It's a concept...

A few days ago I commented about the idea of "multiple competencies," and how being able to do a lot of things well (or at least well enough) is something that appeals to me and I think is important.

I'm reminded of Heinlein's "Specialization is for insects" quote, and while I rather doubt I could conn a ship or plan an invasion*, still, I understand the underlying sentiment there.

(* Well, unless we're talking about "of invasive species." I could easily unleash an invasion of a few different undesirable plants in this area, but I'm not gonna.)

But hunting around a bit, on my lunch break today, I find that there's a name for the person who is good at a lot of things, at least in the sense of it being a literary trope: The Competent Man. (Or, well, they add "woman" in a parenthesis. But most of their examples are male, which slightly irritates me, and the one main woman example they give is a see also, and it's Mary Sue, which is generally a term of at least slight derision these days).

(Though I suspect it's arguable that at at least some times in the past, the "average" woman was a competent woman - thinking of my grandmothers and great-grandmothers - they knew how to soothe fussy babies, change diapers, cook up slop for hogs, slaughter and butcher chickens, make quilts, repair screens, bake pies, turn old Navy dress blues into clothing for their children**, diagnose basic illnesses, splint broken bones, repair worn sheets, and shoot "chickenhawks"***) But I do think it's strange that there's this long list of men who do lots of things well, and the main woman they come up with is a synonym for unrealistic, wish-fullfillment, self-insertion fantasy.

(**My grandma actually did this, for my mom, using my mom's brother's uniform after he was demobbed)
(***My grandma did this too, as a child of about 8.)

I don't know when it became more okay to not have a lot of life-skills, but I do seem to see a fair number of people who can't do a lot of the basic stuff I just grew up expecting that "grown ups" knew how to do it. And I don't know if that Wikipedia article is implying it's somehow unfeminine to be skilled, but I think that idea is bunk.