WOMEN AND MARRIAGE.
As someone on a gender journey, I can say that Clementine Ford’s only crime with her latest book is to be correct. She says that marriage is not advantageous to women, and it never has been.
If we examine Japan for a comparison with the West, if a Japanese couple had only daughters, they could adopt the son-in-law and he would then take his wife’s surname when they married. But when a Japanese woman married, she was given her umbilical cord in a white envelope with the hope that she would be reincarnated as a male.
In the West, unless a man has a surname such as Smith or Jones, and his wife has a famous connection, and they hyphenate the name, a woman would typically take her husband’s surname. In modern times, a woman may choose to hyphenate her surname when she marries, and some professional women retain their birth surname for professional purposes, and some women do not take their husband’s surnames.
The ridiculous doctor who purports to be a feminist, but is actually a misogynist, talks about how women are tired and purports to be sympathetic, yet offers subtle blame game rather than acknowledging that what is really needed is for men to do their share of the housework. I remember also, Australia’s 726 Day Embarrassment, the Prince Knighting Nincompoop, performing the stunt of ironing a pair of trousers in a dry-cleaning shop and making the preposterous and insulting comment that the “housewives of Australia, while they’re doing the ironing, need to understand the importance of coal.” Hello, environmental concerns tend to be more associated with feminism, but that implies lesser intelligence on women’s part.
Also, the female anti-feminist, hanson, claimed that the media had to stop demonizing men! Women are more likely to be the victims of domestic violence, but let’s face reality, the men who have the #notallmen hashtag are just defending their own honour. Nobody is saying that all men are abusers, but all men have an obligation to call out abusers.
I am glad that I didn’t ever get married, and unless I had a woman who was bisexual, it probably wouldn’t work out, and sometimes, even if a woman does appreciate a male partner who helps around the house, her friends may be jealous for a while, but she might get tired of it.
While there are couples who are celebrating their 50th, 60th or even 70th Anniversaries, one of the greatest times for divorce is the 40s to the 70s. Why? Well, particularly before the advent of social media, when school reunions were advertised in the local papers, say a husband and wife did not go to the same high school, and the wife says that she wants to go to her 25–30-year reunion, and says that she’s keen to see so and so, when she arrives there, she meets up with another classmate and asks how so and so is and they say, “Oh, didn’t you know? So and so died two years ago.” And the wife, in the car on the way home, has an epiphany, and thinks that her husband has his happening career, and she had been a traditional wife, but she realises that half of her life has gone by and she wants to return to university and pursue a career, and her husband is not supportive. Having said that, there are men who are supportive. Also, sometimes the husband, if he has been the breadwinner, when he retires, he wants to slow down, whereas the wife thinks, “Okay, now he’s retired, I want us to be able to do this, this and this,” or the husband thinks, “Okay, now I’ve retired, I want to buy an offroad caravan and travel around Australia,” and the wife says, “An off-road caravan?! I’m not interested in roughing it!” And the couple think, “Is THIS who I married?” because they’ve spent so much time apart. And, to further rubbish the ridiculous doctor’s claim, it’s not always someone of the opposite sex who led the partner astray, either.
And let’s face another fact, women don’t have as much to retire on. To further rubbish the ridiculous doctor’s claim that men shouldn’t have to act or behave like men in order to be heard, if a woman wants to be single and pursue a career, that should be respected. And even if she marries and wants to pursue a career, the same should apply! And the misogynistic claim that men want women to be “a bit more feminine” is just that! A woman shouldn’t have to be a demure wallflower to attract a man!
If a woman doesn’t want to get married, let the men who find her a threat go into a sulk because they can’t find a woman who’ll meet their criteria! And what needs to be respected in regards to women is freedom to be and freedom of choice!