1. Smarts. Crappy futures definitely don’t reward the bold, beautiful and dumb. If you’re a girl and you want to survive, you better put your critical thinking cap on and leave the Cover Girl makeup at home. I figure that the smarter you are and less beautiful you are, the more likely you’ll survive when the shit hits the fan.
Joined: Apr 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 1,995 Karma: 43
Re: Surviving The Apocalypse When You're A Girl « Reply #1 on Jul 7, 2012, 12:14am »
Unfortunately, I think you're right about trying to hide any physical attractiveness. In a PA situation, physical beauty would be a magnet for all kinds of attention that you wouldn't want. Though the opposite of that might be true if a woman could attach herself to someone strong enough to protect her.
I know that sounds belittling to women, but when there are no laws or societal rules to restrain men, we're not much better than animals.
May the road gangs never meet you. May the wind be fallout-free. May the sun shine through the ashes, hot rain not fall on thee. And until we meet again, may no one hold your flesh in the palm of their hand.
I know that sounds belittling to women, but when there are no laws or societal rules to restrain men, we're not much better than animals.
I think you are being more than a little unfair on your fellow man here. I genuinely think that people are, on the whole, far more good than bad and that whilst its true that some men will act in a terrible way I like to think that for every one who does so then there will be many who would not.
Rapists need executing (and not just in a PA senario either) and the community which makes that happen is one which will attract a lot of ladies to come and be part of it. And thats what its all about. Making a place feel safe so that lots of big fat babies can be born and raised because that has to be the core raison d'etre behind it all.
Personally I think the case of capital punishment is far clearer in the case of rape than say murder because the former is just simply never acceptable in any way,shape or form where as with murder, well you have a whole range of emotions and so on.
Unfortunately, I think you're right about trying to hide any physical attractiveness. In a PA situation, physical beauty would be a magnet for all kinds of attention that you wouldn't want. Though the opposite of that might be true if a woman could attach herself to someone strong enough to protect her.
I know that sounds belittling to women, but when there are no laws or societal rules to restrain men, we're not much better than animals.
Strength in numbers is far superior to the brute strength of an individual man. What if you had a large group of women who had their own best interests front and center? And can't a man be a victim of rape? Especially if he's alone with no one watching his back? Take a look at what some men experience in prison...and that's a controlled environment.
Joined: Apr 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 1,883 Location: The Mojave Waste Karma: 23
Re: Surviving The Apocalypse When You're A Girl « Reply #4 on Jul 8, 2012, 4:55pm »
Just having a vagina and breasts will make you a target. When shit really hits the fan, people will quickly lose their false civilized skin. There may be some good men but they will be overwhelmed by those that aren't.
Re: Surviving The Apocalypse When You're A Girl « Reply #5 on Jul 9, 2012, 7:37pm »
Anyone without a strong social group to back them will be a target. There are no lone rangers in a post-apocalyptic world. Only those who belong to a strong social circle willing to have their back will survive. That's true for both men and women. It's not a matter of civilized vs. uncivilized. It's a matter of survival. Any group that abuses women will drive those women away and into the camps of other men. Women will only be attracted to and reproduce for men willing to provide and protect them and their offspring. This is especially true in times of chaos. In times of chaos men and women look out for themselves. Those men who fail to understand the importance of women in their continued survival won't exist for very long.
Anyone without a strong social group to back them will be a target. There are no lone rangers in a post-apocalyptic world. Only those who belong to a strong social circle willing to have their back will survive. That's true for both men and women. It's not a matter of civilized vs. uncivilized. It's a matter of survival. Any group that abuses women will drive those women away and into the camps of other men. Women will only be attracted to and reproduce for men willing to provide and protect them and their offspring. This is especially true in times of chaos. In times of chaos men and women look out for themselves. Those men who fail to understand the importance of women in their continued survival won't exist for very long.
Amen to that. Sadly in the genre there are a lot of people out there who seem to think that survival is all about isolating yourself and being able to shoot somebody in the head from 250 metres away rather than making sure you have the hot water back and running and perhaps a chance for the ladies to enjoy a dance or two.
But, and here is a question for a female POV, how would you react to a community that provided you with all the security that you wanted but expected you to have children for as long as you could ? And perhaps even took steps to forbid the use of birth control and abortion and so on ? That there had to be a pay-off from you in return for protection ? I am not talking in a sinister baby-farming sort of thing but just a general community focus on making sure the birth rate was high ?
Re: Surviving The Apocalypse When You're A Girl « Reply #7 on Jul 15, 2012, 2:48pm »
It is certainly an interesting discussion point and different women will react in different ways. I do think there will be a lot of women who would allow themselves to be abused, thinking they are being protected by domineering men - you only have to look at the statistics of women who stay in abusive relationships to know that it isn't always the case that women will run from or fight abuse. Also, it is a horrible thing to mention but there will be a lot of orphaned children in the PA world, and we all know what kind of lives young people on the street live, forced into prostitution because their body is the only thing they have (this goes for boys and girls!)
I agree with all the other points that the key for not just surviving but surviving with your own freedoms will revolve around being in a supportive group and that would be the sensible thing to do - and this ties into the social skills/ smarts that the blog post lists.
I think the useful skills can include working ovaries though. And to answer Matov's question, for me it would depend entirely on the group I was with and my outlook for the future. If I really felt the human race had no chance I would not want to bring children into it. If I felt that the threat was gone (eg a disease that had run its course) then I would be more open to it. Also if I felt that I was more useful as a working member of society than as a mother (a possibly dead mother considering how high the death rate would be without modern medicine during difficult births) then I would refuse.
The other thing a girl would need during the apocalypse is a mooncup, there won't be any Tampax after the fall and it would be tragic for women to survive the apocalypose only to die of toxic shock syndrome because they start using rags during their periods
Re: Surviving The Apocalypse When You're A Girl « Reply #8 on Jul 24, 2012, 1:28am »
This is one of those aspects of PA that most Young Adult authors like to evade. Humans are driven by their id and libido. They release that energy in safe ways such as sports because of laws that restrain their violence and profanity. Without that restraint, humans release that energy in its purest form. This can be evident all throughout history where the trumphiant in battles decide what they want to do over the defeated community. Even today.
Just having a vagina and breasts will make you a target. When shit really hits the fan, people will quickly lose their false civilized skin. There may be some good men but they will be overwhelmed by those that aren't.
I agree with the first part but not the second.
For a being who is inclined to rape someone, level of attractiveness isn't going to be very high at all on their concern list. They are going to go after any lone victim of the right sex.
However I disagree that the overwhelming number of people are bad, and are only being held in check by the force of law. How many people in your life do you think are bad but only being held in check by force of law right now?
Also, sex may be much further down on the list of priorities. Imagine a sexy young woman cooking a just-caught rabbit over an open fire. In a post-apocalyptic world a roaming outlaw sees that, he may well run up and club the woman in the head...then grab the rabbit and dash off before a bigger, meaner outlaw comes by.
Also, regarding how many people out there are going to be 'bad' after law and order and society breaks down. I think a lot of people who are willing to rob and loot and rape because they can are also the kind who are going to be killing each-other as well as leave themselves vulnerable to elimination as they are focused on their loot. This could simply be the guys who start robbing the jewelry store rather than flee the town get caught and die when fires sweep over the town. The guys who loot the liquor store get pass-out drunk...kind of hard to defend yourself then.
The real danger is people who will kill you for what you have because they need it to survive. They are doing it for base day-to-day survival, so something like sexual gratification isn't going to be something that will be of interest to them.
Re: Surviving The Apocalypse When You're A Girl « Reply #10 on Feb 23, 2013, 7:19pm »
If I may be so bold as to inject my own, slightly dated opinion on the subject, it seems to me that, once the paper-thin veneer of civilization is peeled back, women will simply return to the same status that they held for thousands of years prior to the rise of this doomed concept we call civilization. That is to say that, simply put, I doubt women will have much choice in the matter and will probably be treated similarly their counter-parts from ancient times. It sounds rough and misogynistic, but once law and order disappear, there's really not a lot to keep men from doing what our ancestors did for thousands of years.
Re: Surviving The Apocalypse When You're A Girl « Reply #11 on Feb 28, 2013, 7:02pm »
I think it will eventually 'stabilize' as women having the rolls they had 10,000 BC-1900 AD, however immediately post-apocalypse it will be more similar to 100,000 BC...we won't have time to worry about that kind of thing. Like the wolf pack chasing a deer. The pack doesn't care if the deer is male or female. The pack members don't care about the sex of the members during the hunt, just that each member to their part. If the pack comes across an outsider on their territory, they will not care if the outsider is male or female.
The same will apply to humans. You'll steal that can of grub if you can, regardless if the previous owner whose back is turned is a man or woman, attractive or not.
I think it will eventually 'stabilize' as women having the rolls they had 10,000 BC-1900 AD, however immediately post-apocalypse it will be more similar to 100,000 BC...we won't have time to worry about that kind of thing. Like the wolf pack chasing a deer. The pack doesn't care if the deer is male or female. The pack members don't care about the sex of the members during the hunt, just that each member to their part. If the pack comes across an outsider on their territory, they will not care if the outsider is male or female.
The same will apply to humans. You'll steal that can of grub if you can, regardless if the previous owner whose back is turned is a man or woman, attractive or not.
Agreed after the event that destroys life as we know it whatever it be a disease, nuclear war,or whatever we humans will eventually settle into tribes where the general idea is everyone does the same work, pulls there own weight no matter the sex. Of course there will be those tribes where women or men are dominant and the other sex is given less important tasks
Re: Surviving The Apocalypse When You're A Girl « Reply #13 on Mar 16, 2013, 6:36pm »
I'm not sure anyone will have time for tasks which aren't important. Raising children and preparing and preserving food are just as important as hunting and protecting, if not more so. If the intention is to repopulate then a female's life will be far more valuable because childbearing is such a huge task and humans are so slow to reproduce, and you don't really need many sexually active men to grow the population. It would be a waste to send females out into dangerous territory to scavenge and hunt if there are a limited amount of women, whereas men are more disposable, so I can see where the old fashioned ideas of women staying at home came from. I would hope that women who do want to go out and do dangerous things are allowed to though, I'd rather be killed in the apocalypse than have to live in a world where people are forced to do things they don't want to do just because of their gender.
Re: Surviving The Apocalypse When You're A Girl « Reply #14 on Mar 19, 2013, 12:31pm »
The post-apocalyptic government will glorify the role off women as child producers because More WOmen = More children = more soldiers
Thus, you will see what the nomadic tribes of Manchuria, Mongolia, Central Asia, Middle East have done. : Invade neighboring tribes, kill all the men, and bring back all the women to be incorporated into their own society, as "wives" of the invaders. In these cases, woman are spared because of their value.
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