Oh? Explain Mousse.

What's to explain? He was refused Shampoo's hand, so he trained in order to
force her to marry him and to prevent any other male from marrying her.
You'll notice that he performs the most menial and demeaning chores Cologne
can find. Some might say this is Cologne testing a potential suitor for
Shampoo; I believe it to be SOP for males in the Amazon society.

Maybe they just don't LIKE him and giving him all the grudge-work to make
him forget it? Whoever suggested that Cologne is testing Mousse for
suitability for husbandship has been dropped from a tree with head embedded
in a kettle an the kettle taking the impact. However, Cologne isn't
considering him for being a husband at all. Never was. Cologne is unloading
onto him to get him to just give it up and go limping back to China.

Likewise, I believe Shampoo would want to

have a child at some point, giving Ranma some of the responsibility of
leadership.

And from what little we know of the Amazons, it is all too likely that
Shampoo would have the baby and hand it straight over to Ranma- who most
definitely would NOT be in any position of leadership for any period of time.

Maybe, maybe not. However, I have the impression that the Amazon villiage
has at least experienced Men's Lib, and more likely to be only barely
matriarchal.

>From what? I've seen nothing to suggest this at all.

I quote:

What's to explain? He was refused Shampoo's hand, so he trained in order to
force her to marry him and to prevent any other male from marrying her.

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In a strict matriarchal society, this is an example of the repressed sex
getting too uppity. Such people are put down _VERY_ severely. You should
seen some of the laws from ancient river-valey civilizations (forget which
one, Babylonian, Sumarian, it's all the same to me.) "If a woman takes
another husband, her teeth should be bashed with bricks." OUCH! Similar
laws didn't exist for men, though...

There's many ways to win your girl. Insulting everything she believes in is
not a good idea.

In a strict patriarchal society, women aren't allowed to

fight. By extension, if Amazon society is that strict, Mousse would never
have been taught the martial arts.

We are given to understand that he studied on his own.

Still, just being trained is asking for trouble. This is exactly the sort
of things strict patri-/matriarchal societies guard against. They want ALL
the power, so a man taking THEIR power needs to be dealt with in the most
pragmatic of ways. At best, he would be exiled. At worst, hunted like the
female Ranma was.

Another is that outsider law; a strict
matriarchal society would also have the defeated Amazon kill the MEN as
well as the women, because it would be an insult to everything the tribe
stands for.

That's not a matriarchal society, that's a monogender society. Matriarchal
means women-rule, not women-only.

I didn't say men in general weren't allowed, just men that think themselves
better than women. A man who "knows his place" is kept. A man that beats a
woman would be killed like the dog he is. Nothing, however, prevents a
woman from going out, hitting a man over the head with a club and drag him
back to her proverbial cave.

Indeed, seeing how Shampoo prostrates herself to Ranma instead of just
grabbing (or killing) him and go. You see her _kneeling_ before him
offering a tray with a bowl of steaming ramen on it. (Her reappearance,
immediately prior to the Cat Tongue arc.) Strictly matriarchal? HAH!

I don't recall this, and based on her later, more infamous behavior, I don't
buy into it as being anything other than coincidence. Especially since in
Japan you sit to table on your knees.

Point, but it still seems that Shampoo exibits mostly classic female
behavior. Akane, who was raised in a mostly patriarchal society, exhibits
more independance from men than Shampoo. Shamp's _whole reason_ for being
in Japan is to win over Ranma. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't go
quite THAT far for someone, even if I was completely smitten. A properly
aggressive Shampoo would just bean Ranma over the head with a bonborii and
drag him back to the village by his pigtail.

More likely, the women of the Amazons still do the majority of the work,
BUT they keep the power to themselves and out of the hands of greedy men
who don't deserve it (seeing that they don't lift a finger ;). The women
wait on their husbands hand and foot, but will gladly chastize an uppity
male.
Of course, this is speculation.

<irony> NO KIDDING. </irony> I really don't see this at all.

That's just one fellow's opinion.

In the end, only Takahashi-sama truely knows, and she ain't tellin'!

We have only a handful of Amazons to go on, and only one Amazon male that I
know of. From their behavior, it's apparent that males are expected to obey
females unconditionally, and that Shampoo's behavior towards Ranma is
'unnaturally lenient.'

Then why doesn't Cologne just grab Ranma and go? Or just kill the other
fiancee's outright? Or prod Shampoo into doing similarly and not be such a
fuddyduddy? Remember that Shampoo is the great-granddaughter of an Amazon
mistress. She has to teach Shampoo not to be so lenient with men if she's
going to take over her role. Or Shamp's isn't her heir, then take it as a
matter of family pride not having a weak GGdaughter.

(and visions of LinLin and RanRan dance in my head... brrrr)

As far as we know, only three confirmed Amazons were created by
Takahashi-san. Linlin and Ranran weren't in the Manga, and I'm not aware of
any evidence that Pink and Link were Amazons.

                           ---------------------
##   ## ##   ## #######  ##   ##  AKA Tom Jefferys, Time Lord for Hire
##   ##  #   #   ##   ## ### ###    "Have TARDIS; Will Travel."
## # ##   ###    #####   ## # ##  Weilder of ANVIL and SPAM!
### ###    #     ##  ##  ##   ##  <wyrm@mail.utexas.edu>
##   ##   ###   ###   ## ##   ##    <JEFFERYSTR@rascal.guilford.edu>
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