The gender of woman, across the spectrum of time brings with it a brevity that a child comes to understand from the first time a sibling is born or a doll is given as a gift. There is a certain 'responsiblity' that is uniquely female regardless of any other aspect of a genome.
From time beginning it was woman that 'fathered' the future. They 'toed the line' with a social understanding of their 'role' and their 'place.' Even in the earliest days of human existance women tended to gravitate to sedentary lifestyles. They primarily tended to their children with or without the help of men.
The earliest agrarians were women. When humans were hunters and gatherers, it was usually the woman with child in tow that gathered and stayed away from danger rather than hunted. Fishing was probably a venture worthwhile in fresh water streams but where the sea was wild and cruel, it was the Viking men that sailed to Iceland and Greenland to settle land unknown.
There are many places in anthropology where women worshiped their own image. Indeed, they built temples to gods that had big bellies and worshipped in caves that were considered wombs of the gods. Community started with women. They found it easier to raise children in a group for protection and provisions. Villages were not bi-gender until just before the great Greek society. As a matter of fact, women were invaded by roaming Hellenic tribes of men. They were already civilized farmers raising children from transient men. When the Hellenic tribes became less nomadic and more territorial the men settled in the villages of women. It was then the male gods were adapted to match the female gods. Eventually, these gods and goddesses were adopted into the Greek culture. That is why there are frequently Gods and Goddesses of the same rhelm.
The Hellenic Culture would lead to the Greek's Rhea and Hera along with Zeus whom were leaders of the Gods. Moms and Dad if you will. Aphrodite was the goddess of love, beauty. desire and sexuality. Apollo was healing, music and light with his golden chariot driving the sun across the sky. He literally made the sun rise and set according to mythology. Artemis was Apollo's twin sister and goddess of the hunt and protector of the young. She is the counter part to Aphrodite as the virgin goddess of chastity. Athena was a worrior but only to protect the homeland and invented the bridle to tame horses. She was the goddess of wisdom, reason and purity. She was Zeus's favorite and the only diety allowed to play with his weapons including thunderbolts. Demeter was the goddess of fertility and harvest while Dionysus is the god of the vine. Hades was the god of the underworld with his wife Persphone. The list goes on from there and as a consequence seems to have been carried forward even after the collapse of the Greek Empire into the days of Rome and the rise of the Roman Empire.
The exception to all this came to be known as monotheism. That 'occurred' with the tribes of Israel. Regardless, the worship of any peoples, the women were always set in a class alone. Romans closed their society by isolating what was coined as a 'real Roman,' a Patrician, a wealthy landowner. Roman culture only allowed marriages to each other and not any of the people they conquered. The royalty of Europe would share the same enthusiasm. Here again is the coveted uterus. The pure identity of a 'blue blood,' so to speak. The most egregious of coveted status still existing today is one of racism that carries with it stigmas for those that practice it for superior social status based on skin color. Imagine that. We all came from the same family tree but somehow a white woman's uterus is different from that of a black woman.
Virginity.
Virgin.
What exactly does it mean?
Something superior to other women?
Not hardly.
Virgin is a woman with an intact hymen. If a young woman happens to snap a hymen while riding horses, if there is such a thing, then they are no longer a virgin.
Another definition is a person who has not had sex with THE OPPOSITE GENDER. This term is primarily referring to women. Men are expected to be borne knowing about sex and practicing it from the time they suckle. A young mother might wonder if her disposable diaper is simply wet or a wet dream. Sorry, I just had to go there. So, to realize a virgin is a person that hasn't had sex with the opposite gender does that mean gays are always virgins?
As a matter of fact there are a lot of firsts:
-first kiss.
-first orgasm, which does not have to occur with the first kiss.
-first orgasm from/with another person "Look Ma, no hands!"
-first time in love, which does not have to occur at the first time one kisses or has sex.
-first time enjoyed sex. which does not have to occur with marriage.
-first pregnancy.
-and nearly anything else that a body can experience in the rhelm of pleasurable feelings.
Time warping a bit to early 1900 America, the 'struggle' of women to achieve 'status' was an entirely different issue. Status until the Sufferage Movement was primarily based on being married, having children and the role you took in the community including wealth. Oh, a woman could be educated but that rarely occurred anywhere except among the upper class. The Debutants. Even then the cultured were rarely business women so much as extensions of Daddy or Husband's wealth in carrying out benefits to society. Children first, you know.
I don't hate children. I have two of my own. I was not a teen bride and as you will read herein, the pregnancies were by choice. I have only been pregnant twice in my lifetime and both were carried to birth. I have been a devoted parent. It shows. They are both doing fairly well as young men. But, in a world where the parenting was mostly left to me, the achievements of a this woman was delayed and there are definately days when life just doesn't seem long enough.
My experience is not entirely unique, it is a proven fact that women enter politics in the USA a full ten years behind men. Politics is not my ambition.
That said, to take a look at the beginnings of the woman's movement is to realize it started with the Sufferage Movement. The Vote. There were primarily two women that would come to be known as the primary force behind change for women. Those two women were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Cady Stanton was never celebrated in this country while the USA minted the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. Cady is an interesting woman. Married. Family. Rarely traveled and then only with her spouse. Sometimes to Europe. Susan never married and travel frequently speaking to audiences. She was seen as the mover and shaker to the Sufferage Movement, but, it was Cady that was the real inspiration. The two women were very close friends while Cady's spouse frequently traveled away from home on business. It seemed as though every time he came home Cady would get pregnant.
Back in the day, pregnancy was serious business and for that reason Susan Anthony would come to appreciate the idea that women weren't supposed to be 'chattel' so much as persons with a say in life and a control over their responsibilities including that of the size of the family they raised. Cady would die before Susan with her adult children at her side and her spouse estranged from her. For that estrangement the community ostracized her and did not embrace her. Susan helped support the children with her income from speaking engagements.
After the Sufferage Movement, Black Men were first given the vote. Eventually that would be extended to women.
Birth control for women has always been an issue. Religion always sought to dictate past it. When my Grandmother of 94 years would speak to her granddaughters it was not to remove the precepts of religion but to insure they had a life and identity beyond that of a spouse.
She grew to know in the USA, she was first generation born in this country, that a promise of self fulfillment was extended to women as well as men. She was sorry her daughters didn't have careers or educations beyond high school. But, she insured every one of her forty grandchildren did have a college education and a career to fall back on.
She believed in birth control. It was against the teachings of her faith but she didn't care. She had been the mother of eleven children. She didn't want that for any of her daughters although she had many grandchildren. She certainly didn't want it for her granddaughters and it was 'the pill' that would be a common practice among the family of cousins. Not one child was born out of wedlock. And not one child was conceived before marriage. My grandmother was a very smart woman and prayed twice daily. She said, she didn't believe a man could ever understand the body or needs of a woman but only seek to be a part of her life and that of a family. She felt the goal of any of her grandchildren were to be competent as adults in a way that was pleasing to society while enjoying their own lives. None of her forty grandchildren ever saw a jail or prison. Heck, we rarely got traffic tickets.
Women have a right to the same opportunities as men. They have different bodies. Different hormones. Different physiology. That doesn't equate to oppression of the female will.
In order to achieve in life there needs to be a plan for parenthood. There is a difference between sexuality and pregnancy. The two do not equate. When my grandmother was a spouse she was a housewife and mother of eleven children. She rarely knew what a menstral cycle was. Women today have opportunity that was deprived of Elizabeth Cady Staton. They have status in this society that was not afforded to Mrs. Stanton. They have status even if they are single parents whom have never been married. Women pay taxes. They join the military. They serve in elected offices. They are professionals across the spectrum, cashiers, waitresses, flight attendants and very, very frequently single parents.
Women seek enjoyment and social fulfillment no different than their male counterparts and god damn it they like sex, too. Sexuality is a woman's right and an obligation to herself. That sexuality should never be oppressed or exploited but allowed to be expressed in the manner a woman feels comfortable. We consent to sex and expect to have rape taken seriously in all areas of life.
Reproductive freedom and responsible parenting is where sexuality needs to focus and not the 'idea' that a woman's life is better defined in childbirth without recourse to prevent it or stop it. A child is not a child until it is born. A woman, in my opinion, is socially raped when she does not have the options she needs to carry out life's goals in a manner she understands and chooses.
Whether married, single or divorced a woman's body is her own. I don't see 'CHOICE' as an option so much as a requirement in today's world and certainly not in any free society that values quality of life. The Oppression of Enforced Pregnancy is a social crime and should never be allowed again in this country or any other civilized country. Pregnancy is a medical condition requiring the attendance of a doctor and not a definition of womanhood.
Men and women are different and we should celebrate that difference but not by oppressing women into unwanted pregnancies.
