Sense & Gender

by Guido

Back in our benighted past, when males believed they were the only ones capable of making sense of things, it was determined that we have five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. You could argue the small-mindedness of that conclusion---what about hunch?---precognition?---but hardly anyone did. Next, men decided that, of their five senses, sight and sound were premier, in that they so thoroughly involved the intellect, and thusly sight and sound were designated the manly senses. Smell, taste and touch were all about the body, the physical, lesser attributes than intellect, and they were of course then associated with the feminine.

This goofiness corroborated the very manly philosophy, Cartesianism, which held that truth is perceived strictly by way of the mind, and everything you sense physically is illusion. The clown quotient is over the top, no lie, but the gag held up for awhile in the 17th century, and the guy it’s associated with, Rene Descartes, is known as the Father of Modern Philosophy.

Remember “Cogito, ergo sum”? I think, therefore I am. There: right there is Rene’s great gift to modern and postmodern philosophy.

This week on KAXE 91.7 we’re proposing and proving---daily, hourly---that you need all your senses working all the time to fully appreciate all the things that membership in Northern Community Radio means for you, and manliness means whatever you want it to mean---same as it ever was.

Come to your senses. Yours is ours. We sense, we pledge, therefore we are.