A Society Without Need for Men (or at least their emotions and money)

[KrazyHorse]

We've been going out for over 6 years. I've been living in Baltimore for over 3 years now. I'm at Johns Hopkins. My wife is a medical physicist. She currently works at University of Maryland's Baltimore campus (which is where the UMD hospital is). She moved here ~5 months ago.

[Dr Strangelove]

I'm amazed that no one mentioned children as a factor in maintaining a marriage. Two heads is definitely better than one when you're raising kids. The children of single parent families are very much at a disadvantage when compared with kids from two parent families not just because two parent families have a bigger budget, but also because the second parent generally reduces stress on the primary childrearing parent. Overly stressed single parents often become irrational or give up.

[KrazyHorse]

I completely agree that two people living together can raise children more effectively than a single parent.

I simply don't think that marriage as a legal or cultural institution really helps hold parents together in the same household. If anything the children themselves and the legal and financial difficulties in separating from the other parent are a better glue than the marriage. If we want marriage to serve that purpose then we have to make it far tougher to get a divorce. Unfortunately, that route leads to some rather serious negative consequences too.

[Q Classic]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
I'm amazed that no one mentioned children as a factor in maintaining a marriage. Two heads is definitely better than one when you're raising kids. The children of single parent families are very much at a disadvantage when compared with kids from two parent families not just because two parent families have a bigger budget, but also because the second parent generally reduces stress on the primary childrearing parent. Overly stressed single parents often become irrational or give up.

I don't know if marriage is a requirement; nobody's debating that two or more simultaneous parental figures is the best means of raising children, or somehow worse than a single parent.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by General Ludd
We still live in a patriarchy. Women do not have any leverage within mainstream culture.

In the niches where patriarchy doesn't exist men are not needed (and using or exploiting them is still "needed") nor are they tolerated if they act with the same machismo and chauvinism that is typical to our society.

Please expand.

[Az]

Spiff, do you know what is he talking about? because I don't.

[General Ludd]

Expand on what, exactly? That we live in a patriarchy, or the niches where it doesn't exist?

[Arrian]

Apparently I live in a niche.

-Arrian

[General Ludd]

Given that you are an american and not a radical commie-pinko-feminist, that is unlikely.


When I say we live in a patriarchy, I mean that our society has evolved as a patriarchy society that is formed around "masculine" ideals. It is a society that is structored through power, dominance, superiority, and authority. It is also a society where women are objectified and commodified as sex objects. Where you see giant breasts plastered on billboards to push products and where "guy talk" banter about "hitting her" and **** like that is common place and acceptable.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Az
Spiff, do you know what is he talking about?

He's talking about the Luddiverse

[General Ludd]

It's also a society where men pretend everything is ok because they let a woman or two work with them.

[Elok]

We also kill animals and eat them. Because they're yummy.

[General Ludd]

It's also a society where children can be screened for genetic defects so that they won't be born with things like autism.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by General Ludd
It's also a society where men pretend everything is ok because they let a woman or two work with them.

I think you are seriously out of touch. Things have been shifting for some time now, and continue to shift.

My department is choc full of women (we men are quite outnumbered, roughly 2 to 1). There are lots of valued female managers in the company, one of whom is my wife (who has a very good career going). My manager? Female. The two attorneys attached to our team? Both female. Are the numbers (% of high-level positions, salaries) equal yet? No, but given that within fairly recent history the number of females in management was roughly zero, expecting things to equalize overnight is silly.

In other words, you cannot seriously assert that we're still in the 1950s.

-Arrian

[Sandman]

It's a quasi-mystical thing, Arrian. Women have only got into these positions by acting like men, or something.