Traditional Values, Modern Debates: A Look at Gender Roles in the Digital Age

by Hennesis Encarnacion
Instagram is an extremely popular social media platform. Every user has the opportunity to express their opinion and can share intimate details about their life through photos, captions, and other personal content. Most people use it as a business platform to promote their brand or products. Some users are themselves the product and spread awareness on specific topics of discussion. A noticeable trend on Instagram is podcasts where Western men share their views on women. They discuss personal perspectives on how women think and function, and what they like and dislike about women.
In the eyes of someone scrolling and looking for something to get their mind off reality, they may come across this and find it amusing and entertaining. Many Western men who host these podcasts bring on modern women as guests while openly siding with traditional values and expectations. At first, it seems like lighthearted, interesting, and mature conversations are being had. However, the true goal of these podcasts is to argue with the guests on controversial topics to prove that men are superior to women. It has nothing to do with the values, principles, and customs of a traditional lifestyle. Essentially, these men invite women to the podcast, not to listen, understand, and respectfully share perspectives, but to impose me vs you. A common question the hosts ask women is, “What do you bring to the table?” in an aggressive and demeaning tone. The women respond, “I cook, clean, work, and take care of the kids, and you just work.” Then the men typically reply with, “Well, I can just hire a maid to do all that.”
When listening to these podcasts, it becomes clear that the emotional attachment men and women in the West have towards division. If you look at the roots of this divide, many of them trace back to colonialism. Colonial power’s goal was to conquer and divide as much territory as possible, starting with destabilizing the most important foundation, which is the family unit. There are two opposite yet complementary forces, a man and a woman, working together to continue humanity’s existence. Colonialism has destroyed societies by not only forcing men to work tirelessly for someone else’s profit but also gaining the attention of women. Women began to feel like they were inferior due to the colonial lifestyle, and began protesting for equal rights and pay. However, if we are being honest, America is just about business, and a successful business needs hard-working and devoted employees. The system giving women equal rights and pay was a distraction from profiting from more taxes. Allowing women also to work was not about rights or equality; it was about gaining more agents, which meant more profit. This tactical approach guaranteed women to believe they were gaining more freedom when, in reality, it was being stripped away.
This Western lifestyle has left women vulnerable and open to corruption. Women have to abandon not only their position as a wife but also as a mother. A mother is a child’s first everything, but especially a teacher! Who is raising the children if women’s goal is to only become the idea of a businessman? The goal in life is to pass down the knowledge and wisdom from our lives to our children. Whose hands are we leaving our children’s lives in? Children are being educated for over 18 years by strangers who all stand on completely different morals and perspectives. We are creating confused and unstable children because there are too many options in what a man and woman “should be”. They are being taught that there is a reality that they can choose to become any gender they feel like at the age of 7! This “education system” has preyed on young children’s innocence and corrupted their becoming into adult women and men. This is a never-ending cycle that’s rooted in a colonial mindset.
So, are we surprised that our society has collapsed and there is no sense of cohesiveness? My experience in a traditional culture has exposed me to the fact that there is real value in it. Men and women have their respective roles and responsibilities that fit into the larger whole. A woman not only “cooks and cleans”. She is responsible for the continuation of a man’s bloodline, feeding, nurturing, and educating the becoming of said bloodline. She is responsible for future civilizations. Traditionally, this is something women acknowledge, respect, and uphold. That’s a quality that is priceless.
At some point, we have to stop blaming the “system” for creating this division. We play a huge role in how the system functions because we are the system. It’s easy to believe that we are not responsible for where we are. It’s easier to look at everyone else than to look at ourselves. We can’t even see how destructive it is because we’ve been conditioned to behave as if this is favorable for our evolution.