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Girls from upper middle class background still get forced into loveless marriages that make their families look better...not to meantion, romany girls, many african cultures etc...
what it comes down to is stupid political correctness bending what is actually right...
Too often we tend to define culture by what the patriarchs of that section of society say or do. Politicians are so afraid of offending somebody or being called racist some pander to the more right wing of them. How annoying. :yeees:
There are groups who exist though, like Southall Black Sisters, who help a lot of these women. However, they were threatened by budget cuts before, but are still going... So far as I know. :thumb:
Thankfully, even African countries where some of this originated are getting the message and banning the practice. Eritrea did in 2007, Egypt did in 2004, and doubtless there will be more. Altogether, it's estimated there are over 2 million female circumcisions carried out every year - most of these in dangerously unsafe conditions. How many more women will not be able to tell of the horrors that have happened to them, for fear of being disowned by their families? For fear of violent retribution or death if they expose the truth?
More about the brutal horrors of female circumcision here, if anyone is curious.
Interestingly a few years ago (I think it was in Boston) a doctor had either proposed or set up a practice where he would make a small nick in the clitoral hood of women, under sterile conditions, allowing them to have the ritual, but not as drastic or dangerous as infibulation. People found out about this and threw their hands up in moral outrage and it was promptly stopped. After this, the mothers were taking their daughters to Africa for infibulation.
Let me assure you I don't make light of such matters. I was simply suggesting the article writer was concentrating on every day life for the average person in Britain and what they encounter in their daily lives, rather than the plight of women in general.
i wouldn't but it makes sense...
In fact I've often thought about changing my name if I get married (although it's probably unlikely) for no reason other than to break a stupid custom.
As for children's names, I had the following idea when I was little (about 10): what if sons got their father's surname and daughters their mother's?
The parents of a friend of mine did that. They also lied to their children about being married (they were hippies and very anti-establishment, but married so the grandparents wouldn't have heart attacks when babies came along). When my friend was 13, her parents sat her and her brother down and said, "What do we think about little white lies?"
I've considered changing my name too actually, as it would be quite nice for the name to be the same so you are recognised as the same family in a way. Unfortunately if that's what you want either a woman will have to change her surname or a man will have to chnage his, there's not really a middle ground except not changing your name. But I think people get too het up over surnames. They originally just were your fathers name, you only got first names and then your second name was who your father was. Sometimes people's second name was their profession.
Maybe it's because I'm a man so it's not something I'm expected to do but I just don't see it as an issue
Maybe it's because it's racist, or maybe it's symptomatic of the environment these works / ideas were founded in. So maybe the Mrs and adoption of surnames is something that came about because of the patriarchal system but in itself I see it as harmless - particularly now because women have the freedom to decide what they would like to be called for themselves.
For centuries, people (of ANY colour) have been scared of the 'black' night, the 'black' things that go bump in the night and the dark, shadowy figures that may move about at night too. Mordor and its inhabitants are just extensions of this 'traditional' fear. Its got nothing to do with racism. If you REALLY think an orc as described in LOTR looks like a Black man, then I'm afraid you're the 'racist' with some weird version of stereo-typing.
Adding the 'Oliphants' and the 'Easterlings' etc was probably just to make the story seem more 'exotic'. Racists tend to be consistently racist and so pulling out a few passages from LOTR rather than looking at Tolkien's life as a whole, seems a bit unfair.
just because something can be construed as '....ist' doesn't mean it is! Though you can find lots of ideas about Tolkien just like you can find lots of ideas about Mrs just by doing a google for 'Tolkien Racist'.