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And now lets step back to who wrote this note. Previously I asserted my belief that it was a woman and asked that you accept that as true w/ no justification for the time being. Well here's justification.
I'm basing my assertion primarily on the phenomenon called the fundamental attribution error...which we're all more familiar with than you think. Stemming from Self serving bias, "the error" occurs when observing others. What happens is when we attempt to explain the behavior of others we almost invariably attribute their actions to intrinsic character traits, which, in the case of bad behavior, we see as character flaws. An easily imaginable scenario is when riding elevators. You might call an elevator from the second floor, board it when it comes and find yourself in another's company. When this person gets off on the next floor, the first natural thought is often that that person is lazy, having used an elevator to ascend one floor. When attempting to rationalize one's own actions, they are attributed to some external cause For example, when your elevator is halted on the 4th foor to pick up another passenger, and you disembark on the 5th floor, you won't consider yourself lazy for going up one floor on an elevator. You'll instead blame it on the fact that someone stopped your elevator one floor before our destination. In most cases, it will never cross your mind that the same might have occurred for the person you called lazy prior to your own incident.
Ok, getting to the relevance...the language in the original note attributed the supposed general behavior of all men to supposed internal character flaws of all men.
On further thought, I'd readily surmise that the writer was "wifey" or "thought" she was. Ciara brings up a good point, no woman in her right mind would relegate herself to being a bitch or a ho, unless she was self handicapping, but that's an entirely different direction to go in. Most every woman would consider herself "wifey material" for obvious reasons...self serving bias. Everyone's primary goal is self service and we would all clearly do anything to boost our own self-esteem and self concept. This is done less readily, but i don't think its entirely outrageous for any woman to consider herself a "boo," BUT, i do think that would only happen after time reveals to her her real place in a man's heart. Feeling like "wifey material" and then losing your other to another woman would cause a lot of cognitive dissonance, basically a discomfort caused by the need to rationalize the difference between what one thinks and what is. If this scenario were to occur to a woman, i believe she would readily explain what happened by deducing from th situation that she was i all actuality, a "boo," taking the title as a sort of "second place" or consolation prize.
For those reasons I'm not looking at this as the women putting themselves into categories, but I don't think its the men either. The men more or less, are just agreeing with what women say about each other.
As agreed (excuse the assumption, but i don't have reason to doubt it) no woman in her right mind would call herself a bitch...but what about that "bitch" tryna steal her man?
My hypothesis is this: naturally every woman reserves the high title for herself. at a low point, some might claim the second...but for the most part, the inclusion of the other three ranks are there to serve no other purpose than the being the infrastructure of a sort of caste system based on a woman's relationship with a man, to be used in primarily downward social comparison. The things that are most important in our societies become social criteria, and in this case, that's what a woman's relationship with a man is. Its analogous to your family's wealth, or where you live, etc. in American society. In american society: i got more money = i'm higher class. In this case: i'm more important to him = I'm higher class.
The lower ranks serve two purposes...two promote (one's self that is), and to discourage. Higher class "wifeys" will downwardly compare themselves to "ho's" to, again, boost their own self image. Parallel to that, they will also use the lower ranked labels to ostracize. We use ostracism to both punish deviant or unacceptable behavior in society, and to elicit the proper behavior and create conformity. "bitches, hos ,and boos" commit "crimes" within this little society and are accordingly punished. judgment depends on the intentions and relevance to the person judging, so its not exactly fair at all. For instance, one who thinks of herself as a "wifey" may only be a "boo" in a man's eye, as his actual "wifey" views the "boo" as a "ho" while the "boo" sees her the same way. and then there's all sorts of wierd situations that just make the whole system wrong...think of a scenario like "the one that got away." What if she comes back and the man she left once before still wants only her, but is in another relationship. does that make "the one who got away" a "ho?" there's too much ambiguity.
So do i think men created or dictated all this? I believe that they are 2000 years of strong social norms ans supporting stereotypes that do dictate/characterize a lot of the differences between, as well as behaviors and beliefs of men and women. I think that largest, most famous, inclusive, umbrella stereotypes are mostly created, perpetuated, and occasionally update by men, but i also believe that women play a more than critical part in the stereotype game as well. As i said before...everyone stereotypes, because it makes the world easier to deal with when we do. Women could be creating a complex web of sub stereotypes under those which they feel they can't escape...so that if they are to be thought of in a certain way for the majority of their lives, they can at least have their own system of control that allows them to accentuate and define all the more intricate details that the overly general stereotypes of men don't cover. Thus creating a somewhat false sense of individuality and distance from the norm. That is to assume, of course, that the stereotyping is one way. Women have been in control of some stereotypes about men as well. It's just that in a patriarchal society, the female opinion/belief is often (unfortunately, and please know this is not my belief) of little consequence. I've got a lot of theory on that, but that is yet another road to travel and this is long enough already.
Peace, be easy.
©Brandon Baker, 2010
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