A man whose expert opinion we greatly valued, whose erudition we admired, and with whom we always cooperated with great pleasure. We publish his latest article from the May issue of Psychologies.
“The sexual revolution of the XNUMXth century was predominantly female: the decline in the age of sexual debut, changes in partnerships and in the perception of erotica were much more pronounced in women than in men. Sexual shifts soon developed into a gender revolution. Previously, men and women had to «conquer» each other, using centuries-old techniques, but rarely competed with each other: a man’s rival was always another man, and a woman’s rival was another woman. The high-society lionesses of the Balzac era were no less energetic and power-hungry than their husbands and lovers.
But then a woman could make a career only by finding an appropriate husband or organizing by her specifically female means (including the seduction of all his superiors) the social advancement of her chosen one. Today, these restrictions have disappeared, men and women openly compete with each other in many areas of life. Co-education in school undermines gender segregation and makes conventional perceptions of differences in abilities and interests between boys and girls problematic.
Some people think it was better before. but the gender revolution is irreversible: we will not want to return to the past and we will not be able to
Women are ahead of men in terms of the level of education, on which a professional career largely depends. The polarization of male and female production roles is weakening. Men are losing their monopoly on political power. Family relations are also developing towards gender equality. This creates psychological problems, with men and women experiencing pressure in opposite directions. Women involved in competition are forced to develop “masculine” qualities (perseverance, energy, willpower), and men, who can no longer rely on strength alone, develop the traditionally “female” ability to compromise, empathy and the ability to put themselves in the place of another.
Some people think that it used to be better, but the gender revolution is irreversible. In order to return the patriarchal order, it is necessary to remove women from production, science and education, force the family to live on a man’s salary, and, finally, encourage women to abandon social claims. The economy will not survive the first (most of the workers are women), the family budget will not be able to withstand the second, and even talking about the third is ridiculous. We will not and will not be able to live in today’s world according to the concepts of an imaginary past.
* You can read more about this in Igor Kon’s article «Three in One: Sexual, Gender and Family Revolution» published on the Demoscope website: www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2010/0447/analit05.php