Fair Love
Does sex need to be regulated? Yes. I think society and government should regulate marriage, contraception, abortion, prostitution, etc. The problem is that men in power tend to regulate women and behave like dicks. I think regulation of sex is important, but it’s only fair if women also get to decide. We need many more women in power. When power and sexuality are imbalanced, people get fucked.
Free love gives you AIDS, diseases and destroys families. There is of course a time and a place, and a natural inclination. It can be controlled and the lifestyle can be managed, basically with sensible contraception and education. Generally, however, marriage is a good institution which serves a great social need. I believe in fair love. People should be free, but the institution of marriage generally improves quality of life. It nurtures and protects women and children, as well as men. That’s why everyone should be able to marry a person they love, including gay people. It makes life a lot less chaotic for everybody.
This is, of course, rich coming from me, or any man really. Sexual regulations generally fall upon women. ‘Boys will be boys you know’, even when this extends to harassment, abuse, exploitation and even casual rape. Sexual regulations need to apply equally to boys, but boys are not in any hurry to pass such laws. I think the best solution is to put more women in power.
Women In Power
I am blessed to have some powerful and brilliant women in my life. From my mother to my editor at the Sunday Leader. There are successful women running businesses, families, and empires. Not to mention the housemaids and brave migrant workers who keep our economy afloat. Women are entirely capable of managing power and regulating their own sexuality for the public good.
By this I mean that issues like abortion, marriage, divorce, contraception and general ‘family values’ should be regulated by the government. I agree with that ‘conservative’ value. I just think we need to be fair in implementing it. You can’t have regulation without representation, and women are being shafted. We need a lot more women in power. That’s the only way it’s fair.
There is more on this subject from Halik.
Sans sexuality and its regulation…
Aside, I was wondering if SL has political reservation for women? Just curious as I was reading this Econ paper on how the 1/3 political reservation rule in some Indian states (West Bengal for example) has helped reduce the bias against women. i.e. experimental studies suggest that those “old value” social norms which dictate that women should not be in leadership positions still prevail but if we increase the number of female politicians by force and they are viewed as competent then this helps mitigate the taste bias.
Anyway, Indi is right, there is evidence that suggests that women politicians tend to favor public good provisions and regulations that the females under her governance desire whereas male leaders cater more to male wants. Hence we do need more female politicians in power to balance the voices –(in particular His Excellency…..eeeek).
If anyone’s interested in the paper: http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/3122
good stuff.
Few years ago, the most powerful person on this island was a woman. And what did that change for women? Pretty much nothing.
What we need, I believe, is a change in attitude, not just an increment of number of women in power. A whole change of how men (as well as momen) think of this whole issue.
I think expecting a single powerful woman to change attitudes towards women is unrealistic. Often, women in power (particularly politicians such as CBK and Margaret Thatcher) have reached that pinnacle by actually being like men, by having attitudes that can equal or beat the strong men they’re competing against, and not by being different.
For instance, While Mitterrand thought Thatcher had the lips of Marilyn Monroe, he also said she had the eyes of Caligula. Zbigniew Brzezinski said that “In her presence, you pretty quickly forget that she’s a woman. She doesn’t strike me as a very female type.” ‘Itar-Tass’ first called her the Iron Lady in 1979, but by 1984 Yasser Arafat was calling her the “Iron Man”. When an interviewer suggested to feminist Gloria Steinem that the English never expected that they’d ever have a female PM, Steinem replied “They were right.”
I think to change men’s attitudes towards women, we need to change how they view ALL women, and not just A woman.
changing attitude is pretty vague. Nice thought, but how do you turn it into action.
Increased female representation is a pretty concrete goal that would create results. This doesn’t mean a dynastic leader who largely keeps the traditional power structure intact. It means a shitload more women in powerful positions low and high, from municipal councils to parliament to corporate boards.
“Women are entirely capable of managing power and regulating their own sexuality for the public good.”
So women need to regulate THEIR sexuality for the PUBLIC good? Does that imply women have to lead sex lives based on what is good for the public rather than themselves??? Hahahaha
Mate I have bang different women regularly, and they LOVE to submit to a man who knows how to lead. At least in that case, they prefer that I regulate their sexuality ;) Did it ever cross your mind that maybe deep down inside women WANT to be lead?
Totally irrelevant comment. More a suggestion for Kottu.
You should consider changing the right side bar on kottu’s ‘Popular Post’ from displaying URL to the post name.
No reason why it should display ugly feedburner URLs.
A lot of people are using Google’s Feedburner to distribute and syndicate their content through Google. When you have URLs on your sidebar, you can’t identify what the post is about till you click it. All feedburner feed urls start with “feed..”
You cant expect EVERY internet user to know that when you hover over the URL the address is displayed on the browser’s status bar below. More user friendly the better right?
Please switch from urls to the post title, or find a module that can do it on WP.
Thanks Indi!
Some very interesting coments from Dr Kaluarachchi
any comments left by a Dr. Kaluarachchi were, I believe, fraudulent and not by that person. They’ve been removed.
Dear Indi,
Thanks for removing the stupid remarks made in my name by a sick old imposter!
Cheers
Dr K K