Did God create man and woman unequally?

Yup.
And, y’know, there is this whole line:
And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even.

You are thinking of childbirth and having a period as a burden. I think of it as a blessing. There are lots of cultural stories about why women have their period (besides childbirth) and they are quite beautiful. Perhaps you should look into some of them, you might find your attitude changing a bit. That doesn’t mean the extra monthly pain doesn’t suck, of course it does, but it comes with a lot of fabulous gifts as well.

@RedPowerLady what are those gifts?

At least my prostate won’t balloon to the size of a small rabbit.

@RedPowerLady I@d like to be pointed in that direction too as I was just discussing the topic of childbirth and Christianity today… what is the whole point of all that pain?

Don’t blame God. There’s only so much you can do with a rib.

There is such thing as a man period…

You just don’t want to be around when it happens.

I’ve always said in my next life I want to come back as a man :-) and @Sarcasm is there a more misogynistic book ever than the bible? (actually there is but its up there) and that entire quote misses the hell that is washing a mans socks LOL. most men think that the floor is a valid storage area for clothes and determine whether an item is “wear-able” or not by its scent. yep, its women who are the unclean ones here (joking by the way, don’t go getting offended anyone lol)

and @redpowerlady I haven’t ever been lucky enough to have children, so yes, periods are and have been this past 33 years a hellish bloody burden. With extreme cramps, headaches, mood swings that could stop a charging rhino, a craving for chocolate…. hang on I don’t mind that last one :-)

like I said, next time around I want to be a man. hugglys xx

Menstruation seems unfair, but I’ve discovered that it’s rarely helpful to compare oneself to another in any capacity while seeking justice. In the Buddhist cosmology, continual rebirth (reincarnation) insures that each person experiences many different lifestyles and types of suffering. This may seem more fair but the more compassionate response is to see past the justice of equal suffering and realize that all beings are suffering. All beings cry out for relief.

For me, the utility of suffering is that it serves as a springboard for compassion. If we do not let our suffering change us for the better, it can change us for the worse.

hug

Somebody’s gotta have teh babies.

I can’t pee standing up.
That’s unfair.

Why, yes. According to The Gospel of The Flying Spaghetti Monster,

“I’d Really Rather You Didn’t Judge People For The Way They Look, Or How They Dress, Or The Way They Talk, Or, Well, Just Play Nice, Okay? Oh, And Get This In Your Thick Heads: Woman = Person. Man = Person. Samey = Samey. One Is Not Better Than The Other, Unless We’re Talking About Fashion And I’m Sorry, But I Gave That To Women And Some Guys Who Know The Difference Between Teal and Fuchsia.”

-FSM, The Eight I’d-Really-Rather-You-Didn’ts

It’s close, but not completely equal.

If you believe in a god, it does seem unfair. If you believe in evolution, then the way we are is just the most efficient way for us to reproduce and survive. It all evens out in the end. Women outlive men, on average.

@seekingtruth For one the joy of childbirth. The other gifts you would have to choose to believe in. I suppose it is a choice to look on the bright side vs. the dark side. One gift is that your body is cleansing itself out. In my culture it is believed that the period or “moon time” is given to a woman to help her release herself of burdens. In a practical sense this could be true just by the hormonal release during our periods.

@lynneblundell I suppose that nothing comes easy in life and to be able to give birth to a child we have to undergo some pain. But see above for more clear answer.

@bunnygrl Even without childbirth there are benefits.

Here are some More Reasons

Yes and no. I prefer the word symbiotic.

Equality is something we power hungry creatures need in order to feel powerful.

There is a purpose to everything.

Man and woman compliment one another. That is after they get past their hang-ups and insecurities.

But we have go to work all day while you stay home and bake cakes!

Just kidding, honestly I don’t think I could handle all that stuff.

Men have pain too- it’s not like they just walk around happy and free as a June breeze. Men are more likely to get gout, kidney stones and (of course) prostate issues.

Both sexes have pain.

Evolutionary trade offs: Women get periods, and brains. Men get penises, and stupidity.

@RedPowerLady But if we’re under the belief that we were all created by an omnipotent god, why couldn’t God make it so all of those “benefits” occur without any need for menstruation?

Its because women tempted adam everybody knows that

I’m choosing not to have children. (I’m not as young as I look and my decision is not immature, and not well thought out.) so the periods are an extreme burden to me.

I think we would be extremely bored with the male sex if we were equal. :)

removed by me for lack of nap

Life entails some suffering. That is the nature of our world.

Men and women both endure suffering in different forms.

@jackm I’m not a Christian.. but somebody told me God has already forgiven Eve for eating the fruit. So why still, the pain?

@seekingtruth
The real reason is that its just biology, God has nothing to do with it at all.

Well having a penis means thinking about sex every 7 seconds. That’s 24/7 = 3.4 hours a day * 365 * 70 (average lifespan) = 10 years of thinking about sex. That’s 10 years of our life being completely useless morons. Granted, I’d rather think about sex than experience the pain of childbirth, but on an hormonal scale we are messed up beyond repair! ~

Now please, excuse me. My 7 seconds are long overdue.

@seekingtruth

I’m Pastafarian (so not really an authority), but I believe that childbirth and periods are Eve’s eternal punishment for eating the forbidden fruit. However, there are alternate creation stories, such as the inclusion of Lilith that could shed some light on this whole “equality” issue for you.

Dude, your calculations are off. When you hit your 40’s you do not think of it every 7 seconds.

It is like every 20 seconds. Then every 10 years after that add 5 seconds.

@ChazMaz Yes I know, but two things:
1) That would render my argument invalid.
2) We compensate for this in our teen years, when we think about it nonstop for 5 years ;)

Ha i was just telling my fiancee that I felt bad for women because of all the stuff they have to go through especially child birth. But this is what you women get for tricking man into eating the apple. Jerks.

Thanks people, i have a better understanding now.. :D

We do have burdens such as menstruating and giving birth, but since we don’t have a choice in those matters, it kind of makes us awesome. Maybe Mother Nature (or God) made us that way so that men can see on occasion that we are not actually the weaker sex after all and that, perhaps, there is no such thing. Yeah, men are generally built bigger and more muscular, but a lot of them are pussies.

Women were also given a higher pain tolerance than men. We’re not neat the whiners that men are :-)

I think you could also look at this from the view that God created men and women differently. We aren’t supposed to be the same. My first husband died several years ago and left me the single mother to a 3yr old little girl. Suddenly I had to be mother and father, nurterer and disciplinarian, primary earner and homemaker. I learned that I am capable of doing all of that but I would say that some felt more natural to me than others and that didn’t excel at all of them. I am now married to my second husband and soulmate. We have an awesome relationship and just naturally fell into the roles that we are best at. He is the primary earner, protector and handles the finances. I handle our home, the education and care of the three children, social calendar, holidays. That doesn’t mean I always cook- he likes to cook and we share that job. He helps with the house- cleaning and laundry. He also takes care of me and I do have some health issues. Just so you know if there is something we want to do or purchase we discuss it together and he figures out how much we have and how much we need- so the long term financial planning. It just works for us- we feel fulfilled and are able to be the person that we truly are meant to be.

Also men do endure hardship and pain. Right now I am seperated from my spouse for the next 6 months. He is sleeping on a cot at night in a tent with 20 other guys. Definitely doesn’t get to eat all the fun things we usually cook. Very little time off and long days. Away from the comfort of our home and family life. Missing many of the things that we take for granted everyday. All so that we can be safe here at home and pursue our lives and dreams. I admire and love him very much for what he is doing and am very proud of him.

I will agree that childbirth and menstration aren’t always fun. I get very nauseous and usually throw-up, bad headaches, bad cramps every month for about 5 days every month due to my period. For me childbirth was a blessing and a horrible experience. I spent the whole 7 months in the hospital with nausea and vomiting (ate through a tube in my arm), gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, pre-term labor starting at 24 weeks, MRSA pneumonia with collapsed lungs, and more. But at the same time had the joy and honor of bringing a beautiful baby girl into this world one day short of 32 weeks due to fetal distress through and emergency c-section. She went from this peanut shape on her first ultrasound to the perfectly formed baby with lots of hair and great sounding lungs! It was amazing! She would follow my hand when i moved it around my stomach. she would kick it also. she would hide from the monitor set up to record her heartrate and my contractions- to us she became a person before she was even born. And within 48 hours all of my pregnancy health related problems were gone. This is one of my greatest achievements and I had to go through alot to become a mom but she was so worth it. And guess what? Women are the only ones they get to experience this miraculous thing inside of them!

I do not think God intended men and women to be the same. We each have our own kernel of uniqueness.

I hate these kind of questions, but if god made us different, why does he/she/it sometimes send hermaphrodites into the world? Granted they rarely have working ovaries and working testicles at the same time, but is this not a contradiction in his/her/it’s work?

who knows? I mean you’d have to have spent time being both male and female to accurately judge the equality….personally i resent the fact my biology turns against me for 2 or so days a month and not being able to pee in the bushes when camping is a bummer…but there may be stuff about being a man that sucks that i have no idea about

@noodle_poodle Do you have any idea what it’s like to not be able to ask for directions?

Well, I think men should be able to have children, but that’s just me… :P

God didn’t create anything, and it’s absolutely pointless to look to bronze-age mythology to explain these kinds of questions.

Instead, you should look at the evolutionary history of sexual roles. And the answer is yes, females and males, especially in primates, evolved to occupy very different social and physical roles.

(Note that, unlike religious explanations, the evolutionary explanation in no way implies that a man’s or a woman’s “place” ought to be such-and-such. There is no “should” when looking at biology.)

@DominicX The thought of actually giving birth to a child is terrifying to me. I don’t think I could do it.

@RedPowerLady thank you for that link, its a very interesting read <hugs>,
@madsmom love and hugs to you and your family <hugs>

I still have a little pin badge that a friend bought me years ago when i was at college, it says ” I married beneath me… all women do!” <ducks> no offence meant honest lol
hugglys xx

No, in the same way the Easter Bunny didn’t create man and woman unequally.

But he did create dark and white chocolate.

@ChazMaz- White chocolate is not chocolate.

Btw, nice Out Of The Blue avatar.

There are many things that don’t seem fair. If I could carry my child, I would.

@oratio It ain’t the carrying part that’s tough, it’s putting it down

@Harp Sure. It comes with the packet.

I once walked with my left arm broken in four places for 12 hours. I guess that makes us even. ;)

You can look at your life as a burden or a gift. You decide. Being able to give birth is an extraordinary gift. If you had all the babies you could over your lifetime, you might have no periods at all. No pain, no grief, just lots and lots of kids. Childbirth after the second is a piece of cake.

@skfinkel No pain? Sciatica, swollen feet, aching back, ridiculously tender breasts… I could go on. No grief? Nothing doles out grief (for the woman and all around her) like hormones on a rampage. And keep in mind, I liked being pregnant.

@Sarcasm I like to think the uncleanliness bit came about by women as a way to get men to leave them the hell alone for a week. Not true, but it makes me feel better.

@AstroChuck – Yes I know. But we do refer to it as that. And thanks.

:-)

I can only think of one woman I’ve known to have even a remotely pain-free pregnancy. She had morning sickness, passed out multiple times, and had a c-section and that is the easiest one I can think of! I’ve had friends with gestational diabetes, total bed rest from month #3, and horrible recoveries. I’d rather have my period.

Man (and woman) created god unequally…

The inequality has made humanity as a whole stronger. Childbirth pain is a price we have to pay for our wonderfully large brains (which allow us to ask questions like: Did God create man and woman unequally?) and upright walking which put limits on the form of the pelvis. For many mammals giving birth involves little or no pain.

Men suffer from pain too. For example there are 4 times more men who commit suicide compared to women. Life expectancy for men several years shorter for men.

@mattbrowne True. The price women pay for the big brain and the fact that we walk up straight, thus the shape and size of the pelvis.

@Harp lol no i dont…but i do know the pain of wanting to open a jam jar or reaching things off supermarket shelves and not being able to ask for help….its well, very upsetting

Putting all systems of belief aside, let’s approach changing our viewpoint this way:

Humans perceive the world in differences. You can’t understand light without having been in the dark, cold without warmth, etc. Thus, because women experience so much frequent or intense pain, they have the ability to experience well-being and pleasurable feelings that much more intensely. In that regard, women are both “worse” and “better” off than men. So be thankful for the range of your experience and the expansion of your perception.

also, I’m really surprised no one mentioned the potential length and intensity of the female orgasm as a plus…

@Sarcasm My argument has nothing to do with religion so I have no answer for you.

@bunnygrl You are quite welcome :)

@RedPowerLady <hugs>