Unicorns in fiction

[JasonParticipant 282]

Yes, yes, I know, none of you have seen me in over a month. I know, and I apologize for that. I’ve had stuff going on, most of it thankfully resolved now. I may or may not share some of it with you in other threads; time will tell. In the meantime, let’s get on topic.

I want to believe in unicorns.

Now, I feel fairly certain this applies to most of you, actually, but bear with me.

I have, in the past, found myself thinking that unicorns must exist and that I simply haven’t run into any of them. After all, X and Y and Z all fit the mold of a unicorn, so- And right around there I always stop myself, remembering that X and Y and Z all come from the realm of fiction.

Today, I took these thoughts a little further. I decided I would try to determine why I identify these fictional females as unicorns. I looked at their physical appearance, their personal interests, their overall personalities, their attributes and abilities, and so on, and found absolutely nothing. Oh, sure, I found that certain interests and abilities seemed more common in them than in non-unicorns, and interestingly that the vast majority of them had a mix of traditionally male and female interests and personality traits, and that most of them had trouble fitting in or getting along with other, more “mainstream” females in their respective pieces of fiction, but I couldn’t find any one thing linking them all together. I tried looking at their choice of mates (in those cases they had any), thinking maybe it had something to do with it, but no – some chose what one might consider inferiors, others superiors, others equals, and yet others didn’t seem to care which category their mate belonged to, nor could I find any other easily identifiable common characteristic in their choice of mate. No matter where I looked, I couldn’t find a common denominator between all these fictional females. And yet I still identified them all as unicorns.

And then I looked at their beliefs. Not religious or ideological beliefs – those varied as much as everything else – but rather personal beliefs.

At first I thought I’d imagined it, but as I went over each and every fictional unicorn I could think of, I found that, yes, they all had that one thing in common, despite all their wildly varying interests, personality quirks, abilities, and so on. That one thing?

Some stated it outright, and some merely implied it, but each and every one of these fictional unicorns believed in equal opportunity while dismissing the idea of equal ability as fiction. In short, they all shared the idea of merit as the basis for one’s position in society, while not dismissing anyone’s existence as worthless simply because they didn’t have merit in any one particular area (though some of them most certainly dismissed people as worthless in the particular area in question if they lacked ability in it) – even shorter, they basically held to the beliefs of Plato and Aristotle as it regards virtues and merit.

So, the next step in this thought process. Could we apply this to the real world? Would a real-world unicorn, if one existed, come in the form of – for lack of a better description – a female meritocrat?

There lies serenity in Chaos. Seek ye the eye of the hurricane.

[Anonymous 5]

Regardless of form, ability or achievement, the nature of females towards males in a relationship is exploitation of a resource.
Biological changes happen once control is established for evolutionary survival reasons.
It was always essential that females treat their males as providers and send them out on the hunt, regardless of how dangerous and terrifying that could be in a paleo world. Also, to fight to the death to protect her and her offspring.
A female has to be businesslike and emotionally unattached to do that job.
Females who stayed in emotional, unconditional love had a far less statistical chance of her and her offspring surviving.
A small minority seem to be enterprising, level headed and humane in their pursuit but the dynamics remain the same.

There’s no way to predict the nature of any given female once they have ownership but all will revert to exploitation mode, it’s just a question of how much.
The change doesn’t happen till they have ownership.
It’s a scary lottery ticket to buy.

[StargazerParticipant 12505]

I like the idea of meritocracy and the idea of being around other people who do as well. I am sure you could find quite a few females who would agree with you that a person’s outcomes do and should stem from their ability to create value, and not from any sort of rights, privileges or accidents of birth.

But if you married of them, would she still try to change you into exactly the kind of man that she has no respect for and no attraction to? Would she still get bored of you and go looking for new and exciting people to f~~~? Would she still divorce you and take her lawyer’s advice to claim you were physically abusive so she (and the lawyer through her) could maximize her take of your hard earned money and material goods, not to mention your children?

These are the things that mane a female not a unicorn, to be a true NAWALT, you’d have to be able to believe and trust that a she would deal in good faith for the life of your relationship AND you would have to know that the police, the courts and society in general wouldn’t turn against you to take her side and work together to destroy your life.

Even if you could somehow find a female who did the first part, you know for a fact that the second part is immutable. No matter what she says and does, the chances of a man getting his life screwed completely is just far too great. When females start to band together to do away with laws and social values that benefit them to our detriment, maybe I will start thinking unicorns may be real.

[atlasParticipant 285]

Interesting topic… In your eyes, what constitutes a unicorn?

In what I would consider a moral and honest business transaction, each party exchanges value for value. Each party transacts for the purpose of his own benefit, according to his own values and priorities. Friendships and relationships function in much the same way, though the “value” exchanged or realized can be less material in nature… sex, humor, common interests or hobbies, companionship, whatever. Whether it’s business or personal, when analyzing a long-term commitment or contract with anyone, each has to determine what value he is willing to provide, and what he expects in return. If the expected return is not of sufficient value to you, or the requisite effort to support that level of value falls inordinately on you, or is likely to change without any warning, why surrender yourself to those terms?

As a (married) colleague once advised, “if it flies, floats, or fornicates, rent, don’t buy.” Why? Because once you own it, the energy (and money) required to maintain it, such that it continues to provide sufficient value to you, generally isn’t worth it.

“We are on strike, we, the men of the mind. We are on strike against self-immolation. We are on strike against the creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. We are on strike against the dogma that the pursuit of one's happiness is evil. We are on strike against the doctrine that life is guilt.”

[RoyDalParticipant]

The Jane Austen heroine Elizabeth Bennet fell in love with Mr. Darcy’s house, not Darcy himself. ‘Nuff said.

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[Anonymous 18]

Stargazer wrote:

But if you married of them, would she still try to change you into exactly the kind of man that she has no respect for and no attraction to? Would she still get bored of you and go looking for new and exciting people to f~~~? Would she still divorce you and take her lawyer’s advice to claim you were physically abusive so she (and the lawyer through her) could maximize her take of your hard earned money and material goods, not to mention your children?

+1.

Even if I am with a unicorn/nawalt I am giving up my autonomy for the ‘us’ time which in essence means ‘her’ time.’

After a while it goes from “Good woman are hard to find” to “Good woman don’t exist” to “I have my own content life which doesn’t really depend on a good woman” to “I actually prefer not to have a woman in my life.”

[StargazerParticipant 12505]

atlas wrote:

In what I would consider a moral and honest business transaction, each party exchanges value for value. Each party transacts for the purpose of his own benefit, according to his own values and priorities. Friendships and relationships function in much the same way, though the “value” exchanged or realized can be less material in nature… sex, humor, common interests or hobbies, companionship, whatever. Whether it’s business or personal, when analyzing a long-term commitment or contract with anyone, each has to determine what value he is willing to provide, and what he expects in return. If the expected return is not of sufficient value to you, or the requisite effort to support that level of value falls inordinately on you, or is likely to change without any warning, why surrender yourself to those terms?

I couldn’t agree with you more. Ethical people exchange value for value fairly, in good faith and to the benefit of both parties. The idea that someone should continue to give their value (e.g. time, energy or money) to someone who is no longer providing their value (sex, love, companionship) is ludicrous. That’s why I only date. I’m not interested in making a long term deal where the other party can back out of providing their value but I am legally bound to continue providing mine.

As a (married) colleague once advised, “if it flies, floats, or fornicates, rent, don’t buy.” Why? Because once you own it, the energy (and money) required to maintain it, such that it continues to provide sufficient value to you, generally isn’t worth it.

Aah, the venerable “3F Rule”… the best bit of advice a man ever gave me. “If it floats, flies or f~~~s, rent it.”

[JasonParticipant 282]

@DocFenderson: Very true, the current system (in most countries) doesn’t exactly cater to equality in any way, shape or form. A secondary, but very important, issue. Even if one somehow finds a unicorn, the system will do its best to muck things up.

@atlas: Well, as I mentioned in the post, I only found one common denominator 🙂 And yes, I fully agree with you on equal value transactions.

@iLearn: I would consider myself somewhere on the borderline between the third and fourth of those levels. I no longer expect to find a unicorn – hence the “I want to believe” in my opening post 🙂 Alas, all those years I spent actively searching for one… A lot of time wasted.

There lies serenity in Chaos. Seek ye the eye of the hurricane.

[JollyMisanthropeParticipant 3356]

This is my conclusion about the unicorns from growing up in the 80’s.

Unicorns are f~~~ing gay.

That is all.

The Children of Doom... Doom's Children. They told my lord the way to the Mountain of Power. They told him to throw down his sword and return to the Earth... Ha! Time enough for the Earth in the grave.

[StargazerParticipant 12505]

I imagine we’ve all thought at some point in our lives about finding a unicorn. Giving up on this idea has got to be one of the hardest parts of accepting the truth about human nature.

I remember reading Robert Heinlein as a kid… he had this thing about females of the future being strong, capable and sex positive while also being completely enamored with and showing total adoration and deference to the one “real” man in the story (who I assume was supposed to be Heinlein himself).

That’s my idea of a unicorn… and it’s clear to see that this is an impossible creature. More chimera than unicorn, in fact… part engineer, part personal assistant, part sexpot, part homemaker, part innocent girl, part superhero. What naturally born female could possibly encompass all of these things and why in the hell would she want to be with me?

Forget the unicorns and the chimera and the nawalts… they don’t exist and we wouldn’t want them, nor would they have us, if they did.

[ScandinavianParticipant 590]

Unicorns are real, all you need to do is go to the DPRK….
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/11/30/north-korea-says-its-found-a-unicorn-lair

[RennieParticipant]

Stargazer wrote:

I imagine we’ve all thought at some point in our lives about finding a unicorn. Giving up on this idea has got to be one of the hardest parts of accepting the truth about human nature.

I know I struggled with that for a long time. Sometimes I still catch myself dreaming of such things and have to drill it into myself that unicorns do not exist.

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