symbolical kidnapping of the bride

A particular Chinese custom springs to mind:

The bride stays in a 'fortified' location with all her female friends The groom is supposed to round up his male friends and get past the defenders to steal away the bride. Bribes of money (in ceremonial little red envelopes) are the most common way to get past the defenders, but sneaking is also okay, and some of the male friends are supposed to 'distract' some of the female friends.

I think that what Nancy thought problematic was not the assumption that men would raid and women would be plundered, but the assumption that "we" would raid rather than be plundered--i.e. that "we" are only men.

I'm not objecting to gender differences in who does the raiding, I'm objecting to assuming that the reader is male and then encouraging the reader to only identify with the raiders.

I actually think politics is what makes it possible to organize raids on other villages, and also what makes it possible to sometimes prevent raids from happening, but let's try some other phrasings for h-H's original quote.

"If we didn't have politics, we'd have no way of stopping raids on other villages, and we'd be enduring theft, kidnapping, and rape." (I've heard that there are cultures where women do the deciding and men do the fighting.)

"If men didn't have politics, we'd be subject to raids." (I'm having a surprisingly hard time phrasing a woman-centered version of the quote. I don't think this is because there's something unrealistic about it, I think it's because a mode that's as woman-centered as the original is male-centered is very rare.)

"Politics are the only way the human race found to avoid small-scale conflict."

I agree that sometimes writers use "we" in ways that don't include the reader.

For example, someone might say "we" of their nation, and thus include those readers which are fellow citizens, but not those readers who aren't. What sort of examples do you have in mind?

I am sometimes irritated when speakers use "we" to refer to heterosexuals, which happens fairly often. I just don't usually mention the fact.