As in it doesn't lead to such rampant sexual openness therefore they are less exploited. Every society has it's underbelly but I think the West’s exploitation of women was much less due to the sexual stigma. Such open lustfulness wasn't proper for either sex. Then these men go East and see such sexual openness and assume it is natural. To an outsider that may seem the case, but under veneer it is years of Eastern cultural norms that made women behave in such a manner. Knowing you could lose your head by being a prude is a powerful incentive to not be a prude. You would think these men could have figured it out. Then again we still not any closer to figuring out woman’s sexuality than we were 500 years ago, if you think this is an unfair statement go to any book store and see for yourself.

I don’t think colonization had anything to do with the exploitation. The fact is in most of the world, less so in Europe, women have been treated as property to own and trade. Women were a commodity and accepted it, albeit forcefully. This is still true today. I don’t think Eastern sexuality liberated Western sexuality. Western sexual liberation and women’s rights came from the idea of liberty and enlightenment than the East. Women have long held a high status in the west than in the east, from the Greeks to the present. It’s only recently that women are considered equal to men- still this is mainly in the West.

veneer

Concerning the high esteem of women in the West, China had Empress Dowager at the turn of this century. The U.S. has had how many presidents? (or even V.P.'s?).

The Real Slim K:

Concerning the high esteem of women in the West, China had Empress Dowager at the turn of this century. The U.S. has had how many presidents? (or even V.P.'s?).

Seriously. Need anyone point out the former is an inherited position? No merit is required (though one could rightly argue, given our previous president, that that's true here as well).

Okay, sorry, replace China's empress with the elected women leaders of Pakistan, India, and the Philappines...?

Yes, some sexual repression is a GOOD thing. STDs don't come from NOT having intercourse with strangers.

If you look at the bio of the empress dowager she did not inherit the post. She obtained it through political infighting at court. Think Hillary Clinton not Queen Elizabeth II.

thanks business analyst. and by the way, any way you slice it, the Empress Dowager was China's #1 chief executive for years and years before any woman in America was allowed to vote. Similarly, when Mao said 'women hold up half the sky', there were no books yet from Simone de Beauvoir or Betty Friedan. So, if you were a little girl growing up in the early to mid 20th century, would you REALLY feel more gender self-esteem from your role models in America (rather than the East)?

gunsmoke:

Women have long held a high status in the west than in the east, from the Greeks to the present. It’s only recently that women are considered equal to men- still this is mainly in the West.

I don't think you have any idea what you're talking about. Greek women were treated as akin to slaves. They were denied a vote, sequestered in their own quarters of the home, and only allowed into the presence of other men when close relatives were present. Of course, they had no say in public affairs, could not be seen in the open unattended, and were basically dominated by their menfolk. Since then, the position of women in the West has ebbed and flowed, their freedoms rising and falling over time. Certainly, Roman women had a degree of influence and power, even if it was behind the scenes. With the rise of Christianity however, that freedom quickly receded, and women became little more than chattel once more. Indeed, for centuries Western culture viewed femininity as sinful and debased. Women were more than empty vessels through which the devil could trick and cozen mankind. You'll probably reply with a few examples of powerful medieval matriarches, but the operative word is of course "few"- Empress Irene, Matilda of England, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, very much the exceptions which confirm the rule.

I'm not stating for a moment that "eastern" cultures represented some great bastion of female liberation, but women were generally placed in a far higher esteem in the "east" than in the Christian Europe. For one thing, they didn't have the stigma of being responsible for all the sin and wickedness that existed in the world, the font from which most western misogyny flowed (flows?). There are many examples of historical "eastern" women wielding tremendous political power in their own right, from Zenobia of Palmyra to Wu Zetain of China. Significantly, many of these women held power in their own right, and not through male proxies as with many of their European counterparts. So you're entirely wrong in your closing statement.

It should be noted though, that the advent of monotheism in society and the worship of a single, invariably male God, has often led to a corresponding decline in the role of women within that society. This can clearly be seen when comparing early medieval Europe with the Europe Roman times, and also, to a lesser extent, when comparing the Middle East prior to and post Islam.