Religion and the oppression of women
To begin let me state that i believe that women should be the dominant gender of our species. If you look at the animal kingdom you will se that the female of the species is the dominant gender. For example,take the african lion,the female lion raises the young,hunts for the food,and takes care of the pride. the male is only there for reproduction purposes.
I think that 2000 years ago,men,that is to say the males of our species seen this and needed a way to assert their dominance over women. What better way than to conjure up some random god that says to men that they are the dominant gender. This same god tells men that women are inferior and they are to blame for all of mankinds problems.
The muslim religion has mastered this better than any other religion. Women must walk behind the man,they can’t go out in public unless escorted by a male member of the family.They must wear religiously mandated clothing that covers their entire body. They must participate in a pre-arranged marriage usually to a much older man that they don’t know.If a muslim woman is raped she is punished as if she did something wrong and the rapist is almost never punished.
I would think in this modern age more women would cast off the shackles of religion,not embrace it. They should discard it like a bad habit.
Posted on May 24, 2011, in Culture, Philosophy, Theism, World and tagged marriage, muslim, obediance, oppression, religion, woman. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
“To begin let me state that i believe that women should be the dominant gender of our species.”…
…it is ‘designed’ by nature for the bearing individual to care, nourish, care, and protect the offspring…(in most cases)
…and as we notice on-every-day-bases that hardly is the case…
…with humans that is..
I am very independent woman and there is NO ONE!!!!!
able to cage me down…
my motto is:
(just like with driving)…
either catch up to me, keep up with the speed or get the hell out of my way!!!
what it means in every day life?…
it means I am a grizzly mother bear…
…you touch my family and hope God will help you!!!
it is not to say we don’t have problems…
it is to say:
I will deal with it…but strangers keep a healthy distance!!!
…
…with all womens capabilities, obligations, multitasking…it can NOT be dismissed a male role of bread winning in majority of households…
…
…and it would be the appreciation as a two-way street to give the credits to each other…
as for Islam religion and servent role of women in Muslim world…
it is a culture…tradition…way of life…choice…
…many of them are HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!
to be treated like dirt (by western standards)….
…but who are we to impose our ways and demand happiness!?…..on someone else!!!????
Glen, you beat me to it. I’m writing an article about the evolution of women’s roles in society. I think I still will. I feel that it’s an important topic.
Here’s how I see it. The dominant religion of the time, Paganism, worshiped the female. For man, by having sex with a woman, it was understood to be the only way to reach the heavens. And not to mention the magic of a woman’s ability to give life. While we understand these magical things today, there is something to be said about what DID happen to sway the tides in favor of the man.
Think about it for a second. Men have egos. Those egos need stroked. If you are a “king” (a male) and are said to rule a people, would you want the PEOPLE worshiping the female? Hell no! Burn her at the stake. Witch!
Many crimes have been committed in the name of religion, mostly due to just plain ignorance. But if you are a good Christian woman, you will heel to your man. You will be his servant.
Hang on, ladies, allow me to finish. Christianity has evolved over the hundreds of years, but even more so over recent decades. Bra-burners, anyone?
Women have taken a stand to become their male counterpart’s equals. But don’t you, women, feel that the religion you support should have given that to you from day one?
Here’s an example. I don’t want to have to beg my boss for a raise. I want him to notice my job well done and have him give it to me because I deserved it. If I have to bring it to his attention, then that tells me that it wouldn’t have came otherwise.
How do you feel about this? Your religion has made you an unequal from birth. A lesser of society. Back in the sixties, you went to your “boss” and “rant and raged” over the equality, or lack there of, in this country. With all eyes on him, our leaders at the time, he caved and gave you that raise. Is that how you wanted to earn it? Is that a satisfactory way to make it in society?
Religion, if it could get away with it, would still oppress women today. So I ask you, why do you hang around? Why do you continue to take a beatin’ and then defend it by saying, “Well, he’s a loving god.” Come on, ladies, you’re smarter than that.
This, this is why I call myself a freethinker. And no, you can not call yourself a freethinker with faith in your back pocket. It just doesn’t work that way. Sorry. You’re a mindless zombie wandering around in a black and white movie searching for brains.
Wake up, ladies. Wake up. It’s not too late.
You need to be more specific when you say ‘religion’. Muslims do put women down, Judaism did, Catholic Christianity elevates women, and Protestant Christianity elevates them even more. Buddhists, if you look in Asia, are not respected very well. In fact, in Asia and Africa, you find women being kept down even more than what Muslims do.
People think Catholics put women down because women aren’t allowed to be priests, but that’s just not the case. In fact, we elevate women in general, starting with Mary.
Well, come on David, let’s be fair here. The women, according the bible, are lesser in the eyes of god… am I right? We could literally create a blog devoted to this topic alone. As a matter of fact, Google some and read what others have compiled. There are mountains of phrases about how to keep one’s woman in check.
As far as the way Christian men treat women versus Buddhist and Muslim men do, I would say you are spot on. These men go back a few centuries now don’t they. Cave men?
Listen, it’s really hard to defend something so blatantly obvious. But somehow, someway, Christians figure a way to bend the rules/words just ever so slightly to suit the current times. If we were in an age where it was okay to abuse women, the Bible fits the bill just fine. Now that we’re in an age where it’s not so cool to treat women as second-class citizens, they’re ways to bend the words of the bible and say things like, “Well, what they’re really trying to say here is this…”
Sorry guys… not buying it.
You have to understand where they came from to understand where they were and where they went. Before Judaism, women were like animals as far as worth, as were children. Judaism brought them out of that to the next stage, which was that they were human beings without rights. Christianity came along and put them on a closer plane with men. In the rest of the world, they’re still treated like cattle in many ways. In the Christian world they have become, over the millenia, more.
Yeah, more being the key. They’re still less than men.
That’s kind of a personal thing, like racism, is it not? The Church (the Catholic Church) does not hold women as less than men in any of her teachings. In fact, the greatest human ever was a woman, and many of the doctors of the church are women as well.
If women, in western society, are considered less than men, it’s western society, not religion, that’s doing it.
On the other hand, I seem to remember that women were ‘placed on a pedestal’, and demanded to be let off of it. In my household I believe my wife is more than I am, and I do everything in my power to show her that.
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