Branches of modern Feminism have encouraged the...
The rise of feminism has negatively impacted relationships
I feel like we are getting off topic. So my three basic assumptions go as follows: 1."feminism" is the agreed term for the movement towards equality of women. Branches of modern Feminism have encouraged the assumption that males and females are the same and that women who opt for the "housewife" role are somehow brainwashed, in servitude to their spouse or are behaving like second-class citizens in a way. At least they do not hold this role on a pedestal. 2.The attitude that women should be financially equal to men or that there should be no separation of roles, leads to negative consequences in relationships. 3.Therefore this particular attitude, borne out of feminism, when adopted, leads to negative consequences within the relationship. I will attempt to extract my opponents arguments against these principles and dispute them. My opponents first contention with my argument is with the notion that feminism, or public attitudes at all for that matter, effect peoples relationships at all. This is an interesting and groundbreaking claim: that the attitude the public hold does not effect the relationships the public have with one another; does my opponent see his error? Lets hear him out: "I'm still not quite sure how he thinks public attitudes affect our relationships. I can't blame him though, rational people (like ourselves) are not easily swayed by silly wankerisms. Look, it's simple. If you prefer a traditional relationship with your spouse, that's YOUR choice of how YOU feel the household should be run. If your spouse rejects your notion of a well kept, functional household, that would be HER choice. If you choose to quarrel because of your disagreement, that would be both your choices and society has no say in any of it. Your choice is the most influential factor in all these situations. In fact, your choice is so influential that it makes it impossible for public attitudes to affect you, unless you accept public opinion as an influence, and even then, it's still YOUR choice to accept it's influence." I"m not sure that all my opponent has eluded us to is the notion of free-will. You know the term "culture"? This, what I am eluding to, is what a "culture" is. It"s a commonly held set of values and beliefs that are held by a group of people. For example, in the West it is our common belief that people should be free to choose so long as it doesn"t infringe on the rights of others: and that males and females are of equal legal status. That is just one culture among an infinite number of different belief systems. Believe it or not, your values derive from that and were not created by your "rationale" or "free-will" as you put it. Actually, the ideas that you and your partner have are rather rare if not unique in human history so lets be more humble about it. So to dispute this I will argue that the idea that you are both free is just another idea. It is not the default. So to suggest that because you have a choice means your free from societies influence, is false. It is society that has told you that you are free (to a point). Also, to suggest that a societies value system and beliefs do not affect the behaviour of members of that society is incomprehensible to me. How have you concluded this? My opponent has not explained the concentration of cultural practices around the world, in which I eluded to last round, that clearly demonstrate that culture effect behaviour. I do not feel as though my opponent has adequately challenged this position and demonstrated that cultural attitudes do not affect behaviour. My opponents second paragraph states that I think women should be unequal, or at least practice inequality. What would that look like I ask you? This is pure virtue signalling and I expect better from a debate website member. I don"t know exactly how things should be done, obviously, but women need to feel less guilty about being housewives because that"s the most stable relationship. My argument is that feminism has negatively impacted relationships as it discourages this relationship model. I think women should feel comfortable, and that it should be the norm, that women are housewives. If women want to pursue a career or do whatever they want, they should have no issue. My opinion is however that the majority of women do not fit this feminist ideal and that striving for it is causing relationships to deteriorate. Do you see the difference between that and saying women should be unequal? Also I totally agree that people should do what they want, this does not contradict my argument though, so I would waste words on it. You"re a man? Okay then. I don"t know what your point is on your third paragraph other than that free-will effects our relationships too; which I don"t really know where to go with, as I am not sure how it challenges my premise and we have already discussed it. Your last bit in the paragraph: "Perhaps my opponent is a snot, and expects his spouse to do all the cooking and cleaning and leave him free for his manly pursuits, like getting drunk at the pub and watching football (soccer). Perhaps she's not a very nice person and refuses to help out at all. Or maybe like BB king said, the thrill is gone. I don't think feminism plays that big of a role in those situations, perhaps your both just mean people." This is ridiculous; what about I run a business which earns lots of money, takes up much time but allows for sporadic and unpredictable free-time to become available. I do this because of my "male typical" mentality of single-minded pursuit of goals. My partner gets to live with wealth, spend time with her children, look after the dwelling and pursue her own, less intense, ventures. She does this because she is happy to relax and do repetitive and low intensity work more than I am. We have been through this in my last argument did you not read? It fits our personality, like with typical males and females. Females love kids and males love to be socially ambitious. "My opponent suggested that I was arguing that males and females have no differences?!? I call on my opponent to come up with a quote in any of my arguments that shows that I actually feel that way." Does this qualify? "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" But then you go on to admit there are differences. So what are these differences? and why then is my premise wrong that the belief that men and women are the same leads to negative consequences in relationships? If you admit this belief is wrong.