[Buddha-l] Re: Gender on Buddha-l

[Benito Carral]

Dear fellows,

   Just my two cents. I would start with a rather silly
statement, "Women are not what they used to be." I mean
that some decades ago masculine and femenine roles were
more  clearly  defined.  I  know that many people don't
like  the  "postmodern"  label,  but  in our postmodern
world,  at least in the one I use to live, gender roles
are  quite blurred nowadays. Many of my friends who are
women don't feel the duty of fulfill the dated roles of
housewive   and  caregivers,  most  of  them  look  for
fulfillment  in professional life and relationships not
based  on commitment or sexual fidelity. I'm not saying
this  is  good  or  bad,  just  trying to represent the
reality I'm familiar with.

   If  we  buy  the  postmodern discourse, there are so
many  different  roles  out  there  that  talking about
masculine  and  femine  roles  is  not  useful anymore.
However  I  don't  buy  such  discourse  here.  It's my
experience  that  in our globalized world there are not
many  differences  between  women  and  men. Maybe such
differences  are  more  significant  to middle-aged and
grown-up individuals. It's clear to me that free market
forces are interested in creating "free (individualist)
individuals"  no matter if they have been born women or
men.  So  I  would  say  that  we  are  in  a  world in
transition.

   Keeping  that in mind, I would say that the conflict
between being mothers or professionals is a question of
deciding  what a role one wants to play. (And as I have
said  before,  it  seems  that new generations are much
less  exposed  to such a conflict--and I'm deliverately
leaving   aside  men  conflicts  and  gender  studies's
terminology  becasue  maybe  it would too much for this
post.)

   There  is  also an interesting and related question,
the  return  to  religious  orthodoxy by many young and
educated women who have rejected the new role that free
market  forces  are  trying to sell them (if someone is
interested   in  this  phenomenon,  I  would  recommend
_Rachel's  Daughters:  Newly  Orthodox Jewish Women_ by
Debra  Rennee  Kaufman. Although it is about the Jewish
tradition,  it  also  covers  a  lot  of general topics
related with the main issue.)

   Bringing the discussion to a more Buddhist ground, I
think  that an interesting question to those (women and
men) who have adopted the new individualist role is how
it  fits  with  the  Buddhist  moral  view.  Is looking
fulfillment  in  work  in  harmony  with right livehood
(given   than   employers   use   to  be  greed  driven
corporations)?

   Best wishes,

   Beni