Palm and Back of the Hand
There is a word feminist that represents that women should have equal rights to men, but there is no word to describe that men should have the same rights as women. A majority of people believe that women are inferior to men. Especially in the old Chinese society, women used to be restricted by harsh moral regulations. Women not only got married arranged by their parents, but also could not have a second marriage. One of the most unacceptable customs was feet binding, which was a malformed product of the patriarchal society. In ancient times, men preferred women who had tiny feet, so women wrapped their feet tightly in cloth to attract men, yet their feet grew slowly out of shape. The May Fourth Movement in 1919 was declared that women in Chinese society should be equal to men, which influenced my family.
During the May Fourth Movement, some intellectuals were against the corrupt custom of feet binding, and the Republic of China’s government tried hard to abolish this custom and not obligate families by force. Meanwhile, in my grandparents’ generation, people started to marry based on love. Although feminism was beginning to be paid attention to in the 1900s, the thought of son preference for my grandparents was deeply rooted. They thought that men are more important than women in a family. My grandparents used to live in the countryside and do farm work to earn a living. There is no doubt that men are physically stronger than women. In addition, having a son was an important mission for my grandmother. After she gave birth to three daughters, she finally gave birth to a son, who was the best gift for her.
Unlike my grandparents, some parents gradually abandoned this outdated conception of gender inequality in my parents’ generation. My parents treat my little brother and me almost as equals. In education, both my little brother and I are getting the best possible education supported by my parents. In our daily life, we both receive deep love from my parents. However, the traditional thought that has been passed down for thousands of years is not so easily changed. My parents believe that bringing up a son can provide for their old age, but as a daughter, I cannot take good care of them after I get married. They are even planning to leave their house to my little brother after they leave this world. In China, parents’ houses are for sons, not for daughters. I feel disappointed that my parents do not treat my brother and me equally in all respects.
Unfortunately, the old idea of gender inequality caused the vicious cycle of problems to modern Chinese society. The Inherited main duty for women is to take care of babies and housekeeping. If a woman has a baby, she is going to be inferior to men in the workplace because she has to balance family and job, so she may losses her job and be a housewife reluctantly. Besides, the baby gender test is not allowed by the Chinese government, but there are a lot of parents who take the risk and do the test. There was a policy in China that each family can have one child only. Limited by the one-child policy, many women had an abortion if they knew the baby was a girl. It caused an overflow of baby boys in the past 20 years. Therefore, there is a serious imbalance in the proportion of men and women in China nowadays. According to the census data in 2019, more than seventy-one million people were men and only sixty-seven million women. It also means lots of men have a hard time getting married in China.
As the women’s status has been improving, the corrupt tradition of gender inequality is being abandoned by my generations. There is an old saying in China, “Both the palm and the back of the hand are flesh.” It can be applied to the old custom of son preference - both sons and daughters should be cherished by their parents. If one day I have children, they should be treated equally without gender bias. Every individual should not be treated unequally because of their gender. If the word feminism ever becomes old-fashioned, it will symbolize the beginning of real equality between men and women.
I have heard of this custom, such feet are called three inch Golden Lotus. I know that even now, in some backward rural areas of China, there will be a preference for boys over girls.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that men and women should be equal and I also will treat my children equally when I have them.
ReplyDeleteThere are still in some countries that women are not treated equally, and their voices are not heard. In my religious, both genders are treated the same but some parents like to cherish girl over boy because girl is more respectful, and hard working than boy.
ReplyDeleteAiling~I so understand your point! Last generation prefers boys indeed. I suffered an unequal treatment with my male cousins from my grandparents when I was child. Fortunately, my parents give much love to me. My father did not care that his child was a boy or a girl when I was in my mother's belly.
ReplyDeleteHi. The first picture is amazing, and I have never seen before. Turkish people had the same opinion that is men are more important the women in a family. However, their opinion changed successfully last fifteen years. I like your essay, and I learned something. Thank you :)
ReplyDeleteHi, Ailing. Gender equality is a big issue all over the world, and it's a really important issue. Although many countries in the past considered men more important than women, I think we must treat everyone equally.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, in some religions men have more authority than women, but most people interpret this concept wrong. If men respected women as needed there might have been better relationships between people all of the world...
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