General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Where have societies' views of women come from? [View all]LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Early man realized that by keeping their women, and possessing the women of the neighboring tribe, they could overcome that tribe through basic population growth. The larger the community, the more able to resist other tribes. From that point, women became property.
Imagine if the men of one tribe killed 2/3 of the men of another tribe. This victory would be meaningless unless the women were possessed, because one man can easily keep three women pregnant all at once. So the neighboring tribe, within a single generation, would be back to full fighting strength. But by overcoming their defenses and taking their women, it wouldn't matter how many males on each side were killed, the first tribe possessed the second tribe's future. That tribe is now doomed unless they can gain their women back. Evolution took over, and every tribe that valued their women defeated every tribe that didn't. Hence why not a single culture is matriarchal, and patriarchy is universal-- the necessity of treating women like a precious object rather than equal of men is the dominant breeding strategy. Women cannot resist this strategy to assert themselves because they are physically unable to resist men. Our bodies are bigger, with more muscle, our skulls thicker to sustain more damage, our joints are formed to kill, and we are naturally more aggressive because of high testosterone levels.
This is part of the reason men are viewed as disposable. After all, we are descended from twice as many women as men. The death of a thousand men is irrelevant so long as a tribe can defend a defensible position, or can escape capture. In other words, to keep their women. Women, unfortunately, were too valuable. Their ability to reproduce made them literally the most important asset of men, more than gold or any other property. That doesn't mean they were necessarily treated well, but their lives were protected and given a special value, hence so many societal views about women being objects.
I think if women had not possessed the ability to give birth, or had equal ability to mete out violence as men, we would have a more equal society. Alas, nature and evolution had a different idea. Our views of women and men are merely the products of the dominant breeding strategy since humans first formed tribes.