Skrambled Ramblings

Geez, I don't know where I'd be without Google. Did you know that today is the 95th International Women's Day? I had no idea until I went to Google and saw that they had a special graphic up in honor of it. Here is a brief early history of it. And here is a BBC story talking about some international events going on.

I was just thinking about the possible reasons for the inequality that has existed across the world, in most cultures throughout history. Sure, there have been case where women were in charge, and there have been some powerful women, but those cases tend to be the exception, rather than the rule. And how could this be, since women are clearly more intelligent?

As the Grateful Dead song goes:

"Let us put men and women together, see which one is smarter,
Some say men, but I say no, women got the men like a puppet show.

It ain't me it's the people that say, men are leading women astray,
I say, it's the women today, smarter than the men in every way,
That's right the women are smarter, the women are smarter that's right."

Some would argue that the inequality is rooted in the distant (and not so distant) past, when the physical strength of men was needed to survive difficult living conditions. Maybe it's because of the propensity of men to start and fight in wars, thus putting them in positions of power. But women can be strong too, and fierce. Just look at Survivor, where women regularly kick the crap out of men in physical challenges.

I'm sure it's a combination of factors, but more than anything I would say it is due to jealousy and the desire of men to posess the female body. In certain parts of the world, women can have acid thrown on their face for being unfaithful to their husbands, and there is little if any punishment for the men. In Elizabethan London (during the time of Shakespeare), there was a dunking booth on the banks of the River Thames where cuckholded men could dunk their unfaithful wives in the river as punishment, whereas men were allowed mistresses and were not punished for adultery.

Here is a link (WARNING: naked lady!) to a painting which really struck me when when I visited the Tate Modern in London last September. From the Tate's description: "The woman's face is scarred with a freggio, inflicted on Neapolitan women by their lovers to make them unattractive to others. It is a startling emblem of the potential violence underlying male possession of the female body."

Without getting into the violence involved, it does illustrate the lengths men will go to to have power over women. My last girlfriend was (is) incredibly beautiful. When we were together, I couldn't stand the thought of her even talking to another man, even on a friedship level. I'm pretty secure in myself, and I'm generally not the jealous type, but I couldn't help myself. I've never experienced such jealousy before, and I did manage to deal with it and not let it get in the way of the relationship, but it was quite intense nonetheless.

In closing, I'd just like to say that I believe the world would be a much better place if women were in control of the decision-making. The world needs the sort of sensiblity and logic that women have to offer, now more than ever.

(I may return to edit/add to this post later.)