Sex at Dawn and Global Rankings of Women

The chapters in Sex at Dawn, homosexuality was not discussed. To generalize about male and female sexuality but to ignore sections of the population is problematic. I understand the authors to be critical of the commonly held beliefs of the past. The belief  that I find personally troubling is that women have sex for things. I know that our culture tells men that they should pay for women. This doesn’t mean prostitution or slavery. Men are the ones who are supposed to pay for the big things. They are the ones who are supposed to take care of women and financially support them. Obviously not everyone agrees with this. Many women that I know don’t want men to pay for them. Some people will argue that men should just be the ones that pay because they earn more money or that is just how life is. In this case, women don’t necessarily have to pay the men back. However, there is the growing cultural norm that if a man pays, a woman should “return the favor” sexually.  I do not agree with the idea that men can pay for women’s fidelity. To me, this seems like it takes away the concept of free will and the awareness of one’s actions.

On a unrelated note: This article looks at the relative ranking of women.

We like to think that the United States is the best place to live. In many cases this is true, but this article points out that in the case of women’s rights and equality, the US is not always the top. The categories are things like best place to earn money, to live long, and for the right to choose. Many of the places that top the list are surprising and not where one would normally expect. For example, the best place to be a politician is Rwanda. This list highlights some of the global inequalities between men and women. I think that by looking at what works in some countries we will see that there are alternatives to our current stance. For instance, Rwanda has a higher proportion of female politicians than the US. They have a minimum number of women who must be in the legislature. I don't think that mandating a certain number or percentage would work well in the US, but it gives hope to the possibility to increase the number that we currently have.