"In fact, the socialization gives us the tools to fill our evolutionary roles. They are our building blocks"
About this Quote
Farrell’s line tries to flip a familiar nature-versus-nurture argument into a kind of détente: stop treating “socialization” as mere oppression or artificial gloss, and start seeing it as the mechanism that equips people to live out what evolution allegedly prepared them to do. The phrasing is doing quiet ideological work. “In fact” signals correction, as if the audience has been misled by a softer, blank-slate story. “Tools” and “building blocks” frame culture as a practical kit, not a cage - a metaphor that makes norms sound neutral, even benevolent, like a set of helpful instructions rather than a contested hierarchy.
The subtext is sharper: if evolutionary “roles” exist, then some modern frustrations around gender, work, family, and power are not simply the result of bad policy or unfairness, but of misalignment between biology and contemporary expectations. That’s a persuasive move because it offers explanatory relief: confusion becomes coherence, conflict becomes design. It also smuggles in a boundary on reform. If socialization’s job is to “fill” pre-set roles, then the project isn’t to reinvent the roles but to socialize more effectively or more realistically.
Context matters because Farrell’s public footprint sits in the long wake of second-wave feminism and the backlash/response cycle around gender politics. He often argues that men, too, are shaped by expectation and sacrifice. This sentence compresses that view into a technocratic-sounding claim: culture isn’t just teaching; it’s provisioning. The risk is that the metaphor launders coercion - what feels like “tools” to one person can be “training” to another, especially when the roles being filled carry unequal costs and rewards.
The subtext is sharper: if evolutionary “roles” exist, then some modern frustrations around gender, work, family, and power are not simply the result of bad policy or unfairness, but of misalignment between biology and contemporary expectations. That’s a persuasive move because it offers explanatory relief: confusion becomes coherence, conflict becomes design. It also smuggles in a boundary on reform. If socialization’s job is to “fill” pre-set roles, then the project isn’t to reinvent the roles but to socialize more effectively or more realistically.
Context matters because Farrell’s public footprint sits in the long wake of second-wave feminism and the backlash/response cycle around gender politics. He often argues that men, too, are shaped by expectation and sacrifice. This sentence compresses that view into a technocratic-sounding claim: culture isn’t just teaching; it’s provisioning. The risk is that the metaphor launders coercion - what feels like “tools” to one person can be “training” to another, especially when the roles being filled carry unequal costs and rewards.
Quote Details
| Topic | Deep |
|---|
More Quotes by Warren
Add to List
