This is the problem with women.
The problem with women, is that they are better than men. In one of the stories in “Thousand and One Nights” , a tale was told about a King and his wife’s unfortunate betrayal. The Story vividly describes the characters interactions, and leads to some interesting insight. We meet a powerful King, his brother, the King’s Vizer, and the Vizer’s daughter. After the King’s brother witnesses the adultery take place and informs the King, King is shocked of what has happened. He decides to deal with it in a specific way that leads to the intoroduction of the Vizer’s daughter.
The King develops a plan to marry one woman a night every night, and kill her after he is done with her. This is his way of ensuring that a woman could never be unfaithful to him. The Vizer’s daughter asks her father to be married off to the King, and he tells her she’s a fool and how the King has been killing his wives daily. To this, the female asks to hear the story. This is one of the important characteristics we are given about this character. Her being curious means she wants to know more, and is not afraid. After hearing the story, she insists on being married off. Her plan, is to end the daily murders of other women with this one night with the King. If she could make it into the next morning alive, the Kings ritual would be over. This builds an imagine of a lady who isn’t afraid of authority. She is displaying many characteristics that over time have been distorted into being “male” characteristics”
I think that over time, certain characteristics that have nothing inherently to do with gender, got separated into male and female categories. It’s completely plausible that it could have been woman that had “manly” attirbutes. This has significant shaped how we associate those qualities with people. The King could have continued his ritual with hundreds of women and the death toll would most likely have continued to increase because we end up acting within the constraints of these characteristics that are forced on us.
4 responses so far
I think you made some good points about male and female attributes assigned in the story, Thousand and One Nights. I’m no teacher so don’t take my word for anything. What I didn’t understand by reading your post is why women are in fact “better” than men, and further why is it such a problem? It could be my faulty reading ability, but I didn’t feel as though you touched upon this in a manner that helped me understand the predicament and statement. Great read though, thank you.
what?! Being better than men has become a problem? I totally disagree, not only because I am a woman, buy also because Men are foolish. In this text, Shahraya, a man, is killing women in a way that destrosed their purity first. He believes all women are as evil as his ex-wife. He is painting every woman with the same brush, what a foolish action! If Shaharzad is not being better(smarter) than Shaharya to stop him killing, then girls are going to die out, There would be no more marriage, no more children, and the city will die.
I hate to say it, but I have to admit that in some points you are right. Sometimes we are just acting what society what us to act, especially on gender issues. That is because society has already set the characteristics men or women should have. If we don’t follow it, it would be a problem. As you said, these stereotypes are the constraints make us different from what we want to be.
I agree with many of the points you make here. I feel that men as well as women are forced to portray a character rather than have their emotions visible. Many of what we think of as “Manly” characteristics are almost inherently human. Women are told they have to be strong and just deal with the world than men control around them, males are not able to handle this level of helplessness.