    18

    The result?  We send our men to war, but keep women safe at

    home.  When ships are sinking, it's women and children to the life

    boats first.  Let the men founder in the sea.  You need each precious

    woman-- she's a vessel for procreation.

    An Arab poem of Mohammed's day--1,400 years ago--is a

    testament to the indispensability of women.  In it, a man is on the road

    with the ladies of the tribe when a raiding party from a nearby village

    descends on them. The man's duty is to risk his life to save the girls. He

    fights with the raiders for as long as he can, giving the women an

    opportunity to get away from the site of the raid and as close as

    possible to their own tents, where other men will protect them. In his

    fight, the hero sustains a spear wound in the side.  He rides to the top

    of the hill, blocking the path between the raiders and the fleeing

    women.  Knowing that his life is about to end, he jabs his spear into the

    ground, wedges its butt under his armpit and leans against the shaft,

    propping himself up on his camel's back. The enemy raiders, seeing the

    figure on the top of the hill astride a camel and knowing how fiercely

    he has fought, are afraid to attack. The sun is at the hero's back. The

    raiders cannot discern his eyes.  But they warily watch his silhouette.

    Finally noticing how little he moves, the marauders come to a strange

    realization. The hero is dead.  They have been cowed by a corpse.22

    Like men all over the world, the Arab hero knew the old maxim:

    nobility consists in sacrificing oneself for the ladies. The male is

    expendable, the female is not.

    Just how disposable males are becomes obvious in the light of

    statistics revealed by anthropologists William Divale and Marvin

    Harris in 1976.  The pair scrutinized data from 561 primitive social

    groups.  They found that societies constantly engaged in war are very

    selective about the babies they allow to live.  They want boys--male

    children who can grow up to be warriors.  So they weed out the female

    infants, killing them outright or undernourishing and overworking

    them.  The result: they end up with 128 male children for every 100

    females.  So far, it sounds like the males have made out quite well.  But

    when the "treasured" young boys pass the age of fifteen, their fate

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