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The rise of feminism has negatively impacted relationships

First of all, welcome to my debate; I am excited to continue and are very pleased to meet you. I think I will try and address your argument piece by piece in a chronological fashion. "My opponents entire argument is based on shallow, generalizations on the difference between men and women, however there's no scientific evidence or statistics to back his claims. All the reader is left with are relative, cliche "observations" based solely from the point of view of my opponent." In what format would you prefer the citation? I will continue with APA for now. There are many significant distinctions between males and females, within numerous areas of distinction. For instance: in brain hormone function (e.g. Nishizawa, 1997; Giedd, 2012), sexual behaviour and preference (Carrol, 1985) and across a wide range of personality measures (Hyde, 2014). There are studies galore to be found highlighting differences, I don"t think it"s a controversial topic; it is also assumtion held by every culture known to man for thousands of years. Also, its pretty self-evident from life experience that males are different from females, though its "un-scientific" it doesn"t make it false. As you are the one making the radical assumption that males and females have no differences, I feel the burden of proof lies with you. This point about life experience I want to come back to at the end and relate it to your last argument. Use of the word "driving seat", I understand it needs some explanation; it was not a good choice of words. What I mean is that males are more suited to the external family situation (job, money, future plans) and so from the outside could be considered in "control" of the family. I do not mean that men should hold any power over a women or be able to hit them or anything ridiculous like that. Lets be serious here and stop boxing off the world into devil people and Saints: the word is more nuanced. Women and men should be equal in rights of course. (http://www.actforlibraries.org...) Here is a quote from a meta-analytical study of gender differences: "In reality nature has designed the two genders to have compatible, but differing psychological strengths, simply to ensure that a suitable balance is achieved in the male/female relationship" "if my opponent could prove that women are "less stable then men", or "people are less happy than ever in relationships" Women less stable than men: The world health organisation, over a huge meta-analytical study found overwhelmingly that women suffered greater from mental health problems (up to 40% more), (World Health Organization; 2002). People less happy than ever in relationships: Peoples relationships are shorter than ever now; look it up in two seconds you will find evidence. Blanchflower (2004) found that since the 70s, satisfaction in life has decreased and flatlined in both the US and Britain. Its hard to demonstrate correlation, however studies show how the more egalitarian a couple is, the more conflict within the relationship and the lesser lifespan expected (Kaufman, 2000). Science is limited in its ability to prove that people are less happy in relationships but it does show that conflict is increased and length of the relationship is decreased. This may be an indication that satisfaction levels are lower. "Our relationships are not publicly influenced" "My opponent so far has failed to show how public attitudes can effect private relationships" Now this is gross misconception, but a common one. I think "can"t see the wood for the tree"s" is the quickest way to explain your error here; in my view. You think your not influenced by the wider society in your relationship? I would go out on a limb here and suggest that 90% of your relationships" experiences, opinions and practices are publicly influenced. Let me explain: Are you monogamous or do you have a large number of husbands/boyfriends? What about your partner, are you one of his wives? If not then you fit into a minority of cultural practices in which the two person relationship is the norm " namely Christian cultures. So there"s one way in which your influenced by the public. What about ownership? Are you owned by your husband? No? well that"s odd by traditional standards: why do you do it like that and not the normal way? Because the public has changed its mind perhaps? Or is it you, if you lived in the middle ages would you know better, from your gender studies in medieval sixth form collage? Do you wear a veil? Why? Why not? Is your husband the only man who is allowed to look at you, or not? Why not? Do you share everything equally or is one expected to more/less of anything? How do you divide the labour? Whatever practices and beliefs you hold, they have come from the society. No person is an island. Women who wear the Niqab or Hijab say the same as you: that it is their choice and an expression of their individualism and freedom. Everybody feels like the decisions they make are their own and that they are individuals who are pure and un-sculpted by their society. Many argue that the more people feel this way, the more they are influenced by it! It is simply not true to say that our relationships are not publicly influenced. And I think its fairly self-evident from what I have eluded and from looking at the world that relationships are effected by public attitude. Stop tacking my relationship onto you barely coherent "observations" of relationships I don"t want to descend into an argument over grammar, but I recommend being careful when insulting someone"s grammar to not absolutely butcher the sentence insulting my ability to write sentences lol. I wouldn't be surprised if my opponents opinions stem from a bad relationship experience he had, and he's still seething with rage, and this is some kind of attempt at a philosophical temper tantrum as an outlet for his anger (or he has some deep seated "mommy issues") nevertheless, his arguments are baseless, illogical, and rather unflattering. I'm embarrassed AT him! This is spot on well done. Except for the mommy issues I think, or perhaps they are unconscious I don"t know! I am still with the spouse that turned me from staunch feminist to misogynist if your interested, she is locked in the basement now with my two daughters who are to be my wives. Now that"s my choice and I certainly don"t let public opinion influence my attitude to relationships! Seriously though, my opinion has been formed over an eight year relationship with marriage and two children and I think its hard for anyone to have a legitimate opinion on these matters without such an experience; not that this experience gives you the right opinion, I am not suggesting I am right because of my experience. But this experience, as well as researching this issue for a study and hearing many conflicting opinions, has led me to this conclusion. I would like to point out, if it helps my standing, that I have been a staunch feminist all my life until about 6 months ago; so I am sincere and well rounded in my opinion. My relationship experience has taught me however, to get back on track, that women are better suited to childcare and housekeeping. My partner takes far more pride in appearance than I do, and this is common across the board, she loves furnishings, decoration and patterns, to make the house look attractive: she will dress the kids smartly and always dislikes how I dress them: she will sit for ages and clean their ears, pick spots, etc and has the patience to play for prolonged periods and be comforting. I will do shorter sessions of play but mine will be task oriented such as cooking or building something, while she will put up with their nonsensical games (equally valuable). I look to the future and thus have dietary restrictions and savings accounts in mind; I will say when we have the money to go on holiday, then she can be in charge of that. She lives in the moment and will have fun, and I will check that by making sure we don"t spend to much money and eat loads of junk food etc. I also run a business and look to expand it to make a profit for the family to continue having fun. My wife however is extremely emotional at times and it causes arguments that can spur out of control because of irrationality on my partners part. This, every man, and I mean every man (over the age of 22) (please if you"re a man in the comments back me up on this) admits to overly frequent "crazy" behaviour on the part of their spouse. My argument basically boils down to this: In many ways feminism encourages the attitude that women can do all the things that men can do (as well as men) and that feminine attributes are somehow lesser in value than masculine attributes and should not be praised. Could I be right in suggesting that your reaction to housekeeping and childcare supports my point? If I had said: "better suited to having a career and making money" you might not have had a problem. What is wrong with raising children I ask you? What is wrong with taking pride in your and your families appearance, and that of your dwelling? Ironically it is feminism that, nowadays, attacks womanhood-at least in this way. Teaching women to be ashamed of doing housework and raising children full time has disrupted the natural balance of duties and roles within the household. Studies show how egalitarian households experience higher levels of conflict, which leads to a lack of stability and shorter relationships. This is a negative impact on relationships. Equality is expected, and no laws should compel this sort of behaviour, but my argument is that feminism negatively impacts relationships and, in this way, I believe it has.