Shifting Perspectives: A reason for sexism

It has often been taught, and rightly so, that sexism is a terrible practice and even in today's society is still evident in many places. Having spent the better part of the last two months studying woman's suffrage I can confidently say it was just that, suffrage. A dire imbalance of the sexes where women were almost as responsible if not more so than men for their oppression.
             So much time and effort has been spent trying to portray and express how prevalent and unjust sexism is and how deep rooted it is and has been in many cultures most (myself until recently included) that most do not take the time to ask "why" and even when they do the answer given is that men want to be superior, to be on top and women to be on the bottom. But what if an issue that has for so long been pervasive in human societies is not due to the fact that it is men trying to remain superior in their culture but that it is in human nature and a product of human evolution? What if sexism were reversed and men were treated unfairly, paid less, and looked down upon while women held the throne? many would say that it would not happen because it is not in women's nature. However what if past and current sexism was not due to the fact that it is a man's instinct to have the advantage but a human's instinct and women were merely the losers of a long ancient and decided battle?
            Like racism, discrimination and prejudice sexism has almost no real basis for even existing. There is no evident advantage men or women have over one another just as the mind's of a particular race do not have any hereditary advantage over one another either despite past attempts by scientists to prove it. Like everything else in the world, ideas and concepts have evolved, devolved been created and destroyed. It is my belief that sexism is just another such mutation of previous concepts and beliefs based on the shape history has taken. Women have a primitive disadvantage thrown upon them due to the simple fact that they are the ones who reproduce, who have pregnancies and create the new generation. This has proven to be as much of an advantage as a disadvantage however certain things are undeniable about human reproduction.
           Human children take on average 9 months to be born due to the fact that the human mind takes much longer to develop than almost all other species. In those 9 months women face a continually degrading state of independence, this is not an argument it is just a fact. Would you ever consider asking a woman who is 7-8 months pregnant to help you move heavy furniture or run a mile with you? In an evolving and fast moving world women frequently as a whole have to slow down or stop completely when it comes to having children.
           While not so evident in today's society where women have only a few children in the past and in other cultures women had or still have as many children as possible, and preferably at their prime when they are healthiest. This ensures a safer birth and healthier birth for children but also impedes a woman's advance during the prime of her life. I believe that this single fact has played a huge role in the past where men dominated women in society and extreme sexism was the norm. When you throw actually raising the child into the mix a women's prime (especially in poorer classes where more children meant more safety in the long run) is severely hindered and time spent on other things such as education and work skills takes a back seat. Over hundreds of years of this repeated practice men became the ones who did the work, developed their muscles and had more time to study and learn as a whole while women were...preoccupied. This resulted in a women's natural gravitation towards leaning on the man for support, since it is also in human nature to take the easier rode when it is open to them. Women are VITAL to society and this cannot be stressed enough, and in other societies and perhaps in all early societies men and women shared equal status or women were possibly even in charge, however as time went by human's natural instinct to get ahead, to make the best possible situation for themselves evolved into men becoming dominant over women. While to any outsider it would appear women should be in charge as only they can secure the future for the next generation, women became reliant on men especially as expanding societies demanded more children from every women lessening their own experience and skill outside of child bearing.
        I'm not saying this was always the case or always true, women are perfectly capable of dominating over men and making huge advances of their own. But when you take early societies starting before the time period AD and as a whole have women producing children and men supporting them it is not a stretch to imagine that in the hidden war of who would dominate whom men were obviously in a position to take control and they did. So while sexism is a wrong and vile practice and belief to grow up on, it is perhaps not a bad idea to take a step back. While instead of pointing fingers today at one another for why sexism exists, why not take a step back and see why it began in the first place? In a maturing world of exploration, expansion and evolving societies an internal struggle sprung up and by looking at the facts it is obvious why the victor won and why sexism had such a strong presence in the past and even today. While it is wrong and should not exist in the first place, it does, and it is up to women to fix the rift of beliefs that has formed over the last several thousand years.  Maybe this time as women gain more power and influence in our modern society they will not take advantage and dominate men once it is in their capacity to do so. Maybe this time women will take the high road and instead of reversing the sexism upon the men who created it in the first place maybe they will create a balance of the sexes instead of another monarchy.
        

The fine line between self awareness and self appointed philosophical superiority

In literature, in our world today and over the course of time individuals have sprung up and made their mark. They have been renowned as philosophers, advanced thinkers, geniuses and icons, individuals who promote ideas and beliefs that possess such a stark contrast from the world around them. Throughout history men such as Socrates and Plato and other famous philosophers have, through years of personal and worldly reflection, developed ideas and concepts that remain applicable to the human race as a whole despite the wear of time and changing societies. However, what separates genius, a person who seems to have the answers and has complete understanding of the world around them from those many who simply believe that they have self-appointed intellectual superiority over those around them, the "mindless rabble".

Generally this kind of superior thinking develops from those who are in nobility or positions of power but as we have discovered in literature their are also those who have self appointed themselves with philosophical superiority. In the novel "The Awakening" a strong emphasis is placed on "awakening" a development of inner mental awareness in the main character that lets her "see" the world for what it really is. Even in today's worldtheir are multitudes of people willing to show, explain, and even teach their own revelations and epiphanies to the world around them. Radical religions, extremists, and other "well-doers" all believe they have it all figured out while at the same time most of the world considers them mad. While in the same population are individuals whose ideas and beliefs are revered and treated as brilliance such as Oprah, Doctor Phil, and Ellen.
The line between them in reality is very small while from the outside these groups are on complete opposite sides of the spectrum in the eyes of the American public today.

What I am trying to get across is that in this world, in literature and in our day to day lives their are those who say they have it all figured out and we call them crazy while someone we respect may give us an idea or different reality that we embrace as absolute truth. We look at someone like Edna and some would view her as a woman escaping the confines of her society to be what she wants to be, the future of a woman's ideals for some. Personally, I think she is just a selfish nutcase. She is a woman who starts to develop her own ideals and finds it so liberating that she in the end puts herself above society, she is of the belief that she has discovered a truth that only she is capable of finding in her life and no one could understand her even if she explained her ideas, which she also never does. She commits suicide in the end because she thinks she can never find a place in her society, leaving a family with children, she dies for some a tragic hero, for me she died a fool.