First things first, I feel I need to respond to the comments generated by my previous post.
First of all, I was not trying to insinuate that all men should be hardasses and all women housewives. I was trying to point out that these are the traditional role models that I grew up with and now they seem horribly outdated.
Secondly, I already asserted that women can be strong. My question was: Since men are traditionally the strong ones in the relationship, now that women have become stronger, what do men do?
Third: Having a sexual role is very important to any sort of self-identity. Look at all the people in the world that are transgendered. Are you going to tell them that it's not a big deal? Society has always conceeded that men can do women's jobs, they just thought the man that did them was less masculine (they did not feel the same way about the inverse). Reiterating point number two, since I was not brought up to deal with a woman who can do my job, how do I feel about it? What then do I do? What makes being a man special?
Fourth: By abolishing differences between sexual roles (i.e. eventually having no difference between the sexes) will in fact make us asexual. Myabe not in a biological sense, but then again I have not been speaking in a biological arena, only in a sociological one.
Fifth: I never said that women were weaker. In fact, I believe that I painted women in a very good light. Women are amazingly strong in many ways and in the past century they have advanced themselves considerably. However, this argument is again null unless we bring biology into play. In doing so, (contrasting the argument on how a man would handle a pregnancy) we would have to start comparing physical attributes. For instance, I have known many strong women, some of whom are excellent fighters. However, biologically I am better suited to being in a fight than them. I have the upper body strength, the testosterone, and a body more resistant to damage (than the average woman). Yes there are biological differences. That is not the point of my rant, if it were, it would be a lot longer. I agree that you cannot easily seperate ideas of gender in a sociological context from biological roles, but I was doing my best.
Lastly, if we really want to, we can examine biology in relation to gender roles. Very well. Women are made to be emotional (estrogen) and to have babies. There. That is the caveman's purpose for women. Men are made to be strong enough to protect their mates & their offspring when a frickin sabretooth tiger attacks. That was the ancient purpose of our society and in a lot of ways it still is. The ultimate purpose for life is procreation. Now I am not saying that all women should stay home and raise babies. I was making a comment about the state of the universe. That's the truth and if you don't like it cause it's ugly, bugger off.
Now that we are beyond cavemen, our population levels have reached points where we really don't need everyone procreating (and to be honest I think it would be best if not everyone did) and we don't really need men to be ready to kill tigers, what's the point? My basic premise is that in living our lives as humans, in a modern era, we are forced to redefine who and what we are. What are humans? Since a woman can do everything a man can do except for in the most physical aspects (infantry, heavy construction, etc...) my definition of manhood has been abolished.
It now seems that there is a spectrum. On one end, women are the only ones who have the capability to give birth. Mid-way the average business role that a man or a woman can do exists. On the other end are jobs that only a man can do (or very strong women). So you see, the need for men to uniquely male qualities has gradually been eroded. Everywhere the media tells me that being a man is wrong. That I need to "communicate" and be "sensitive". It is no longer okay to possess definitively male attributes. So now what? A man's place is no longer secure. I am not saying that we need to repress women, but we do need to have a slot for me to do. Why should I enjoy doing a job that anyone can do? Why should I care about anything if the unique qualities that I possess do not help me do it.
I realize that I am ranting and I will come back in a few hours and edit.
First of all, I was not trying to insinuate that all men should be hardasses and all women housewives. I was trying to point out that these are the traditional role models that I grew up with and now they seem horribly outdated.
Secondly, I already asserted that women can be strong. My question was: Since men are traditionally the strong ones in the relationship, now that women have become stronger, what do men do?
Third: Having a sexual role is very important to any sort of self-identity. Look at all the people in the world that are transgendered. Are you going to tell them that it's not a big deal? Society has always conceeded that men can do women's jobs, they just thought the man that did them was less masculine (they did not feel the same way about the inverse). Reiterating point number two, since I was not brought up to deal with a woman who can do my job, how do I feel about it? What then do I do? What makes being a man special?
Fourth: By abolishing differences between sexual roles (i.e. eventually having no difference between the sexes) will in fact make us asexual. Myabe not in a biological sense, but then again I have not been speaking in a biological arena, only in a sociological one.
Fifth: I never said that women were weaker. In fact, I believe that I painted women in a very good light. Women are amazingly strong in many ways and in the past century they have advanced themselves considerably. However, this argument is again null unless we bring biology into play. In doing so, (contrasting the argument on how a man would handle a pregnancy) we would have to start comparing physical attributes. For instance, I have known many strong women, some of whom are excellent fighters. However, biologically I am better suited to being in a fight than them. I have the upper body strength, the testosterone, and a body more resistant to damage (than the average woman). Yes there are biological differences. That is not the point of my rant, if it were, it would be a lot longer. I agree that you cannot easily seperate ideas of gender in a sociological context from biological roles, but I was doing my best.
Lastly, if we really want to, we can examine biology in relation to gender roles. Very well. Women are made to be emotional (estrogen) and to have babies. There. That is the caveman's purpose for women. Men are made to be strong enough to protect their mates & their offspring when a frickin sabretooth tiger attacks. That was the ancient purpose of our society and in a lot of ways it still is. The ultimate purpose for life is procreation. Now I am not saying that all women should stay home and raise babies. I was making a comment about the state of the universe. That's the truth and if you don't like it cause it's ugly, bugger off.
Now that we are beyond cavemen, our population levels have reached points where we really don't need everyone procreating (and to be honest I think it would be best if not everyone did) and we don't really need men to be ready to kill tigers, what's the point? My basic premise is that in living our lives as humans, in a modern era, we are forced to redefine who and what we are. What are humans? Since a woman can do everything a man can do except for in the most physical aspects (infantry, heavy construction, etc...) my definition of manhood has been abolished.
It now seems that there is a spectrum. On one end, women are the only ones who have the capability to give birth. Mid-way the average business role that a man or a woman can do exists. On the other end are jobs that only a man can do (or very strong women). So you see, the need for men to uniquely male qualities has gradually been eroded. Everywhere the media tells me that being a man is wrong. That I need to "communicate" and be "sensitive". It is no longer okay to possess definitively male attributes. So now what? A man's place is no longer secure. I am not saying that we need to repress women, but we do need to have a slot for me to do. Why should I enjoy doing a job that anyone can do? Why should I care about anything if the unique qualities that I possess do not help me do it.
I realize that I am ranting and I will come back in a few hours and edit.
