Is the historical oppression of women...?

Question

...just another conspiracy theory, as Nathanson and Young suggest in 'Legalizing Misandry'?

Isn't true that men have been just as oppressed as women e.g.

Men traditionally have to:

1/ Go out to work in dangerous or stressful jobs e.g. coal mine.

2/ Get drafted to fight wars, unless already a professional soldier.

3/ Men don't get to see much of their children as they grow up.

4/ Emotions are discouraged ('boys don't cry' etc) e.g. men can be shot for cowardice in wartime.

So why do we hear so much about how terribly bad women have always had it, when the reality is that so much of their role has involved the safety of domestic duties? Who is more like a slave: the man in the dangerous job who can be forced into the army at any time, or the woman who stays at home?

Why has the idea of women's oppression - and idea so clearly full of holes - been accepted so uncrittically by so many people? Isn't it just a conspiracy theory, and a weak one at that?

Answer 1

It isnt even a theory the femmies didnt put much effort in constructing a theory around it. They just demanded it be the pc thing to do to say yes mam everytime a femmie opens her mouth.

Opression is and never was a gender issue throughout history there were and are people of both genders benefitting or suffering from opression, who share a common class religion cult or social status.

In ancient rome there were male and female slaves and slave owners.

In the concentration camps there were male and female victims and perpetrators.

Feminists claim women owe them everything short of being able to breath.

Answer 2

Women have never been oppressed. This idea is typical feminist nonsense.

Men went to war to protect wife and child. I don't remember too many societies were it was women who protected men with their lives.

It is men, who have been oppressed.

Answer 3

3 and 4 are sexist toward both women and men. 3 implies that women are infallibly better parents, which is too high an expectation for many women. 4 implies that women have a monopoly on emotions.

1 and 2 are disingenuous, because women actually did want to do those things, and still do.

Answer 4

Poor women and men have been historically oppressed.  But, according to feminists, women are no better off in the West than hundreds of years ago but men are.

Feminists don't care that today, according to the FBI Bureau of Justice Statistics, 79% of murder victims are men.  Since men are on the bad side.

Men lead by far in war related deaths, work related accidental deaths, and murder.  

Of course, the feminists could not possibly care less about the men.

Answer 5

I can't believe you are asking this...honestly I can't believe it. Yeah, I agree with other poster, let's pretend that s*x trafficking, child marriage, genital mutilation, war rapes, honour killings don't exist still today. Let's pretend that the witch hunt never existed, let's pretend  that the social history of women through centuries where their only options were to get married, go to a convent or be prostitutes, also never existed. Let's pretend that women always could vote and could have an opinion, a voice in politics....by the way let's pretend also that the horrors of Auzwitch, also never happened.

Oh....poor men, that have been oppressed by women through centuries!! Oh poor men that are raped every day by nasty hairy women...

Why your questions begin to sound too similar to Cassius insane statements?

Answer 6

okay. we'll just pretend that the honor killings in Islam don't exist. and that women never had a chance to advance in society for 100s of years. we'll pretend that women weren't viewed as nothing but baby making machines for centuries.

Answer 7

"The safety of domestic duties" often involved

- Your husband being your legal guardian (i. e. he could make most of the decisions about your life, including what was going to happen to any money you had and how many children you were going to bear). You would often be considered his property, and you would have little power to influence society except through him.

- Having very few legal rights unless you were married. You would not be able to vote or get much of an education, and if you ran out if money you'd have few career options.

- Your husband being legally permitted to have s*x with you whenever he liked, whether you wanted it or not. He was also often allowed to beat you.

- Having many children (since, again, your husband decided when you were going to have s*x), being more or less constantly pregnant (which was even more dangerous then than it is now) and, in many cases, dying in childbirth.

The idea of women's oppression is supported by just about any history book or historical account ever produced - read a newspaper from 1850 (or 1950!) or some of the church fathers. Or do you think they were all brainwashed?

Answer 8

because mens opression has only been because of "expectaion" whereas womens has been because of "mandate"... i.e. women didnt have a choice... freedom is the diff and freedom as far as i'm concerned is a huge huge deal... btw, i'm a dude, not whipped, just realistic

Answer 9

No, it's not a theory, conspiratorial or otherwise.

Oppression of women did happen in the past, and it continues to happen in the present.

What you have done in this question is point out that women were not the ONLY people who have been oppressed.  

The answer to this:  "Who is more like a slave: the man in the dangerous job who can be forced into the army at any time, or the woman who stays at home?"    is quite simply, the person who has no alternatives.   Both can be oppressed - at the same time, even.   Bear in mind, the "dangerous job" was probably selected because of the compensation it brings...there are other jobs available, if one does not wish to put life at risk.  Why do you think that the railroad employed so many Chinese workers?  The white men chose other occupations, rather than put themselves at risk.   Now, whose theory has holes?

No argument with the draft, although in the US, the has not been a draft since Viet Nam, and we are unlikely to see it return.

And if you put the woman at home into historical perspective (without any form of birth control) she is subjected to forced gestation and subsequent forced responsibility for perhaps more children than she ever wanted.

Answer 10

I agree that society is not fair to men, and it is not fair to women.  But you are minimizing what women go through.  Look at the forums and see the horrible things men say to women.  Women on average live longer, receive less support when elderly, and more likely to be poor.  We care for children, elderly, do domestic duties, and often have a full time job.  Not all men work in stressful and dangerous jobs, look at all the skyscrapers in the cities, there are plenty of men there.  The draft I think should include women.  Women are seeing less of their children too because they have to work more (along with men because of economic needs).  And I agree that men's emotions are suppressed and shouldn't be.  If we went by your definitions of an oppressed man I think that population would be smaller than you think.

Answer 11

because in the olden days, yes men were treat bad especially working class, but they could always retreat from society into there own home, and be the king of there castle, and take the angers and stresses out on there wives by abusing them. and at least men had the oppertunity to go out to work, and fight.

Answer 12

Good question.  When you put it like that, I can try to understand the other side of the coin.

I still believe though that women have been oppressed in times past, as well as men.  

Women are still seen by some men in society today as inferior to men and that women should be submissive.  Women should be punished, scorned and put in their place according to some men, even today.

For me, that is worth fighting against as I refuse to be seen as less than human/worth just because I'm a woman.

What is interesting is that a fair few men continue to totally dismiss any notion of women wanting fairness/equality, but they complain about the lack of their own rights.

They wonder why women do not listen........The men don't even have any patience to listen either.

Answer 13

More women actually worked in dangerous jobs than men did until it was banned during the Victorian era - capitalism has always relied on their cheaper labour, and still does to this day.  The barring of women from dangerous occupations, and from many positions in the military is an example of their oppression, and trying to wrap it in up in a paternalistic notion of domestic protection is just whitewash for the truth - if the powers that be were so concerned with helping women, they would give them equal rights, not less rights :-)