[Leprucky Cougar]

Originally Posted by ChronoGrl

"How much more time?" - Are you serious? You're talking about reversing hundreds of years of ingrained and perpetuated assumptions surrounding gender roles... Do you honestly think change would be easy?? Look - I'm a bleeding heart liberal, but I'm a REALIST. You can't even GOOGLE "Tienanmen Square" when inside China and expect results (How do I know that? I spent a year there with no online access to the BBC because of purposeful internet censoring) - the individual's life is so incredibly controlled by the government that it's horrifying. Do you think that the One Child Policy is honestly the biggest issue there?

You're over-simplifying.

Boys = Strong. Can do the farm work. Will physically support the family.
Girls = Baby-makers.

It's not about hating women. If men have typically been the bread-winners OR those who help and physically assist with chores on the family farm, then of COURSE they are favored. In this case, it's a matter of wanting a member of your family who will be able to inherent and run the family farm/business. Traditionally, men take these roles. Therefore, these families favor male babies. So it's not about "hate." "Hate" is far too simple a word to encompass a patriarchal system of ingrained misogyny.

But that doesn't even MATTER because, to tell you the truth, the One Child Policy isn't even enforced in most of the country. The main purpose of the legislation is to legally collect bribes from rich couples who want a big family (if you want more than one child; just pay off the government officials).

The problem with China doesn't come down specifically to the One Child Policy - the country is completely controlled and manipulated by the government (it's so incredibly surreal how close the society is to 1984 there). Women DO deserve these rights, yes, but it will not be easy and to assume that it is is incredibly short-sighted. It is SO easy for our Western culture to rail against what we believe to be the inferior foibles of the Eastern World, but we HAVE to think about it in context. Women honestly believe that their place is in the kitchen; it's the same place where our women were in the 40s and 50s - on the VERGE of revolution, but still scared and embracing the roles that have been set out for them.

It's happening. It truly is. We just have to recognize that this is a significantly older society than ours and that their ethics and mores have been ingrained for a much longer time. Just saying, "CHINA NEEDS TO CHANGE" is all well and good, but you have to understand why they are where they are before railing against their way of life. It seems slightly imperialistic and condescending. Take it into perspective. Show outrage, sure, but realistic about it.

I totally get what you're saying. And it's not that I'm rushing for China's big "break" from the former upbringing. Like you said, I was displaying my "outrage." It was meant to be rhetorical question anway. But I get you. I just wanted to emphasize that it wasn't impossible.