NEW YORK (AP) — David Bowie, the other-worldly musician who broke pop and rock boundaries with his creative musicianship, nonconformity, striking visuals and a genre-spanning persona he christened Ziggy Stardust, died of cancer Sunday. He was 69 and had just released a new album.
Bowie, whose hits included "Fame," "Heroes" and "Let's Dance," died "peacefully" and was surrounded by family, representative Steve Martin said early Monday. The singer had fought cancer for 18 months.
Men, on average, are significantly physically stronger than women. Western pop culture — replete with images of 100-pound girls knocking out muscular men twice their size with an artful kick — disguises this biological reality. Indeed, I've seen athletic young female college students shocked when an average-sized guy beats them in one second flat in a friendly arm wrestling competition – probably their first direct exposure to the reality of the gender-strength differential. Acknowledging this out loud may get you kicked out of the gender studies departments of Harvard and Boston College, but that doesn't make it any less true.
Western women often have the luxury of ignoring this biology because of the triumph of classical liberalism, with the supremacy of the rule of law and elevation of reason, decorum, and nonviolence. Of course, violence against women still occurs far too often, including in the developed world. Yet, at least in Western societies, it is understood and accepted that men aren't supposed to use physical strength to dominate women. If they do, they will be punished – not only with the force of law, but also with public shame.
