General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: There is nothing that causes outrage among men like female sexual autonomy. [View all]Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)In pre-historic times men and women both were gatherers and hunters, but for the sake of building a civilization women were increasingly pushed aside from the dangerous roles of hunter/gatherer and focused on child rearing for the propagation of the species to grow in numbers. Men and women both have different sexual reproductive strategies, which is why women are more selective with their mate because he must be reliable to provide resources when she is pregnant and can't hunt/gather for herself. Men's reproductive strategy is most optimal if he mates with more than one woman to increase the chance his genetic lineage is passed on when he is long gone. Traditional gender roles were established by early civilizations to foster stability and growth of the human species. Women were oppressed by having reduced roles in work so they could focus on child rearing and men had to try to shy away from their reproductive strategy of having more than one mate so they could focus pooling all his resources for the wife and the children.
Religion is a form of control where it dictates the roles men and women must take upon themselves. But it is ironic that a lot of these patriarchal religions (which are still practiced today) deify and worship a women so much (eg Christianity). But this is a relic from the pagan era of religion where birth was highly revered and it was associated with the four seasons. If not convinced take for example Christianity where three of the four major celebratory days are the worship of the Theotokos (a.k.a. the Virgin Mary).
To me what patriarchy is the reinforcement of the traditional gender roles. Men must be worker drones and women are the damsels in distress that are deified and are not allowed to go outside of this role, hence why it is the oppression of women. But patriarchy is also oppression of men where they work till they die and deify women because they are the gatekeepers to sex and childbirth.
In the modern era are species is so large in population clinging onto the traditional gender roles simply has no place in our culture anymore. We have come full circle were women and men were hunters and gathers side by side are so once more, but some still cling to some double standards unfortunately. But in due time this can be rectified as well but the adjustment will have to come from women as they are increasingly the larger, and growing voter bloc in our country.