling them to ‘make me a sammich’. To us it’s just a joke, to them it’s a threat, a reference to how the world really works despite all their beliefs otherwise. 

Consider some of these Feminist quotes for a second;

"You grow up with your father holding you down and covering your mouth so another man can make a horrible searing pain between your legs."
-- Catherine MacKinnon 

"I was, in reality, bred by my parents as my father's concubine... What we take for granted as the stability of family life may well depend on the sexual slavery of our children. What's more, this is a cynical arrangement our institutions have colluded to conceal.".
-- Sylvia Fraser

Catharine MacKinnon ( ) maintains that "the private is a sphere of battery, marital rape and women's exploited labor." In this way, privacy and family are reduced to nothing more than aspects of the master plan, which is male domination. Democratic freedoms and the need to keep the state's nose out of our personal affairs are rendered meaningless. The real reason our society cherishes privacy is because men have invented it as an excuse to conceal their criminality. If people still insist that the traditional family is about love and mutual aid--ideals which, admittedly, are sometimes betrayed--they're "hiding from the truth." The family isn't a place where battery and marital rape sometimes happen but where little else apparently does. Sick men don't simply molest their daughters, they operate in league with their wives to "breed" them for that purpose.
-- Donna Laframboise;

"Men's sexuality is mean and violent, and men so powerful that they can 'reach WITHIN women to ****/construct us from the inside out.' Satan-like, men possess women, making their wicked fantasies and desires women's own. A woman who has sex with a man, therefore, does so against her will, 'even if she does not feel forced.'
-- Judith Levine

If you look past the unadulterated malice (very hard to do), you will see that these quotes come from the frustration that women have little choice but to conform. Folks, let me repeat this so we can all try to understand this situation; it isn't as if women don't by and large wish to be wives and mothers, it's the fact that on top of this desire, they have little choice BUT to become wives and mothers if they want a 'successful life' here on Earth. Men have to be lead and convinced to be fathers and to contribute to society because we can live without doing so, Women have no such option. Of course all efforts they make to relinquish themselves of patriarchy only stymies their interests further and muddies the waters.

Consider career women for a second. Does a woman having a career and therefore financial independence solve their issues with men and inequality? Does it bolster their position in the negotiation? Of course not, to a man, a career women is like Tom Brady thinking ballroom dancing skills will add to his value to the New England Patriots. So this places yet another negative side effect to Feminism, the more they seek independence from men, they more they distance themselves from what they really want from and can attain from men.

Women seek autonomy, and power, they seek to have their own identity besides that of being just “Mommy” or “Wife.” Which I have no issue with to be honest so long as it's understood that there is a cost to making a choice in this manner. However, this can come at a very high price when these same women seek partnership with a man and family. An independent career woman often can become a lonely career woman with nothing to show for it except professional accolades. Just like the football player who wishes to get back into the game far too late, women can and do experience this sort of buyer’s remorse once the curtain has shut on their dreams of family and companionship. I say this not as a cruel statement, but as a question to any woman considering only a career. Men look at other men as tools to be used; in other words, we are viewed by our usefulness in a professional setting. Is that what you’d like to be looked at from other men while in your twilight years? Simply a useful tool to be used professionally and that’s it? Equality would mean that you will be looked at and judged by the caliber of your performance, but nothing else. Men won't look at you in any sort of romantic manner only because you're a kick @$$ performer while on the job.

Think about that for a while, I urge you.

Just like a top football player who is lauded and sought after in their prime, many potential suitors pursue women. Just like they ride off into the sunset, a memory of their past selves as the younger players take the mantle, women too look at their younger counterparts and reminisce when men used to court and pursue them. Once those days are done, they are gone forever, and if you didn’t play your cards well during your prime, you could be left with some very large regrets…jus sayin. 

(EDIT; I hope these posts somewhat illuminate the issues women face and possibly answer why it is they seemed so upset with Men. The biggest thing to also remember (and this message goes out to women) is that hating men isn't going to solve this issue whatsoever, it's only going to make things worse for everyone involved. Just like you had no choice in whichever gender you where born as, us men didn't have a choice either and we have our own burden's to carry. Attempting to goad us into changing things that are beyond our control is simply p!ssing into the wind and making us BOTH miserable.)

Omnipitron