A young adult’s view on Parental Guidance: adolescent stage

A thought after a parent-discouraged sleepover: Parents can show their children the way, but its still up to them if they want to follow it, make a detour, take a different road or create their own. It’s one thing parents should learn to accept, because once in their lives they’ve also experienced the surge of youth that’s never without the want if not the passion to learn things on their own, even to the point of foolishness. Perhaps not so genuine, but almost never ceases to be true.

The young have that innate urge to take experiences first hand in order to satisfy curiosities, prove themselves, learn things their way...etc. It’s how they develop their personalities and discover what they really want in life. Reality check though would tell, stumbling/failing/falling is never out of the possibilities, and that’s where parental fears stream in.

Plainly put, stumbling is encompassed in the good/bad/null possible consequence of every human endeavor. Yep, human endeavor and not just youth endeavor. It can happen to anyone and it happens to everyone. But why all the fear on stumbling? Parents answer: “Its enough that I stumbled before, but my child? Oh no, no.”

Parents can be overly imposing and protective because of their stumbling experiences in the past that they don’t want their beloved children to have to go through, without realizing they are blocking the possibilities and opportunities that can only come from freeing their children from too much parental bondage.

Contrary to popular thinking, stumbling is not wholly destructive. In fact it has the potential to sow inner strength and solid independence without regards to age. Remembering a beautiful line back in high school, “No gem is made without friction, not a man perfected without trial.” Every person needs a bit of pain to understand the use of painkillers. Every person needs a bit of scratch to know it is better to be careful next time. Because, only told will never be wholly understood. Perhaps that’s foolishness or perhaps that’s human nature.

That is not to say however that parents are no longer without role in an adolescent’s life, they still play a crucial role as in guidance and counseling, in keeping that atmosphere of love and belongingness, in being parents. There’s no diminishing their worth, only adjusting their roles. I hope they understand. And I hope children too understand because once parents learn to adjust, that’s when they will have their true beloved independence and everything they ever wanted will be theirs. But that’s when the true tests begin.

She Vies: Reviewing feminism.

In retrospect
Archaeological evidence from Europe and the Middle East has suggested that Stone Age Civilizations practiced goddess worship and were organized as matriarchs---social orders with women in charge. What went between those times and the beginning of eras when men began to dominate societies wasn’t stated. But by the time scrolls and early forms of record materials have been invented, what were scribbled and sculpted in them were already the glories of patriarchs.
For hundreds of years, this was the way in which the world has been operating: men in the upper echelons of society and women assigned under their protection and direction.

Women React
Earlier women must have already felt the pressure of the restrictions imposed upon them by society, but it was only in the 18th century when feminist ideas began to reach public ears and the 19th century when the term ‘feminism’ gained popularity.
Feminism is a collective term for systems of belief and theories that pay special attention to women’s rights and women’s position in culture and society. Feminists are united by the idea that women’s’ position in society is unequal to that of men, and that society is structured in such a way as to benefit men to the political and social detriment of women.
Mary Wollstonecraft of England, Simon de Beauvoir of France, Hildegard of Germany, and Betty Friedan of the United States of America are among the leading feminists of their time.

The Cause
Feminists have identified various aspects in which inequality is most evident and depressing for women based on their individual cultures.
Islamic feminism for example tries to redress issues as polygyny (having multiple wives) and purdah (seclusion from home). In western countries as in the US of A, though home to women proponents of the belief system, feminist movements have not rested and continuously target such as inequality in the workplace. In many Southeast Asian countries especially those with rigid cultures, traditional ideas on the nature and role of women have impacted the way they were treated in society. In the Philippines, women view has been influenced by the three-century-rule of the Spaniards who introduced the traits a woman must possess: religious, self-sacrificing, submissive, conservative and left out of the affairs of the state as in the person of Maria Clara in Jose Rizal’s two famous novels. Because of this, many women before have not received equal education and opportunities as men.

Society Responds
However, Pressing issues that highlight gender are no longer left unchecked by society. People have been made aware of gender-sensitive use of language. Women are given the freedom to air their public opinions. Professions are slowly becoming less gender-biased. The status of a husband and wife in the family as in terms of decision-making are now at par. At last, society has opened its arms to hear “herstory”. But…
Considering now that men have opened their minds and embraced women as their equal, a question remains hanging, waiting to be answered by all women united, if their cause is to succeed: Are they ready to pay the price of genuine equality? Are we?