by Samata » Fri Apr 25, 2003 11:42 pm
“… living in herds,we were not civilized and we were not as advanced as we are today....” <br>
The original definition of Civilization was “living in cities.” To define human advancement as moving from a tribal organisation to the cities of today is, in my opinion, akin to defining cultured as wearing a suit. Let’s not argue semantics however, and use civilization in the sense that you intended. Human beings for the most part made a transition from a nomadic tribal existence to a civic society. Archaeological evidence has unveiled many proto-civilisations such as the Indus Valley Civilisation for example. Slowly evidence has been mounting that such cultures were matrlineal (properties are passed from mother to daughter) and women had a fairly high status and were on mostly equal terms with men. Interesting there is also evidence that sex was not criminalised as it is today, women (and for that matter men) were free to have pre-marital and extra-marital sex without it being considered an issue.
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There are various theories about the rise of patriarchy but there is considerable consensus that one of the fundamental tenets of a patriarchal society is the criminalisation of sex. For property to pass from father to son it is necessary to ensure that the mother has not had sex with any one else. The most effective way to do this would be to make sex with anyone other than the husband wrong and sinful. It is interesting that the major religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, however they may differ on all else, agree on one thing, that sex is wrong outside of marriage and must be severely punished. Also noteworthy is the punishment for transgression, men typically get off much more lightly then women. There are passages in the Bible, for example, which set the punishment for a man who rapes a woman as a fine to the father of the woman, however, the woman for the crime of being raped is to be stoned to death.
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“...it bind us in a society, remember those were the times when there were no police to save your skin...there was no law....so males were supposed to protect and they did....”
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What males protected was mostly their rights and privileges. Since women were mostly considered property they took precautions to protect their women same as slaveowners took precautions to protect their slaves from damage and theft.
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“....that they were forced to do so with \"brutal severity\"..is my friend not merely an exgageration..but in fact a sacrilege...” Practically every religion has rules which state that women who engage in premarital or extramarital sex can be burnt, stoned hanged, beaten and made outcasts. There is ample evidence that not only were these rules enforced in the past, they are still being enforced today.
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To take examples from popular culture, i.e. in our movies when a girl gets raped, she is either made to marry her rapist (talk about rubbing salt in the wound) or she is killed off in some fashion. It is very rare that she puts her life back together and goes on. A girl who willingly engages in premarital sex is again either killed or she is made into an outcaste who spends the rest of her life alone. The guy who engaged in sex with her however, gets to marry, have kids and live happily ever after. Naturally women get the lesson from an early age, that their so-called virtue is the only important thing they possess and that to lose it is to lose everything, even their life.
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In conclusion, I will say again, that sex between consenting adults is always okay.