How are men treated in different religions?

Hello, this question is not meant to be offensive in any way. I am religious myself.

I do religious studies and we were talking about how religion and religious societies and cultures discriminate and oppress women.

That got me thinking. I remember seeing a bunch of misandrist quotes from the bible. And I also know that circumcism is normal or even enforced onto young boys for religious reasons. Women also seem to have innate worth (although my class was arguing they only have worth if they have babies but I feel like that’s the same with men) and men are expected to protect women and sacrifice themselves.

They were saying things like forced marriage, laws about female sexuality, not allowing abortion is misogynistic but this all happens to men too?! Since when have men been sexually liberated? And think about how male homosexuality is way more condemned than female sexuality and that men have no reproductive rights whatsoever

Do you guys have other examples of discrimination against men in religion?

[–]Asatmaya 1 point2 points3 points 2 years ago (6 children) | Copy Link

[–]StrongBlackMagic2005 0 points1 point2 points 2 years ago (1 child) | Copy Link

Christian here. I can answer a couple of questions which you may have.

First, the Bible was written in a time and culture where mainly men would be reading the scrolls or hear someone else read them. As such, many verses referring to men only, such as those of sexuality which you have mentioned, would use men in place of everyone.

Literally nobody interprets this as only gay men are sinners whilst lesbians walk scot-free because as evidenced elsewhere in verses like Romans 1:24-27, the main takeaway was that homosexuality as a whole is bad (regardless of gender).

As for the abortion take, that's a slight stretch. First, the definition:

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"

Striking the womb would be a case of intervention, so that wouldn't technically cause a miscarriage.

As for the most important thing and what you were actually implying, this behaviour was clearly not allowed. In both scenarios, the one who hit the women is punished - don't see how that permits an action to be repeated.

As for the murder take, remember that verse 22 says '[if] there is no harm' then it is only a fine. If the baby is born deformed or dies (as a result of being murdered), then that's obviously harm which can be linked to the pregnant women being hit.

Well, there are all the times God ordered the Jews to kill all the enemy men, but spare the women

Whenever the Jews are ordered to wipe out the men, it's not because God hates men or prefers women more. They are ordered to wipe out the sinful tribes around them who threaten to prevent the growth of Israel in the Promised Land God gave them.

How do you eliminate a tribe? You take out its armies and those who teach and pass on the cultures of that tribe to the next generation. Who were the ones responsible for doing both of those things, especially in the past? The men and so they died. There was rare cases where God orders the extermination of entire races including the women, such as the inhabitants of Jericho, as to remove all trace of the former inhabitants from the land which the Jews are going to possess.

Otherwise, the women and children would be left alive as they would pose no meaningful threat to Israel.

TL;DR - God's not sexist. If I'm to be completely honest, it sounds like you're projecting whatever negative behaviours you are seeing from women in society today onto God when they don't apply.

Also, do you mind giving a verse on the enforcing of men into marriage? You've piqued my curiosity there.

[–]Asatmaya 0 points1 point2 points 2 years ago (0 children) | Copy Link

Literally nobody interprets this as only gay men are sinners whilst lesbians walk scot-free

That was actually how it was interpreted for most of the last 2000 years, e.g. medieval European laws against homosexuality specifically exempted women, for the precise reason that they weren't mentioned in those passages.

"If she loses the fruit of her womb, but otherwise no harm..." i.e. the fetus is explicitly not a person for purposes of murder.

Then why were only some tribes dealt with like that? Other tribes were killed, women included.

God's not sexist. If I'm to be completely honest, it sounds like you're projecting whatever negative behaviours you are seeing from women in society today onto God when they don't apply.

Um, I'm an atheist, I'm not "projecting" anything onto "God," much less imputing any kind of intent.

This isn't about God, it's about the people who use the idea of God as an excuse for terrible behavior, which hasn't changed in 3000 years.

do you mind giving a verse on the enforcing of men into marriage?

Deuteronomy 22:28-29

"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives."

[–]Warthog2023 0 points1 point2 points 2 years ago (3 children) | Copy Link

[–]Asatmaya 0 points1 point2 points 2 years ago (2 children) | Copy Link

[–]Warthog2023 0 points1 point2 points 2 years ago (1 child) | Copy Link

Title	How are men treated in different religions?
Author	Cheetahfan123
Upvotes	3
Comments	7
Date	September 13, 2023 11:55 AM UTC (2 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/16hl299/how_are_men_treated_in_different_religions/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/how-are-men-treated-in-different-religions.1231671 https://theredarchive.com/post/1231671

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