Originally posted by return_to_hades
Basically, I think the article is just restating a narrow history of the west.
Western society went through a sexual/social revolution in the sixties. They only saw the civil rights movement where blacks received equal status in society, but the perspective towards women and sexuality also changed. Women were a full time stature in the workforce. Dual income families were the norm. Due to the pill and changing moral standards, women also felt more sexually liberated. This trend has continued as women get more independent and strong.
Some level of family disintegration rate does take place because one generation always has a harder time to accept change. Divorce rates spiked during the Regan era as people had a hard time accepting the more liberal stature of women, as well as challenges integrating multi-ethnicity. However, by the late nineties divorce rates dropped again and stabilized as the coming generations were more at ease and accepted this social and sexual change.
There is also that evangelical trend as the author does rightly point out. We see that here with the Baptists and evangelicals. Women (and men) who strongly reject and condone the independent, working and sexually liberated women. A small trend of stay at home moms popping a dozen children espousing family values, female subordination and feminine role in household. Liberal Europe has not seen this trend like the Americas. However, what the author fails to realize is that this faction is not really being seen as the respectable upholders of tradition and family - but as the religious crazies. Family values and religious values will always be important as we see even more and more liberal church going families - but the rigid sexual morals and gender stereotyping is a thing of the past.
Yes, men will also become more effeminate. As women find more liberty to be masculine and take on masculine tasks, men slowly take on some more feminine tasks. That is only if you view gender roles as rigidly separated. I personally don't see a problem why men baby sitting and changing diapers, cooking/cleaning or chatting with grandmas over soaps is overtly and wrongly effeminate. These are just societal and family functions and it should not matter which gender fulfills these roles, As long as each family finds their own happy balance.
Actually for the longest time the burden of home and work fell squarely on the women even in the west. While the eighties 'Tom Boy' image of girls became an acceptable cultural icon, boys still were terrified of expressing so called femininity. However, now with the emo movement, gleeks and other social subclasses men and boys are slowly finding it more and more acceptable to indulge in these so called feminine realms like emotion, poetry, fashion, make up, shopping etc.
What any sociologist ought to realize is that in reality its not one gender becoming stronger, or the masculinization of the female or feminization of the male - but it really is about both genders finding more freedom to be themselves, and each family finding more freedom to have their own dynamics.
Did you even read the article! You totally missed the points I was making. I am not against men and women sharing responsibilities. I am not against male partners of professionally well-settled females choosing to stay at home. Do you really think this article is about sharing the chores?
Your post is totally off tangent here, Sarina. I'll give you some examples via direct quotes from the article when I get some time. Something urgent came up at work so can't dig into it right now.
