Re: Roots of contemporary sexism

        Jane Shahi makes a valid point.  Conserving culture is difficult
if not impossible without homes in which mothers and fathers pass on
values and mores to their young children;  and in this process, mothers
are generally much more active than fathers.  The more a culture is
challenged by alien influences, the greater its need for unquestioning
(and preferably sequestered) mothers.  

        But is it not true that since the beginnings of civilization,
patriarchy has been the dominant mode of gender relations everywhere?  Am
I saying something deeply controversial?  Civilization = patriarchy.  The
exploitation of the poor has everywhere been accompanied by the
sexploitation of the undersex, women.  Surplus value has been sweated from
the many by the few, and from women by men.  The less agency granted to
women, the easier it has been to keep them down and to take advantage of
their services in home, nursery, field, and factory.  One of those many
services is the acculturation of young children in the values and mores of
the male-dictated society, including an unexamined acceptance of
traditional gender roles.

        The culture of the Taliban is, to my way of thinking, one of
the most odious and reactionary examples of how sexism penetrates
"civilized" life, but there is plenty of sexism to go around in the United
States and other "advanced" societies.  Whatever the Taliban may think,
Western societies have only begun the long march to gender equality.

        Warren


On Sun, 11 Nov 2001 Shahijm2@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 11/11/01 2:23:57 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
> Threehegemons@aol.com writes:
> 
> << In the last few days we've seen a number of accounts as to why intense 
> gender 
>  inequality exists in Afghanistan.  Among the reasons I recall:  decline in 
>  traditional masculine occupations (an explanation that may have more 
>  relevance in other parts of the world), men spending their lives in 
> religious 
>  schools or armies, rebellion against the Soviet-backed government (an 
>  explanation that may have relevance elsewhere as well, not only in formerly 
>  Communist states, but also in the US, where the right to abortion is seen by 
>  its foes as the epitome of the imperial nature of the federal government), 
>  cultural structures that predate the modern world, colonialism, etc, and 
>  perhaps, metaphorically, a parallel with earlier persecutions of women that 
>  were connected to capitalist transformations.
>  
>  I'm not sure why a number of these factors, in combination, might not be at 
>  work.
>  
> I would like to add one thing more to the list above:  Some cultures are very 
> protective of their women.  It might look like oppression to an outsider.  
> Women are the transmission belts of a culture.  They are the ones primarily 
> involved with imprinting cultural mores on young children, passing down 
> customs, traditions, etc.  When a culture feels threatened from outside 
> influences, I suggest that they clamp down on their women because they are 
> afraid of losing their culture.  (sorry - no historical evidence for this, 
> only my own observation.)
> Jane Shahi
>  
>