The man becomes a man by getting out of the standard
According to research conducted in several European countries, the households where one spouse plays a dominant role, there are less controversies and more children are born. Scientists’ explanation is shallow, equality means competition, and competition without controversies is impossible. In fact, in approximately 25% of surveyed European households, the dominant role is the woman’s role, and in 75% – men’s role. The researchers specifically point out that domestic violence does not generate from the dominant position. This phenomenon in the household is not conditioned by gender equality or inequality.
Naturally, each of us when reading such publication refers to his own family and tries to figure out who is dominant there. I personally do not care about the matter of dominance, neither in private nor in public life. As they say, I replace the obsession of being the first with the commitment of being the last. By the way, this purely political slogan is applicable also in man-woman relationship. Most of the men highlight the fact of “being the first” for their partner instead of preferring to “be the last one,” in other words, to be so good that his wife would never think of anyone but him. And the obsession to be dominant at home or in the workplace seems infantile to me.
But generally, it seems to me that “demanding equality” by some European standards is as wrong as insisting by Asian standards that the man should order and the woman should implement. In both cases, you enter a realm where everything is very personal. There is no average option that is applicable for the culture (even within the European culture) to which we definitely belong. What is meant by an “average statistic person”. There is no such a man in reality to determine whether he will be living an “equal or unequal” life. As said by a philosophical trend of the 20th century, the representatives of existentialism – to exist means to differ.
Man is not the make of a vehicle, where standardization is required, the more the better, so that the spare parts or in case of a computer, the software should be suitable for a large number of equipment. But in case of the man, everything is opposite, the more your behavior is close to an average “standard” made by someone, less uninteresting and useless you become. The same works for the national culture. For example, were the elections in Iran in compliance with the “European standards”? Apparently not, theocracy has nothing to do with those standards. But who can claim that the elections there were not fair.
Thus, there are European standards, and there are standards approved by the European bureaucrats. It can be said that the social equality demand between the sexes generates from the overall logic of European values, whereas the demand of the principle for equality in the household – no, because herewith an attempt is made to regulate what is not subject to regulation.
… To the point, about vehicles. Often, the vehicle experts are asked, “Which is the best car in the world?” This question has no answer; it depends on what you need the car for.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
