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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

If women ruled the world...

157 replies

InigoTaran · 05/07/2017 11:53

Would it be a better place? Interesting article in The Guardian today with opinions from various prominent women.

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jul/05/what-if-women-ruled-the-world

OP posts:
Ava5 · 12/07/2017 04:48

As for the zoological perspective: it's not the facts that matter, but the way they get used to service the human patriarchy.

Both willing sex and rape are common among many species. What's certain, however, is that females do not willingly choose the dominant males. Even when they seem to do so - it's a survival strategy to ward off more violence from other males towards them and their babies. In many species they sneak off to mate with the less violent males while the dominant male isn't looking with great risk to themselves. Again, like Vestal said - the females may very well like sex when they're given choice in the matter. Just like the human ones.

What's depressing is that our genetic cousins the chimps are REALLY high on the rape scale. Practically all of their mating is various strategies of sexual coercion, much of it violent. Generally, more violence = more reproductive success for a male. But that is through rape and intimidation, not because the female gets off on it like the MRAs claim. Females get off on somewhat consensual, female-friendly sex like the bonobos do it.

Vestal is correct to cite dolphins because they're crazily intelligent...and still highly rapey despite that.

My point about non-patriarchal (or at least not as brutally so) societies is that they either didn't seek to dominate the planet so def not power hungry, or that the oppression they practiced was ineffective in that goal. Which is why they're all gone past the colonial stage.

Phew, I've written a thesis here...Shock

user1498662042 · 12/07/2017 07:54

Most of the undernourished children in the world are girls, and most of those who die under 5 y.o. are girls, because the parents give away the food and medical treatment to boys.

Where specifically is this so? It's not the case in the UK is it? Blanket cross-cultural statements like that are meaningless.

user1498662042 · 12/07/2017 07:56

My point about non-patriarchal (or at least not as brutally so) societies is that they either didn't seek to dominate the planet so def not power hungry

Which non-patriarchal societies are you referring to?

deydododatdodontdeydo · 12/07/2017 08:47

Wow, Ava. I'm uncomfortable with the idea that you don't credit women with any responsibility at all, every decision ever made is because men.
To read your posts you would think throughout history and prehistory, the only reason the human race survived is that men raped women into having children.
Women never want children of their own accord. Or if they do, it's only one or two, because hey, you only want one or two so it figures that the billions of women throughout history probably wanted the same that you want, right?
Of course, if a woman did want 10 kids, she didn't really know her own mind, silly wee thing, she was conditioned or forced.
The reason women had lots of pregnancies back when the world's population was low, is due to very high infant mortality rate.
People, men and yes, women, want to reproduce. If their child dies, they want to replace it.
I don't buy that a Victorian woman would think "well, I've had two children die in infancy, so I'd just give up, but I'm being forced to have more".
People, not just men, want to reproduce. Or have throughout history.

Batteriesallgone · 13/07/2017 08:09

How does anyone know what a female chimp gets off on.

It's very anthropomorphic to say violence/pain = rape. There are species where the male dies during or after sex. But that's accepted without a moral analysis superimposed on it as 'just what nature does'. Yet when a female chimp has been chased or beaten, there is no way that could be part of just what nature does and part of the sex act for the female Hmm

Besides, rape isn't determined by analysis of the sex act. Rape is sex against consent. A man could be incredibly gentle and slow and still be raping a woman. A man could be rough and potentially cause injury but be with a partner who has enthusiastically consented.

I really don't like this thing of analysing animal sex acts as rape because it takes away from the very definition of rape which is to do with the mind not the body. We cannot determine consent in animals we can't communicate with. Rape does NOT only occur where the woman is injured and the man has scratch marks. Often it occurs with no physical damage at all. A man having scratch marks and the woman having bruises does NOT mean she was raped.

I have been raped with no injury at all and then in a separate incident many years later was raped and left physically injured. The second rape wasn't somehow more rapey. Both were rape, and neither were rape because of an outside analysis of the physical act, they were rape purely and simply because I did not want to have sex.

I've also been left with sex injuries from activities with DH Grin categorically not rape!!

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 13/07/2017 08:29

My understanding is that lots of women stopped having sex with their husbands because pregnancies took such a toll

Throughout the ages until a 'reliable' contraception

BasketOfDeplorables · 13/07/2017 09:05

Japan is experiencing a cultural shift away from sex in under 35s, which is interesting.

I personally did feel a real need to have a baby that I wouldn't say was socially influenced. I'm not saying some people don't feel pressure to have children, but among the people I know everyone was of the 'not for at least 5 years' mind. I was 30 when I got pregnant. I don't think it's impossible that some women may want lots of children, just that they're outliers, and balanced by those who want none or only one. Most will want a small family, looking at how the birth rate has changed in areas where women have access to birth control.

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