The Ugly Side of Beauty - Essay Example

The issue of male dominance was not very relevant in a world that was primitive and full of physical dangers. In such a society, physical strength was considered to be important rather than intellect. It was only when the concept of safety and protection became orderly and came under the ambit of a written law that was enforced by a government that physical strength became less important. It could have been due to this that women became aware that they were not treated equally in many respects by the opposite sex.

As mentioned earlier, the demand for the right to vote became one of the early expressions of dissent. The concept of male dominance appears in one of the basic psychological and social needs of human beings, namely religion. In Western religion, even the concept of God is based on masculinity. God is said to have told Adam that he had been created in the same image as the creator himself. “The god-head of this system was to be a male. This male god was endowed with all the creative abilities of man.

” (Gardiner 2009). The religious contention that man was created in God’s image may be one of the basic underlying factors that made a man believe that he is superior to women and hence has the right to control her. In later years, the church also played a role in this regard. “Towards 1000 A.D. the Roman Catholic Church in Europe took an increasingly negative and ambivalent stance towards women. Evil was seen to come to the world through women, women’s sexuality was seen as impure, and priests were required to leave their wives and stay celibate. (Mikkola 2005, p.6). The role of women in religion, the church, and society was also severely curtailed during that time.  As mentioned earlier, things began to change after universal suffrage began to be accepted in many countries of the western world by the early half of the twentieth century and the concept of a women’s movement for equality and rights began to take shape. A lot of changes for the betterment of women have taken place over the years some of which have been hard fought for by progressive thinking men and women.