I was having a beer with a couple of friends last night, and somehow I ended up discussing Foreign vs. American women with a female friend of mine.
We were talking about divorce and I told her that if an American man marries a foreign woman he is less likely to get a divorce.
What was her response?
"That's because foreign women just want to be servants!"
That's when the kid gloves came off and I told her MY opinion. I told her that American women tend to be less desirable because they are hellbent on COMPETING with a man instead of COMPLIMENTING him.
She started talking about how American women are "iindependent" She must have used the word independent 15 times in 5 minutes.
I won't go into the intricate details of the convo, but it went round and round with her asserting that women should be "independent" and me asserting that PEOPLE should be COOPERATIVE and work together to capitalize on their inherent strengths while compensating for the other person's weaknesses.
We talked about why the divorce rate is so high today. We both agreed that it has a lot to do with the fact that today divorce is much less stigmatized, but she couldn't see how women wanting to compete with men might play into the equation, or how a woman's desire to be "independent" (thus ensuring her self sufficiency) might also contribute to the high rate of divorces. In other words, if a woman knows she can go out and get a job, she has much less incentive to make a marriage work, and will be more inclined to file for divorce at the drop of a hat. She just couldn't see it.
Another interesting comment she made was that "back in the day" men wanted to control their women so they could run around cheating on them.
I asked her if she believed that overall women have it BETTER today than they did 30-40 years ago. She believes they do.
I followed up that question with "So do you believe that women today are HAPPIER than they were 30-40 years ago"?. She paused for a second and finally answered "Yes, I believe they are generally happier today than they were 30-40 years ago".
Me? I believe women DO have it better today. They are in the "have my cake and eat it too" period. But are they happier? I seriously doubt that.
What do you think?
We were talking about divorce and I told her that if an American man marries a foreign woman he is less likely to get a divorce.
What was her response?
"That's because foreign women just want to be servants!"
That's when the kid gloves came off and I told her MY opinion. I told her that American women tend to be less desirable because they are hellbent on COMPETING with a man instead of COMPLIMENTING him.
She started talking about how American women are "iindependent" She must have used the word independent 15 times in 5 minutes.
I won't go into the intricate details of the convo, but it went round and round with her asserting that women should be "independent" and me asserting that PEOPLE should be COOPERATIVE and work together to capitalize on their inherent strengths while compensating for the other person's weaknesses.
We talked about why the divorce rate is so high today. We both agreed that it has a lot to do with the fact that today divorce is much less stigmatized, but she couldn't see how women wanting to compete with men might play into the equation, or how a woman's desire to be "independent" (thus ensuring her self sufficiency) might also contribute to the high rate of divorces. In other words, if a woman knows she can go out and get a job, she has much less incentive to make a marriage work, and will be more inclined to file for divorce at the drop of a hat. She just couldn't see it.
Another interesting comment she made was that "back in the day" men wanted to control their women so they could run around cheating on them.
I asked her if she believed that overall women have it BETTER today than they did 30-40 years ago. She believes they do.
I followed up that question with "So do you believe that women today are HAPPIER than they were 30-40 years ago"?. She paused for a second and finally answered "Yes, I believe they are generally happier today than they were 30-40 years ago".
Me? I believe women DO have it better today. They are in the "have my cake and eat it too" period. But are they happier? I seriously doubt that.
What do you think?