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Gender struggles, differences, and similarities The issue of relation between men and women has been a subject of great many psychological and sociological studies. It is the key factor that defines functioning human societies as whole, thats why the importance of this issue cannot be underestimated. Still, we can only talk of beginning of twentieth century as time when psychologists and philosophers became interested in this topic. Oddly enough, right up to this period, relation between men and women was never thought as such that needed to be given any special attention. Nowadays social scientists explain this by the fact that in their view, women throughout the history, were being oppressed by men and thats the reason why women never gained any prominence in science, literature or arts.
One of contemporary prominent psychologists Michael Conner argues that: For centuries, the differences between men and women were socially defined and distorted through a lens of sexism in which men assumed superiority over women and maintained it through domination, yet as we continue to read his article Understanding The Difference Between Men And Women, we get to realize that this opening phrase is nothing but Conners tribute to political correctness, as later in his work he says: The vision of equality between the sexes has narrowed the possibilities for discovery of what truly exists within a man and within a woman. The world is less interesting when everything is same. In my opinion, this is a proper attitude for us to adopt if we really want to understand what defined men / women relation in past and will continue to define it in future. We also need to apply a historical method as well, as womens role in Western societies was totally different from how women were treated in other parts of the world.
It appears clear to me that throughout history, in Western societies, women were thought to be not just equal to men, but very often superior. It especially became clear during medieval times, when womans whim would often become a mans inspiration to whether write poetry or fight with another men to death, in order to protect his Ladys honor. Yet, it goes without saying, that women were being considered as being much different from men and thats what defined their social status, at the time. The term of sexism never existed back then, yet we have no historical examples of women becoming aware of their suppression by men and taking any action to change the situation.
When we do some research on the subject, we will realize that such terms as feminism, sexism, emancipation, womens rights and etc. are nothing but artificially created categories, which main purpose is to undermine the normal functioning of society. Feminism, as social theory, became popular at the beginning of twentieth century, yet it never gained much popularity among women, despite its efforts to liberate them. Women simply have a different social agenda, which comes as result of their psychological difference from men. What is this difference?
In order for us to understand the core of such difference, let me quote from Otto Weininger's Sex And Character: An Investigation Of Fundamental Principles: The main difference between men and women is the fact that men are capable of abstract thought by being able to mentally detach from their penises. Womans whole body is just one sexual organ, thats why women get easily aroused while having any part of their bodies touched. Women are always sexual men only from time to time Womans point of existence is a man, while mans existence has higher abstract goals, such as serving its country. Those women that gained any historical significance, were psychologically men, trapped in womens body Joan of Arc is the best example (Weininger, Part 3, Ch. 2).
Women cannot exist without men and vice versa, they are organically integrated into society by playing social roles that are being assigned to them by nature. Any attempt to reverse these roles will inevitably fail. For example, women like working with children in schools and kindergartens, they do it much better than men. Yet, there are many women who prove to be an effective firefighters and cops. These women, in general, show mans psychological traits in how they behave. It is not a secret that most of feminists tend to have short haircuts, wear mans clothes and never use much of a make up.
Also, there are many feminine males, whore being overly sensitive and who attach a great importance to how they look. Their number has increased dramatically in recent times. Yet, in my view, its wrong to base gender equality theory on these facts. We deal with nothing more than certain psychological deviations here.
Nowadays, politically correct watchdogs tend to deny any difference between genders, except physiological one. Still, it looks very doubtful that such policy will make women and men much happier. The womens emancipation in Soviet Union ultimately resulted I situation when women were to be found engaged in non-prestigious and physically hard activities, such as digging trenches and building and maintaining railroads. This, in its turn, caused them to be giving birth to sick and pathologically defected children. Despite all the efforts of hysterical promoters of gender equality, women still cannot serve on US military submarines, as it will inevitably undermine the effectiveness with which crews operate. While observing mens and womens process of thinking, Michael Conner came to conclusion that: Women are prone to become overwhelmed with complexities that "exist", or may exist, and may have difficulty separating their personal experience from problems (man) have an enhanced ability to separate themselves from problems and minimize the complexity that may exist.
This quality of mans mind enables them to be much more effective policy makers then women, as they are capable to detach themselves from their emotionalism when it comes to making an important decisions. Even now, despite the fact that there are no limitations on women becoming politicians in EU countries, there are only 3 % of them pursue political careers actively. When it comes to relation between genders, Im absolutely agree with Dr. Conner, who emphasizes on the importance of tolerance: The task that faces men and women is to learn to accept their differences, avoid taking their differences as personal attempts to frustrate each other, and to compromise whenever possible. In my opinion, the social roles of both genders should not be enforced. The best way is when men and women come to their realization naturally.
For example, there is much greater percentage of divorces among those couples that were legally married, then among those that just live together, without bothering to have their marriage socially institutionalized. When we talk of socially defined suppression, we have to admit that men are also susceptible to it just as women. One of my favorite movie character Larry Flynt in Larry Flynt vs. People says: Once you this ring around your finger, its an ownership situation and prior to that its friendly. There is no doubt that there are many differences between genders, but we need not to try to undermine this fact. Quite contrary the more were aware of them, the less there are chances for misunderstanding between sexes.
Michael Conner points out that: The differences that can be sensed between a man and women can deepen their relationship. The more men and women learn about opposite sex, the more they learn about themselves, as every individual has feminine and masculine qualities. Those who promote uniformity between sexes now these days are very likely to have some psychological deficiencies. It appears to be even more likely as the same people also promote gay and lesbian relationships as absolutely normal and even more advanced, comparing to classical relationship between sexes. Trying to build society on the new principles that arent natural is bound to fail. Bibliography: Conner, Michael.
Understanding The Difference Between Men And Women 2002. web 21. 10. 2004. Weininger, Otto. Sex And Character: An Investigation Of Fundamental Principles.
Moshkovs Online Library. 29 Aug. 1999. 21 Oct. 2004. web
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Research essay sample on Men And Women Gender Equality
