Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
When did this idea that everyone must fill the same role come into place? This is a new one to me, though I have seen the progression slowly move that direction since the 1990s, but it seems like now it has gone to the Borg extreme.
Let's break it down.
a significantly large part of Japan's population considers women and men to have strongly typecast roles,
"Typecast" has a negative connotation, but to "correct" this statement I would say a large part of the population sees men and women taking different roles.
What is wrong with that?
Let's look at the opposite: Men and women should fill the same roles.
Then what is the point of a child having a mother and father? I mean, if men and women are filling the same roles, can't they both fill in for each other perfectly fine? This is modern thinking and I think it is fundamentally and biologically flawed. First of all, men and women cannot fill the same roles, as a man with never birth a child. So from inception, men and women, males and females fill different roles. And that goes beyond just carrying and birthing a baby. But it goes beyond that, and you don't have to look further than the animal world. Name a species where the male and female fill the exact same roles. It simply isn't economical.
But, OK, let's take it to modern human society. Is believing a man and woman should fill the same roles the same fighting discrimination? I don't think so. Discrimination means you think one side is BETTER than the other, simply by association. However, thinking different people are better fit to fill different roles isn't the same thing.
Let's look at traditional Japanese and Western nuclear family structures: The father goes to work all day to support the family and the mother maintains the home and raises the children during the day. Isn't this what we consider an ideal fundamental family structure? What is wrong with this structure? That the father and mother are not doing the exact same things?
OK, then let's put both mom and dad as career-driven money-winners. Kids come home at 3:30, but mom and dad aren't home until 6:00. Who is cleaning the house and getting dinner ready?
Or the other way around, both mom and dad stay home and raise the kids... wait, that can't work. There is no money.
Just because men and women play different roles doesn't mean one is being oppressed or discriminated against.
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It seems to me like what you've just done is argue that discrimination is ok.
Discrimination isn't about better or worse, just about a bias or prejudgement.
Which is exactly what you pointed out is going on, good or not.
Good or bad, conscious or subconscious, the way these prejudices occur they still have a direct effect on "Women's rights in Japan or eslwhere" (the title of the thread)
on a side note:
the example you gave with both parents working, kids home 3:30 etc.
that was my childhood, both my parents work, I had clubs or whatever on some days and they picked me up on the way home, the independence on the other days did me good. it was a nice life, no problems with that, my mom and my dad both had great jobs, where's the problem in that?
Who is cleaning the house and getting dinner ready?
how filthy does a house get? we cleaned it each weekend as a family, it took a few hours out of sunday afternoon, big deal. My father and mother cooked together or took turns and swapped cleaning afterward... I seriously don't get the issue.