Tradionalists and Conservatives need a huge shift in their mindset
Twenty or thirty years back, the social problems were very different from what they are today. Back then, unemployment and industrial strikes were the main problem. However, today, marital problems, relationship breakdowns and stressed interpersonal lives are the ones that top the charts.
These problems have turned so grave that even crime has trickled into these problems. Spousal murders, partner violence are the new terms in the social context. Also, in the last 40 odd years, a lot of new laws have come up for tackling relationship issues and interpersonal dynamics. However, across globe, there is a one common pattern observed in these laws – all these laws are one-sided, gender biased and loathed against men. They are all anti-male in nature.
These laws are created with a feminist jurisprudence with an underlying thought process that women are generally good and men are generally bad. Women are always the victims of unprovoked abuse by men and if there are instances of a woman abusing a man, it is mostly an act of retaliation.
This belief, however, isn’t feminist oriented. Its root lies in conservatism and traditionalism. Conservatives inherently believe that women are good natured, caring and sensitive and that is the reason when feminists asked for wrong laws to be passed, they agreed. And that is why there are laws like Section 498A (The infamous dowry law of India), Domestic Violence Act, etc. in India.
Conservatives also believe that men must be kept under pressure in order to make them work tirelessly without questioning and that is the reason in general, the social contexts are also anti-male in essence wherein a man is constantly judged and his “manhood” is under constant attack. All these behaviors are an inherent essence of a society ruled and governed by traditionalists and conservatives who keep on talking about the importance of culture, values, tradition etc.
Apart from this hardened beliefs on gender roles, society and culture, conservatives have also made certain rules about sexual orientation and have laid down rules for the same. According to conservatives, intra-gender sexual attraction is unnatural and a crime. A glaring example of the same is what happened to Alan Turing – the father of modern day computing as shown in the pic below.
My question to the Conservatives –
- Who has given the authority to Conservatives to define sexual orientation?
- When sexual orientations are natural instincts and if nature has created certain individuals with a particular sexual orientation (homosexuals), how come it is against nature? And if nature wants to go against itself, why should conservatives have a problem?
- If religious books say homosexuality is unnatural, then who has written these books? Again, it is these conservatives who have written it.
Inherently, all human societies are ruled by Conservatives and it works on a single premise that it is a good practice to mark those as rebellious who talk of respecting individual choice. And this is the exact shift that Conservatives need to bring in them. They need to loosen their hardened stand and start respecting individual choices.
Otherwise, it is a just a matter of time that these Conservatives will start losing their power.