I'm really tired of hearing how the situation we are in is the inevitable result of modern technology. Of course, inventions like the pill made certain aspects of feminism such as promiscuity easier to sell to the masses. However, the same technology exists in Mid-Eastern countries and guess what? No feminism there. So what's the difference?
The real difference is the laws and to a certain extent, the culture. We don't need to go back to subsistence farming to change society, changing laws would be enough. I'll give you one example: Turkey. Turkey is quite modern. It's a NATO country. It is a republic with the constitution, the parliament, the president, regular elections and women voting. Women can go to a university there and even serve in the army. Their movie industry has been promoting "strong independent womyn" trope for years now. There are no punishments for extramarital s8x and even prostitution and abortion is allowed.
And yet, the amount of women working/being single mothers/living together unmarried/running around half naked causing trouble and general societal dysfunction is quite low compared to the West. If you watched the Tasnim housewife channel I previously linked to, the lady (who is a Syrian refugee living in Istanbul) shows her daughter's primary school in one of her recent videos. The daughter just finished the 1st grade and wanted to be filmed together with her teacher. The teacher, you won't believe it, was a young man! There is a Utube channel of a Turkish vet and his assistant, you guessed it, is a man!
Those are just two examples of professions which in my country are nearly totally taken over by women. I even heard about some girls quitting the jobs as school teachers to get married to be told that they are shirking their duties since nobody would be left to educate the children if the women quit. Well, apparently the Turkish don't have a problem with filling these positions with someone who won't ever take a maternity leave, go work part-time or decide to quit altogether after a couple of years.
Keep in mind that she lives in Istanbul, a liberal city with many more women working than say somewhere in the country.
So how comes? It's really that simple. Turkish laws prohibit married women from working without an official permission from their husbands. And the culture tells the same husband that unless they are really poor (or liberal) he is a loser if he allows his wife to work outside home possibly mingling with strange men. The same culture tells him that divorce is bad and socialises girls to be proud of their homemaking skills. It also emphasises chastity and family honour, the concept which we used to have in the West but lost somewhere after WWII.
This culture is based on Islam. Unlike modern Western Christianity, Islam never really compromised on women's rights, or at least, not to the same degree. Take headcoverings, for instance. Most women nowadays, even in the most "conservative" churches will refuse to wear one. Turkey being secular, doesn't require women to cover themselves in public the way Iran does, e.g.
So some do and some don't. But if they attend some religious ceremony, they all will wear one because their religion demands it. Western religious leaders, on the other hand, will go out of their way not to offend modern women's sensibilities with such words as "modesty" or "submission" and spend a considerable amount of time explaining away "difficult" Bible passages or just ignore them altogether.
The result is that Turkey is still overwhelmingly Muslim and traditional while in the West, Christianity is dying out.
We don't need to go back to living on a farm in the middle of nowhere (which never really happened in Western Europe anyway since people lived in villages), we just need a political action to change the laws and the religious traditional revival. Unfortunately, it's impossible right now since the change in society always comes from men, and at least 50% of modern Western men are quite fine with equality by one or other reason. Blaming women for all of society's ills makes little sense since it's men who are the guardians of any given society and many prefer it the way it is.
We can be traditional concervative christians and have a colony in Mars, if we want and God wills it. Modern technology does not mean we must adopt modern "values".
ReplyDeleteIn Orson Scott Cards Ender -series, he describes catholic colonies in distant planets. In earth they had strict baby politics due overpopulation, but when people manage to conquer interstellar travel, anyone could have as many kids as they wanted. They just colonised another planet. And another.
Some people think Gospel is only for Earth. I think this is nonsense. It is obvious, that God wants us to take Gosbel to ALL planets people could live on. He wants us to fill all the Earths, not only Tellus. If he wanted us to stay here, he wouldn't have created other planets at all.
Israel is also very liberal and modern, and yet orthodox jews manage to maintain their values and religion intact. Even though they are well educated and possess smartphones.
ReplyDeleteIn my country you get long looks if you veil your head for Church. At least in protestant churches.
You know it's such a deep topic why this change took place and how. It probably started with WWI when the best of men died on the battlefield and then WWII finished the job. Since we are immersed daily in this modern culture we often don't even notice it, unless we watch an old movie or read a book. The one I'm reading right now, describes a man trying to seduce a woman as offering her a dishonourable wedding trip. That's the way they used to describe shacking up in the 1950s, dishonourable, because it is, for a woman. But a modern "churchian" will shame a man but let the woman of the hook as a victim. Our world is upside down.
ReplyDeleteThis meme sums it up:
ReplyDeletehttps://br.ifunny.co/picture/132668334-rio-the-funny-thing-is-that-people-worry-about-IqzwolM89
True that:)
ReplyDeleteThis is a good post. So often I have read where supposedly conservative people have insisted that this state of affairs is a natural result of technology. No. They are a result of progressive values. Technology and conservatism can coexist.
ReplyDeleteAnd...should someone point out as you have here, that there are cultures where traditional family values and sexual mores have managed to endure, they'll quickly point out that those are "oppressive regimes".
Anything that calls for self-control, libido restraint, and godly order is called "oppressive".
Shucks. I forgot to sign my comment, Sanne. That's me up there, :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elspeth! That tells us all we need to know about these so-called conservatives...
ReplyDeleteI don't think any religion is going to solve these problems. I've lived a woman or two over the years, and don't feel bad about it. I'm university educated, conservative in my habits as far as savings and such, and don't have any seed spread around. I believe in two parent heterosexual families.
ReplyDeleteThe Christian churches won't admit that on average women can not do their part to keep a man happy and satisfied. I'm a shamed as a man for liking sex for example, so going to church is a time waster for me. The truth of the matter is that the alleged 'Christian' marriages in the US have a really high divorce rate on par with the secular.
The problem is that the women in the West are too picky and lack any self awareness on most issues. I would never want to put resources into a woman that votes left or thinks a hag like Hillary would have made a good president. These same women then wonder why they can't find a 'good man.'
Well, somehow they don't have all these problems in the countries I mentioned, I wonder why???
ReplyDeleteLiving together unmarried is a dishonour for the woman, not man because man's honour is courage and woman's honour is chastity. Of course, modern Christian churches refuse to admit it, they are very egalitarian even those which pretend to be conservative. Men and women are fundamentally different and no amount of shaming is going to change it.
BTW, you know how living together is called in France? Concubinage. That's what it makes a woman, a concubine. Or as Pastor Anderson said once, she is worse than a concubine because men had to provide for their concubines and now women often basically pay men to 8...well you know.
ReplyDeleteDon't be a concubine.