Li Yinhe talks about sex

Chapter 50 The Taliban and Gender Equality
Chinese women still have a long way to go to achieve complete equality between men and women.

According to the newspaper, during the five years of the Taliban's rule of power, women were banned from most occupations, from wearing high heels, from the streets without the company of male relatives, and from "showing their faces" (we saw some from news programs Women were whipped in the street by the police for not wearing a veil), and even executed for adultery.Most Chinese born after the 50s would feel appalling and inconceivable when they saw the above-mentioned situation; if they were women, they would secretly rejoice that they did not live in that terrible society.

Customs and concepts are an invisible force, and their oppression and prohibition on women cannot be ignored.There is a reciprocal causal relationship between latent ideas and manifest facts.In today's world, although the customs and concepts of different countries are different, many cultures have similarities in the norms of women's social roles.For example, generalize women as gentle, weak, and docile; require women to be in a secondary position; require women to be submissive to men; require women to sacrifice themselves for the interests of men; require women to depend on men, etc.

In order to prove that women are inferior to men, those who oppose the equality of men and women cite scriptures from religion and theology, and find evidence from science such as physiology and psychology.Even Western societies, which are far more enlightened and progressive than the Taliban in people's minds, are not immune.Western Christian culture has two major negative evaluations of women: the first is to list her as the first of all evils—the original fall of mankind was caused by Eve eating the forbidden fruit, and she was the chief culprit who drove mankind out of the Garden of Eden culprit.The second negative evaluation of women is: she is a vassal of men, and the original reason for her existence is that God, who is a companion to men, created women only because that man is "not good to live alone".Just like the Bible says that women are made from a rib of a man by God, many people still hold the view that men are fully human beings, while women are just a variation of men and a deviation from normality.For example, both Aristotle and Freud expressed the idea that "women are incomplete men".

Comparing the situation of Chinese women with Western women, the status of Chinese women who are only bound by ethics is slightly stronger than that of Western women who are bound by religious teachings; the status of Chinese women is also slightly higher than that of other Asian countries; compared with the Taliban Muslim women under the rule are even higher.Some Western scholars hold similar views, arguing that Chinese women have more freedom and a higher status than Japanese and Indian women.They have analyzed the reasons for this: In the eyes of the Chinese, sex life is insignificant compared with passing on the family line; although the Chinese like sex, they don't think it is very important.As a result, women can often be considered equals to their husbands and participate in their careers.Some observers in the UK even believe that the basic attitude of the Chinese towards life is far from the Indian style, but the modern Western style. Some concepts that even Westerners are unwilling to accept can be quickly and thoroughly adopted by the Chinese.Russell, who once went to China to give lectures, had such an impression.

The concept of gender in traditional Chinese culture is different from that in Western culture.This difference is firstly manifested in the fact that Chinese culture regards the distinction between the sexes as natural, and can naturally accept and recognize women and everything related to women.In contrast, in Western culture, women have never been accepted into the world, or considered equals and contributors to humanity, as naturally and easily as men.On the one hand, women are reduced to men's vassals; on the other hand, they are elevated to false ideals.Secondly, the differences between eastern and western cultures on gender issues are reflected in the fact that Chinese culture pays attention to the harmony of yin and yang, not only opposing the prosperity of yin and the decline of yang, but also the decline of yang. , nor does it mean that yin overwhelms yang, and yin destroys yang; but in Western culture, there is a meaning of emphasizing the contradiction between the two, so there will be emotions and tendencies such as misogyny and male hatred.This tendency is rare in Chinese culture.

However, it is undeniable that the status of women in traditional Chinese society is lower than that of men.This comes from the "Three Cardinal Guidelines and Five Constant Principles" (among which "husband guides wife"), "Three Obediences and Four Virtues" (among them "obey father before marriage, husband after marriage, and son after husband's death"), and the "seven outs" of a man's divorce (not Go with parents, go without children, go with adultery, go with jealousy, go with bad disease, go with talkative, go with theft) can be clearly seen.In Chinese values, yang is still superior to yin; even if the soft and weak can overcome the strong and strong, soft, weak, dark, and low are humble after all, while rigid, strong, bright, and high are noble.Although the two are considered to be in harmony, there is still a distinction between superiority and inferiority.Therefore, although there are cultural differences between the gender concept in Chinese culture and the gender concept in other cultures, they are not completely free from the barriers of patriarchy.Chinese women still have a long way to go to achieve complete equality between men and women.

(End of this chapter)