Battle of the Sexes: males 1, females 0, children 0

kw: opinion, sociology, parental responsibility

Yesterday (Monday, 5/8/2006), on the Michael Smerconish show on WPHT 1210 in Philadelphia, some new laws were debated. Recently Florida, following 16 other States, introduced a law absolving men from child support for children who are not their biological offspring.

Michael debated in favor of the law and his guest, a woman whose name I can't recall, debated in favor of current law, that a man is responsible for a child he has been raising, regardless who is the biological father.

I won't get into the debate. Rather, I noted that the debate was a perfect sociological vignette: for women, the welfare of a child trumps everything, while for a man, personal interest is paramount.

If people were lions, there would be no stepfathers: the female's new mate would eat, kill, or drive off her existing offspring. When a new lion cub is born, the male can tell by smelling if it is his, and if it isn't he eats it. Other species exhibit similar behavior.

Humans are social animals. Thus, it is (usually) safe for a new mother to hand her infant around in a group, to be cooed and admired by each in turn. It is also (usually) safe for a single mother to marry.

Why the "usually"? Some men are more like lions than others...so are some women. The "fairy tales" of evil stepparents are based on grim reality. Grim but, fortunately, rather rare.