Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The Vish-Vruksha of Patriarchy : Chapter 2 (Inheritance, Progeny, Monoandry)

Continued from Chapter 1.

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The male, who built his wealth, wanted a successor. Notice this : having a successor was a 'want', not a 'need'.  He did not want to part with his hard-earned wealth and wanted only and only his own progeny to inherit it. In a way, it is Okay. A person would want to give his/her possessions to her own children, not to any arbitrary person under the sun. 

The problem was, he could not remember who his progeny was, since he had mated with several females. Those females, in turn, had also mated with several males during their reproductive age. This became a huge confusion. The genetic lineage could not be identified! Even if the male had mated with only one female, he was not sure of that female had mated with other males! Therefore, who was his successor?! Who does he give his property to?

The female never had to worry about this. She knew for sure who her child was (it was a no-brainer). She had given birth, nurtured, and looked after the child (for years). She also knew who the father of the child was, though it was a redundant piece of information for her! She brought up her child, taught her/him life skills, educated him/her, trained her/him and developed his/her value-systems. She could have only one child in a year (gestation period is 280 days, and then the female reproductive system needs a few months to return to normal). The male, on the other hand, could have several children in a year (the process of sperm-transfer took hardly a few minutes). However, the male was competing with other males. This competition was two-fold : (1) Fighting to accumulate more wealth as private property, and (2) Fighting to 'mark' his female who is bearing his progeny.

It is this striving for genetic evidence of paternity that led males into perceiving women as baby-producing machines. A male wanted to 'mark' a female as his heir-bearer, and prevent her from mating with another male. In order to promulgate mono-andry, the 'institution' of marriage developed. A female was 'allowed' to mate with only one male. However, the male could marry as many females as he pleased (polygamy), simultaneously; without anyone 'allowing' him to. This helped him remember which females he had exclusively mated with, thereby confirming paternity and ensuring a genetic heir.

Mind you, all this planning and development was happening without any say of the females, who had already been silenced into submission through their financial-dependence on males. By now, the economic power of males and their ability to provide food and shelter to females has caused the females to 'look up' to males and unconditionally obey them. Being obligated to the males, the females began cooperating to enhance the male interest. Female obedience to males had already become a norm. The female remained wary of males all the time (Disobedient females were tamed  by superior physical power of males). In spite of that, those females who could not be tamed were outcast from the mainstream society, and were no longer provided for (they were left to fend for themselves).  Pregnancy and child-bearing made females asking for food-and-shelter from males, because she did not have to time to hunt/grow her own food or earn her own money. Therefore, most females yielded to the institution of marriage, through fear and survival instincts. The male became her 'provider', later elevated to 'pati parmeshwar'. The scales of power tilted, making it a more vertical relationship. The male gave orders, and the female took orders. The female relinquished her independence to forward the male cause of concentration of wealth. 

Men started controlling women. Women lost her sexual freedom (in exchange of food and shelter) and became reproductive slaves. A female's virginity became a 'prized' possession. Men wanted to mate with 'fresh' wombs, not a womb 'dirtied' by another male! Biology check : they did not know that an unused sperm gets washed out of the womb in the next menstrual cycle, making it fresh again! (More about this in the upcoming Biology Chapter). So ingrained became the idea of monoandry that men started equaling the woman's virginity with her 'character', completely ignoring her biological needs. She was supposed to control her sexuality and become passive about it. She was not supposed to show any sexual desire, but rather patiently wait for a man to make the sexual advance. A woman who 'dared' to approach a male for mating, i.e., who made the 'first' move, was labeled as "chaalu" and characterless. "A girl should not approach, but wait to be approached" became the default modus operandi of male-female interaction. Thus started the sexual suppression of women. 

Over centuries, women forgot that they are naturally sexual beings. They never explored their reproductive system nor masturbated. "Enjoying herself'" made her feel guilty. So scared she was of feeling happy and fulfilled, that she stopped enjoying sex, let alone orgasm during the act. Even if she did climax, it was by the man's effort : the woman took no active part. She waited for things to be done to her. Even men forgot that women are sexual beings. Sexual excitement in female became an alien concept for men. A sexually excited female made a man uncomfortable. A woman expressing sexual desires shocked men so much that they became judgmental of such women. Trying to dominate and control every aspect of a woman's existence, he developed a sense of entitlement of sex. He began assuming that the wife "owes" him sex as his will. Thus, women became sex slaves to their husbands. 

Coming back to the institution of marriage, the man wanted to 'tag' a female as his exclusive baby-producing machine. When he chose a female (mind you, women had already lost their choices), he wanted to announce it to the world, such that no other male impregnates his chosen female. This process of announcement needed a social gathering. All those gathered saw the pair, wished them well, and saved this piece of information in their long-term memory. They also knew that this pair is going to reproduce now (read : they are going to have sex tonight in the suhaag raat). In order to display monoandry, the female was 'marked' as 'taken'. Presto! Sindoor! That was a 'red signal' to stop other males from approaching her! BTW, Men don't put any markers of marriage on himself because a woman will not approach him for marriage herself. She has already been programmed since pre-teenage not to talk to boys.

Sindoor became a status symbol for the hypnotized woman. She wore it with a sense of duty and dedication. She actually showed it off, announcing to the world that she had a male protector of her vagina. Can you imagine a man wearing Mangalsutra with a sense of duty?

Widows removed off their sindoor. It is because there was no living penis to penetrate her vagina now. But because her womb has already been 'dirtied' by her husband's sperms during his lifetime, no other man would approach her. That explains why widow-remarriage was something unheard off in India until  the 19th century. The same holds true today for divorced women : they were considered as stale wombs. No medical professional nor Biology book could dehypnotize men and women. This take us to Chapter 3 (Biology).