01 February 2006

Women vs Men: The Worm that Turned

The power struggle between men and women is, and has been, ongoing and the women are currently on top (no sniggering at the back). Many feel that Men are being marginalised in favour of women, the only reason for which seems to be as some payback for years of "opression" and male rule.

The following excerpt from the linked article quite succinctly captures the moderm dynamic between Men and Women; "While the female takes care of swimming and eating, the male fish, with its enormous (relatively speaking) testes, is charged with the task of aiding reproduction". The article also uses the term "Sexual parasite"; terminology which women probably quite readily apply to men.

The Two Ronnies' "The Worm That Turned" serial sketch depicted an England where Women were in charge, and men stayed at home. Since this was the Seventies, the women were depicted as goose-stepping dominatrixes and the men as stereotypical stay-at-homes, complete with hairnets, flower-pattern dresses, pastel overcoats and handbags. The men then form an underground movement, a resistance against female authority. Obviously decades ahead of its time, it is mirrored today by the rise of Men's Movements around the world.

Obviously, the labels "Men" and "Women", and our preconceptions associated with those terms, are a far cry from the qualities of the individual man or woman. Like Tommy Lee Jones says in Men in Black: "A person is smart. People are stupid, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it".

But why do women feel that they are devalued? Why do they want to the same jobs as men? Who says men's jobs are all brilliant? Do women want to work down sewers, or washing skyscraper windows, or scraping barnacles off the bottom of supertankers? I'm quite happy for them to do all these things, but why does it need to be at the expense of men?

The statement that women are powerless, or that they have no value in society, is utter rubbish. Who is the one person in your life who has done the most to shape you into the person you are today? Your mum, right? And everyone had one of those, right?
The last lines of William Ross Wallace's (1819-1881) poem reads "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." No argument there. So, assuming that George Dubya had a mother (although we might assume he didn't know his father), Barbara Bush is the most powerful person in the world.

What we have here is system lag. As with Inflation and Unemployment lagging Interest Rate changes, Women's Rights overtaking those of Men is a result of a system attempting to reach parity. Unfortunately, the effects of the changes made take so long to appear, that the next change is made just as the effects of the first appear. Like a car travelling at 200mph, the system is responding to inputs received some time ago.

While Men may come from Mars and Women may be from Venus, it doesn't stop us all being humans, supposedly each with the sames rights as the next person. Maybe we should all come back down to Earth, ignore the fact that it is broken, behave like adult human beings. And here's me always banging on about idealists....still, I have become what I beheld and I am content that I have done right. So there.

4 comments:

  1. I can't say I agree with any of this...there's some pretty flawed reasoning. Barbara Bush is the most powerful person in the world just because she's George Bush's mum? Um, no.
    I'd say that it wasn't necessarily that women want the same jobs as men - they already have them. But they do want to be paid the same, to have the same opportunities. In some fields they do, but in many they don't.

    Has women's rights overtaken men's? I don't think so. If so, where? How?

    Look at the people in charge, whether in government, commmerce, industries, even the media. How can you say that women have taken over?

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  2. That's true about pay with manual labour but then, that's never really been as much an issue as pay in executive/management positions, or pay in the City - where usually women have less chance of promotion anyway.

    PS is there any point commenting if the author isn't going to respond?

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  3. Sorry, didn't realise I was meant to participate. My only point is that there will always be different demograpics in society, whether its sexual, racial, whatever. Attempting to get a homogenized level of grey would be fair but very boring. I personally would be quite happy if women had all the positions of power. Both sexes bring positives to the table. As far as I'm concerned, you need to be a collosal prick to get to be in charge of big companies. Whether that person is male or female matters little. I just don't see why women see these apex positions as so desirable. Sure, I can understand the Everest "climb it because its there", but once there, its just another snowy peak, and the only way is down.

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  4. That's alright, I was just wondering if anyone read the comments.
    While you might think of CEOs as pricks (and I won't disagree), it should be up to a person's abilities whether they reach that goal or not. You might not see the appeal in that line of work, but that doesn't mean women don't either.

    A homogenised society would be boring but then surely so would having all women sticking to one role in society, or all City workers being men.

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