re: #135 Pawn of the Oppressor

I’m no anthropologist but I can only imagine that it’s rooted in biology, or some primitive evolutionary social factor dating back hundreds of thousands of years or more. And not every culture in the world sees things this way - it can be unlearned or ignored - but enough men have this in their hearts somewhere that it’s pretty much a permanent factor in gender relations, even now.

I’m no anthropologist either, but I think you’re probably right, or pretty close to it. Barring modern advances in medicine, such as in vitro fertilization, I’ve long suspected that it has to do with the fact that a woman always knows her offspring is hers because it came out of her body, therefore her genetic material gets passed on no matter what.

Not so for a man—he can’t be sure unless he has 100% control over a woman’s reproductive organs 100% of the time, hence the often extreme punishments for adultery and things like honor killings.