Feminist: "if it was not you it was your father;" Do you know?

Question

The Wolf and the Lamb

Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. "There's my supper," thought he, "if only I can find some excuse to seize it." Then he called out to the Lamb, "How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?"

"Nay, master, nay," said Lambikin; "if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me."

"Well, then," said the Wolf, "why did you call me bad names this time last year?"

"That cannot be," said the Lamb; "I am only six months old."

"I don't care," snarled the Wolf; "if it was not you it was your father;" and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and .WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA .ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out ."Any excuse will serve a tyrant."

Feminists is it the men or thier father? why not their mother?

Answer 1

And why is the wolf male and the lamb female? There are two genders for both those animals.

OK, it was a parable to stress who tyrants justify their actions, but why like that? Why not 'your ancestor' or 'your predecessor'? And why reveal the genders of the animals here? Wouldn't my suggestions be more politically correct?

Why not alter this along with everything else altered by feminists to suit political correctness?

Answer 2

"The unconscious tendency or likelihood of making our want the same as universal justice is the ugliest adjunct of the heart of man."

Aesop was a slave in Greece about 600 B.C.E. and he opposed the Master /Slave paradigm.  This fable is considered by many scholars of human rights history to be one of the earliest recorded steps we took into crystalized beliefs of humanism and demands for a justice system that protects the inalienable rights of all people.  It was written at about the same time as the Cylinder of Cyrus, which is considered to be the first human rights "charters".  Those times were the dawn of humanism and this fable is revered for that reason.

In 1949, Jean de La Fontaine wrote this same fable as a poem following the tyranny of WWII.  Both Aesop's fable and this famous poetic rendition Jean de La Fontaine's "The Wolf and the Lamb" capture that moment in human existence in which we choose injustice, choose to consume, enslave, exploit, plunder others and take what we Want.  Here is a note in that regard:

"Jean de La Fontaine's The Wolf and the Lamb is one of the cruellest instances of literature. The poem or fable is doubly cruel, for while it tells of an unjust occurrence, it also intimates that there is a way or trend in the human mind undeviatingly unkind. La Fontaine tells us that between having one's way and being just, having one's way is more powerful. It has been so, ever so many times. The most dangerous and ugly possibility inherent in the individual as individual is that the desire to have one's way seems strong, while justice seems flat and interrupting. The wolf wants the lamb and the want itself is justice. This is the way we are. If a want increases, just because it does, the want may seem the more just, well placed, accurate, right. The unconscious tendency or likelihood of making our want the same as universal justice is the ugliest adjunct of the heart of man. It is so easy to find an inclination interesting and necessary; and it is so hard to see and care for what is proportionate, equitable, ethical—it is no wonder persons are angry with others and can see themselves with confusion, dimness, scorn, uneasiness, loathing, displeasure. Our desire may seem so powerful, beckoning; and later so unhandsome. Were the life of La Fontaine's wolf pursued in a novel, with the wolf, of course, endowed with the self-objecting-to system man has, we should see the wolf undergoing the doubts of a Julien Sorel or a Raskolnikov. We have the tendencies of the wolf of the fable, but also the uncertainty this particular wolf has not been able to manifest, or permitted to manifest."

That last line is important, that we are not wolves in fables that lack our human conscience, our beautiful way we hesitate in our cruelty, grow somehow more balanced and stronger in consciousness and thus steadily rise through the generations above our weakness, ignorance, savagery and fear.    

Also, in patriarchal societies, the language favors males and use of male pronouns and such, framing a world view through language that hails from a male's mind and perspective, such as "fireman" instead of "firefighter".  Until about the 1960's, it was actually incorrect to use a general female pronoun, such as, "A swimmer must meet her dietary needs" would actually be graded down on a paper because the patriarchal "A swimmer must meet his dietary needs" was considered "correct" English.  

Back when Aesop presented this fable to the world, the word "mother" would have actually been used more than "father" as blind gender words but Aesop's fables weren't written down by him or in those times.  Other men later wrote them down and translated them through the years, changing blind gender words as the cultural genderization of their times and languages fluctuated, men like Socrates, Phaedrus, Maximus Planudes and then finally into English by William Caxton in the 15th century.  I'm into Aesop stuff.

Answer 3

Um, is the point of this parable not that those who are unjust and in power will use anything to rational their taking advantage of those weaker then themselves, and expect it to stick because might makes right?

I think my irony alarm just went off.

Answer 4

I am so tired of the blame game, aren't you? What would this world be like if everyone took responsibility for their own actions and stereotyping didn't exist?

Answer 5

i dont think feminists have problems with men, but rather men vs. women relations and places in society.

Answer 6

thats a very interesting ?

I think its because a woman wont usually insult a wolf but men are hasty i guess and would insult the wolf

again im just guessing

Answer 7

Wow... Guess this story could be used to attack many things. I have heard it as the reason that we are in the current war and now it aims its ugly head at feminism.

Answer 8

I'm underwhelmed.  

If you are with Freud, or the Bible it's always Eve's or mother's fault.  That's the traditional stand point and has been a favorite for as long as men have whined, "why me?"  How about recognizing that this may not ALWAYS be the case?  

Don't fall into the trap of always blaming women, even if this is a time honored tradition dating back to way before the witch hunts.  Maybe if you do this, women will decide to stop blaming you.  The trick is to see women as human beings.

Answer 9

Because it would only hurt thier case to paint woman as anything but the victims of men historicaly

To paint woman of the past as anything but innocent victims who hated and dispised the world because of the unbearable oppression of an unfair society would take validity away from achieving "equaility"