In most cultures, throughout most of history, there have been well defined gender norms. Please, verify this with proper anthropological studies.
Men did the fighting, manual labour, and the running and organisation of their spheres in the community and wider political landscape. I like the use of the past tense in this sentence alluding to the notion that things are changing.
Women took care of children, their household, supported their men through difficult times, and gave balance to the hedonistic tendencies of men. This sentence leads me to believe you have not studied much anthropology or sociology. In hunter-gatherer societies, both genders shared all tasks surprisingly equally. I am also wondering why it is only the men who can display hedonistic tendencies. Aren’t women now and in the past capable of exuberance and heightened emotions?
In more recent times, women also took on certain jobs that are better performed with a woman’s touch. Here, we need a list of those jobs in order to evaluate your statement.
However over the last several years, concepts such as quotas and affirmative action have skewed the marketplace of skills so that women are given an unfair advantage for acceptance into male-dominated roles, and emasculated men are drafted into female-dominated roles. Again, we need a list of those male/female roles to speak intelligently about your statement. I find it offensive that a man must be emasculated to perform some certain task that you deem beneath his masculinity.
While of course if a woman is better at a certain role than a man (whether it be secretary or CEO) she should be given that role, surely intentionally selecting a worse applicant based on gender is destructive? I am unaware that women have been given preferential treatment in the marketplace. Indeed, evidence points to the opposite being the case. Were women given equal treatment, then federal, state, and local laws enforcing equal pay for equal work would not be necessary.
Additionally, there is a growing trend towards failing to teach children gender norms. Here once more, we need more concrete examples of those gender norms to better evaluate your assertion. I, for one, welcome the new freedom we are gaining from stale and wrong-minded ideas.
Pink and blue are out, and girls are given diggers to play with, and boys are given dolls. I had both actually. I am male, and I did not suffer from loss of gender identity by merely handling what you seem to suggest are feminine articles. This statement implies boys who play with dolls will have something magically rub off on them making them—dare I say it?—effeminate? The opposite being true for the girls. Tomboys must be a horror to your way of thinking.
What good could possibly come from this? I hope a lot of good comes from eradicating patriarchal pigheaded-ness.
Should we not be fighting against gender discrimination, rather than simply promoting a different form of it? How would you suggest we end discrimination?
Why should we reject a model that has served us well for thousands of years, and presumably evolved for a good reason? I offer that your presumption, as you call it, is false. The patriarchal system you revere is not that old really. It dates merely to the 19th century. It brought us untold suffering and hardship for the vast majority of humanity. We are only beginning to see the glimmers of hope in throwing it off.
Composing members:
0
