Traditional Women's Roles

 And now we have June 9th. Yeah, I'm going to do this. 

So, this one doesn't really have a lot of sources because, again, this is just something that I'm going to pull from my knowledge and common sense. It also isn't entirely Pride, but I'm putting it here anyway because it seems to fit. 

By 'Traditional Women's Roles', I am referring to really old roles. Not just in the last 10 years or something. 

The first real time we can talk about Traditional Roles is with the Hunter-Gatherer societies. 

Here's the thing. Men went hunting because they were more expendable. If a man died, fine, but if a woman died, so did the babies she would have brought to the group. Considering what they knew at the time, they might not have known that men were actually involved in that at all this time. There's also that women couldn't run after prey as easily while pregnant, and they needed the job that meant they could have noisy babies with them. For those reasons, among others probably, women needed to gather the slower moving nuts, berries, fruits, and veggies, instead of the faster moving deer or something. 

Unlike what a lot of people think though, I do need to point out that those nuts and berries were the bulk of their diet. They didn't have meat every day, and for a very long time, they didn't even have a lot of meat. Unlike the whole 'bring home the bacon' suggestion, the guys weren't doing most of the providing. 

So a quick recap. Men hunted because they were more expendable. Women stayed with the kids because they had to nurse them. Women provided more of the food. 

Could men stay with the women? Sure. There were probably plenty of men that couldn't run as fast/far and stayed with their mothers and sisters to gather food and look after the children. 

Could women have hunted? Yeah, there were probably women that went out with the hunters, since they could hunt just as well as anyone else, as long as they weren't pregnant or nursing. 

When everyone started settling down to farm, women were in charge of growing the plants to gather and the kids, and the men still hunted. 

Then they had herds that had to travel with the grass, and that led to them being away from home a lot if needed. Again, not good for women that might be pregnant and have babies. 

The herds started staying in a single area, and got fenced in, and the men started taking over more of the grunt work because they tend to be better at that, and women stayed with the kids. 

At this point and following, here's what you need to focus on. Women got kept at home at least in part because those women were having kids and were the future. They were protected because they were the future. They got traded around like chattel because idiots forgot that and instead focused on them not having the same skills. 

A lot of the more simple cultures allowed for same-sex relationships, trans people, or anything else that popped up, because it wasn't a big deal to them. I say simple, but that's not a bad thing. It just means the ones that don't get bogged down in complications and rules. Things like the Samoan Fa'afafine were fine because they still had work they could do and they still did important work. It's not like they were lazy because of it, and there was a lot more important things to think about. 

So, there's a reason for tradition. 

But, there's no reason to let tradition stop you from doing anything. Most of those reasons aren't valid anymore, so don't let them get in the way. 

Culture changes slowly, but it does change. So, to quote Ghandi, 'Be the change you want to see in the world'. So, if you want the world to change, do it, but do yourself a favor and don't expect it to be immediate. 

Sorry if this is weird. Sorry if it doesn't make sense. I'm apparently ranting today.