Chauvinism literally means: Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one's own gender, group, or kind.
A very common question often asked by many women and often denied by many men is "Are all men chauvinistic?". I got into thinking about all the men in my life - my dad, my brother, my cousins and my friends - are they all chauvinistic? Well, my dad always raised all his kids with an independent thinking where all of us were allowed to make our own decisions, of course with his guidance and help. However, in my years of growing up I never felt that he is chauvinistic. He is never biased between my sister, me and my brother. He treats us equal. Which is why, I think, I feel odd when I see men around me thinking of themselves as superior only because they are 'the man'.
This small question asked to many men and women, gave me disparate answers.
1. One of my female friends, told me about how her cousin's husband is totally non-chauvinistic. He cooks, cleans around the house, has tremendous amount of patience, earns less than his wife, and is still, very-very cooperative.
2. One of my guy friends, mentioned that non-chauvinistic men can only be gays. I beg to disagree, for one reason. I have straight friends, whom I have knows for various years now, and are non-chauvinistic, and regard women equal to men.
3. Another guy friend of mine, showed me a different perspective. In his own words, "Women bring up the household while men earn the living is the natural order of things it doesn't mean that it should be like that always. Thats how our bodies have been designed and our minds doctored by centuries between man and woman, only women can achieve the miracle of advancing the human race and its one feeling no one can take away from a woman and society is shaped by centuries of civilization and at the dawn of civilization man was meant to earn a living and woman was meant to look after the house, because back then life was black and white, earning a living meant hunting for food, and running the house meant rearing children, the roles just couldn't be interchanged. It was a purely physical concept dictated by the nature of human body".
Phew!! I was not too sure if I agreed with that. My personal belief could not be shaken by these facts fed to me. I got into thinking what God would think about this. He made man and woman both. He gave man and woman different qualities, characteristics, skills and abilities. What is God's gender? Is he a male or a female? Is he chauvinistic? Does he think that men are superior than women?
After a lot of questions and answers, discussions and thinking, I got to the conclusion that yes, men are chauvinistic. However, not all men. Some men, still believe that men and women are equal. They believe in the equal opportunities for both sexes. They believe that women are capable of making independent decisions. Those men are rare, but they exist.
Adiós!
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2 comments:
Hmm. I feel like retaliating, but then, i shouldn't.
No one is chauvinist by birth, when a kid is born, he doesn't know what's what. As one grows, men normally tend to be more outgoing, and women normally have a closed group. I somehow think, that being outgoing, makes the guy be more practical, and similarly, females become more theoretical and more perfectionists, but at the same time, they also acknowledge the fact that men are more practical. Now this u can easily see, that whenever there is a work to be done, normally its the guys who are contacted. Now, i feel, that more than the men believing that they are a better race, its the females who might actually have helped them in achieving this. Biologically we all know who is a superior race, females have better chromosomes than men, still, they tend to be dominant.
I think its all in the minds. Does one, who meets a white, feel he is superior breed? i guess no, but still there is something going on in the minds.
Ditto, i guess we had a bad medivial time, and soon "there will be light"
I agree a child does not know by birth how to be chauvinistic, however, its his upbringing and the culture he is brought up makes him that. Like I said, my dad raised us equal, hence my brother is very balanced regarding this topic, because he has seen since beginning that we are treated equal. Unfortunately, most men are not brought up like that.
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