Fidelity
Posted by Marie Bernadette on January 27, 1998 at 23:36:03:
In response to respect..., written by P. Bingham on January 27, 1998 at 19:11:33
...In Jane Austen's time it was acceptable for the man to be unfaithful but if the woman did such a thing... even now it can be constrewed the same way...
I think things are changing in our time, however, and mostly due to science. Since men realised that they father children (a fairly recent discovery, evolution-wise, only seven or eight thousand years ago; before that they thought women just magically produced children. That was a time when women were respected- as givers of life!) they have taken all the credit. At first Woman was the soul life-giver. That is where we get our ancient mother goddesses from, but when men began shepherding animals they noticed that the ewes that were kept apart from the rams did not have little lambies and the ewes that were around the rams did have little lambies. When men realised that they had a...um...hand in creating life they went to the other extreme and then Woman the Goddess became Woman the Vessel for Man's Seed. This was still pretty much how things stood in JA's time. Man said, "You must remain Virgins so that we may know that our children are ours and not some other fellows!" and Woman said, "Why do you not just respect us enough to take our word for it?" "But what if you yourself do not know?" countered Man, because sometimes, She did not know. And so the arguement continued. One woman, in the late 18th, early 19th century proposed that women should be allowed to have affairs when pregant because the child's father was already known and she could not get pregnant when she already was. (Pausing for a breath). Men's infidelity was winked at but if woman could not be unfaithful for reasons of ensuring paternity, then men should have been expected to be faithful so as not to spread venereal disease (for which no truly good cures existed at the time). These days, however, thanks to science, we have paternity tests and, well, there goes that old arguement. (Of course, we still have reasons for both sexes to be faithful- respect, love, honour, VD...). I know I have probably set off a carronade with all of this (which is what I do best) but even those who would be my opponents have to admit it provides lots of food for thought. Of course, the books I will be expected to quote from are at my mother's house right now, as she has borrowed them, but I shall quote to everyone's heart's content as soon as she returns them. I hope all this has at least been interesting.
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