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{"id":412,"date":"2014-06-25T20:56:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T20:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/06\/big-cats-and-human-relationships-updated.html"},"modified":"2014-06-25T20:56:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T20:56:00","slug":"big-cats-and-human-relationships-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/06\/big-cats-and-human-relationships-updated.html","title":{"rendered":"Big Cats, and human relationships (updated)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The same storyline repeats itself regardless of species (except for lions): the hapless female stuggles to feed her cubs single-handedly, while a predatory male lurks in the background, at best useless, at worst, a danger to the cubs. Somewhere early in the program, one of the cubs dies, maybe eaten by hyenas, but by the end, after much struggle, the cubs usually make it to adulthood, thanks to the endless search for food by their dedicated mother. <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you, sometimes, in your more pessimistic moods, wonder if that\u2019s where human relationships are headed? A mother and children as the family unit, and the male as a lone individual? Of course, the mortality rate in the Big Cat world is hardly something we\u2019d tolerate (your kid died because you couldn\u2019t feed it? Too bad, but no big deal, since you\u2019ve still got another one.) but we solve that with food stamps and other welfare benefits at this point anyway. <\/p>\n

It makes you wonder, though \u2014 has there been any society which organizes itself this way, in which the father is not<\/i> expected to be responsible for his children? <\/p>\n

In any case, the \u201ca woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle\u201d line was, I had always assumed, meant to read \u201ca man and children,\u201d but we\u2019re now moving to a significant minority, or even a majority, of people, or pundits and Powers That Be, endorsing the Big Cat model of families, with or without the Big Cat dads paying child support, but with no regard to the ultimate path in life of those Big Cat dads. <\/p>\n

Update:<\/p>\n

Slate\u2019s Double XX blog is promoting Big Cat families in a piece titled, \u201d Poor Women Don\u2019t Need More Marriage.\u00a0 They Need More [free] Child Care<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Not sure if this is really the author\u2019s intention, or if it\u2019s just clickbait (and it hooked me, so I guess it worked \u2014 but the joke\u2019s on you, Slate \u2014 I didn\u2019t read any of your ads).\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Update again: \u00a0I\u2019m resurrecting this because there are new pieces out about this topic: \u00a0 Megan McArdle<\/a>, on a new study on millenials, and theothermccain.com<\/a>, linking to a talk on the underclass in England, where fathers have pretty well vanished. \u00a0The \u201cdefenders\u201d of single moms lament that the men in their lives aren\u2019t marriageable because they\u2019re poor \u2014 but generations of poor people before them have managed to get married, and to do the best they can despite their poverty.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"