I asked Cody about something the other day that I find interesting. All through history, in various cultures and eras, there are examples of women being completely dominated to the point of abuse by the men. Not just a few of the women, but the entire body of women in the culture are beaten, controlled, ordered around, and treated as slaves or possessions. But, I can't think of a single example of a culture at any point during history where men have been dominated by women in this same way. It is always the other way around. So my question is; Why is this? Men and women are equals in intellect, but men are physically stronger. Is their strength the root cause, or is it their natural tendency to be more aggressive and less relational than women? Is there something in the make-up of women that makes us succumb to this kind of ill-treatment more easily?
We discussed this for a while and then Cody brought up an interesting thought. He said that he thinks our current culture here in America is probably one of the most anti-men ever in existence. It is subtler than one usually sees when women as a whole are being controlled and abused. But, our media tends to be very "down with men" as it often depicts men as dumb, detached, incompetent, especially in the role of head of the household. Women are "taught" to control men with manipulation. Or women are taught that they don't need men at all, except perhaps for pleasure (on their own terms, of course.)
Certainly that is a different kind of domination that say, the Taliban's treatment of women, but it shares a few of the same themes.
2 comments:
Yes, women of our generation have been taught to think many of the things you mentioned about men. I think it's sad. And about why women have been dominated...that's a good question. I wonder when humans (men, I guess) decided that women were inferior because it seems like it just perpetuates itself from there in varying degrees of severity.
Jon and I have noticed that same point. We have contests where we point out which tv commercial is downgrading to men vs. women and almost always, he wins. It used to always be the dumb blonde on a car in the commercial, but our culture has turned it around on men recently, where men are made to look like idiots. Interesting observation about how the American culture has shifted.
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