Drake (ft. Lil Wayne and Tyga) – "The Motto" (2011)

You only live once

That's the motto, n*gga

YOLO

As we learned in the last 2 or 3 lines, Maryland has a politically incorrect state song.  So it seems only fitting that Maryland has a politically incorrect state motto as well.

The Maryland state song – “Maryland, My Maryland” – was written by a pro-Confederate poet.  It urges Marylanders to stand with their sister slave states and spurn President Lincoln and his Union scum.

The state motto – Fatti maschii, parole femine, which is usually translated as “Manly deeds, womanly words”– is politically incorrect in a completely different way, of course.  The problem with it is sexism, not racism.

Maryland's coat of arms

For reasons that are not entirely clear, Fatti maschii, parole femine became part of the shield of the Calverts, the English Catholic family that founded Maryland.  It was then incorporated into Maryland’s coat of arms.

Not surprisingly, no other state has an Italian motto.

According to a spokesman at the Italian Embassy in Washington, the motto is derived from a comment made by Pope Clement VII in the 16th century.

Pope Clement VII

The words . . . are generally understood to mean “men do things, and women talk about things.” Another, wordier, translation: “When you need things done, ask a man, because women only talk and don’t arrive to a conclusion.”

Those translations of Fatti maschii, parole femine certainly suggest that males are superior to females.  But I don’t think that the official translation – “Manly deeds, womanly words” – belittles women at all.

“Manly deeds, womanly words” may be sexist in the sense that it stereotypes men and women, but it doesn’t stereotype women negatively.

As I understand it, that translation merely suggests that men are from Mars, and women are from Venus.  Men deal with conflict by taking action – they speak softly, but carry a big stick.  Women, by contrast, solve problems by talking through them.  

Maryland's real state motto

Sometimes, it’s best to maintain the peace through negotiation and compromise.  Other times, you have to take a stand.  Soldiers aren’t superior to diplomats (or vice versa) any more than a Phillips-head screwdriver is superior to a straight screwdriver – different tasks require different tools.

Scientists have shown that there are significant differences between men and women as a whole when it comes to mental health, cognitive abilities, personality, and aggressiveness.  

For example, according to the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, the fact that males are generally more aggressive than females is one of the most robust and oldest findings in psychology.  Scientific studies have found that males of all ages engage in more physical and verbal aggression than females.  Aggressive behavior by females tends to be more indirect in nature — e.g., spreading negative rumors, or gossiping.

Women are stereotypically viewed as more emotional than men.  But some studies suggest that while women are more likely to express their emotions, both sexes experience the same amount of emotion.  

It comes as no surprise to me that a 2014 meta-analysis of 355 studies measuring narcissism found that men score significantly higher on narcissism than women.  The authors of that meta-analysis  noted that gender differences in narcissism represents true differences in personality traits, including men’s heightened sense of entitlement and authority.

Narcissus was a male, after all

It is unclear exactly how much of the difference between the sexes is a cultural phenomenon and how much relates relates to differences in the structure and function of the male and female brains or other biological distinctions, but it seems likely that both nurture and nature are somewhat responsible for the observed differences.

One final note.  Boys cry about as often as girls at age 12, but 18-year-old females cry four times as much as 18-year-old males.  (I don’t know what that means, but it was interesting to me.)

“The Motto” (which was released in late 2011) was a hit for the Toronto-born rapper Drake.  Some have criticized Drake for buying into the “You only live once” mindset, but I think “You only live once” ("YOLO" for short) is a much better motto than Fatti maschii, parole femine.  

Here’s the official music video for “The Motto”:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: