Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Women and Progress

Who, generally, are the poorest people in the world? Women. Why? Too many answers to list. In this case the reality matters more than the result.

Unless we, meaning our entire population, can come to grips why our mothers, our wives, our girlfriends, our friends, sisters, co-workers and equal contributors (actually women probably work harder, but I have no evidence) to our economies have been and remain such targets of hate, we cannot consider ourselves living in a progressive society.

The only justification I can determine for women's lesser status is that men are physically 1/3 stronger. Women think differently than men, but difference does not better or worse make. I could list other differences, but the point has already been made.

A major "disadvantage" women have is that they have and continue to be responsible for children. I don't simply mean that women bear our offspring, I mean that if a man chooses to walk away from his prodigy, generally, the woman must, for many socially justified reasons, assume the feeding, development, clothing, education etc., of her minions. For some reason this glaring inequity is lost on about half of the population. Whether it is from physical prowess, tradition or nature does not matter, women are tied to their offspring. That men have an advantage is indisputable. That they exploit it is unexcusable. It is this same mentality that encouraged trans-Atlantic slave trade: the slavers and its consumers because of geographical luck stood in a better position to exploit a group of people. No matter how defenders of the institution try to justify its use, slavery wronged millions.

In a way the hate men still show women is worse. Slaves were hidden from the view of most, a distant problem that few saw. Women are such an integeral part of our lives, the parties who determine the survival of our species far from hidden from view. The only explanation is that we are still so filled with self-loathing that we need to destroy or at least control the beings that bring us life.

So no matter how many distant planets we discover, what we do with quasars, whether or not we leverage nano-technology, until we progress to the point where women do not have to constantly live in fear, we are no better than the primitive peoples we think we are so much better than

1 comment:

The Red Queen said...

Thanks DeeK. I need to hear that all the boys I adore hadn't decided that women should just put up and shut up.