Why in Asia do the myth of the Feminine Ideal still thriving ?

Question

I live in Asia, so it affects me on a personal level.

I feel like the role of females are relegated to the backwaters here, reduced to immanence, the female can only find fulfilment in the other(male) according to his twisted asian ideals of what it means to be feminine, the docile, submissive subject without a rational agency of her own.

It's a universal issue i know, but why in Asia is it more prevalent compared to the west, generally speaking?
Thanks all.

Answer 1

brahmanand's answer is a perfect example of the twisted male ideals of being feminine in asia.

i agree with you, it affects me on a personal level too.
women are looked upon as being inferior to men and only capable of doing the housework..thankfully this syereotype is breaking away slowly..asian women have come a long way, amd are no longer willing to take the back seat and let the men drive.

as to why it's more prevelent in asia..i think it's partly religious teachings, the extremeny patriarchal social set up. also, the western social set up(which was the same not long ago) crumbled down in the late 19th-early 20th century because of industrial revolution, the two world wars and the start of the feminist movement. Asian society on the other hand clung to it's old social set up in the wake of colonial rule. it has not been very long for most asian countrie since they've got their independence. already, much headway has been made, and it'll only get better with time.

Answer 2

Universally, women are put into a category beneath men. It differs only culturally. In Asia, it is the docile and submissive ideal, I remember when Japan had its first female hockey team for the Olympics, and their goal was simply not to lose by ten points, being more docile than say, female hockey players from Germany. The submissive female is the cultural icon of the female in Asian culture. In the west, reduced to a sexual standard of impossibly thin, or in Brazil, plastic surgey since looks count for everything there. It goes back to the days when women were all homemakers, and not in the workforce. We can't go back to before the war and the onrush of women in the workforce, and we still can't shake the stereotypes from before. I think that is the universal woman of the day, however the picture of a woman is painted.

Answer 3

I don't think it is more prevalent in Asia. In the west women may be allowed more freedoms, but we are still thought of as objects. Even successful women are seen as "unfulfilled" if she doesn't have a man in her life.

Millions of young women -- and a good many older ones -- suffer from eating disorders (bingeing, bulimia, anorexia) because our society has taught us we have to look a certain way to have any worth.

Answer 4

In Asia Woman is not regarded purely as a pleasure product.
There was great respect for woman and she was regarded as the cultivator of man. History has record of many great woman who did not go out side their home. In India woman is regarded as the primordial creative force(amongst the HINDU'S) and worshipped as such. In the recent history Ma anandamoyee's husband realised her divinity and became her disciple.
In ancient lore it is said that Nalaini made the sun fixed and the
celestial beings had to come down and request her to release the sun. When woman steps out of her home she subjects herself to all kinds of risk in which she ends up as the ultimate sufferer. modern days advocates are so shame less that in open court they ask a woman to show how she was raped.
It is a world of the male animal and female should always be protected otherwise she will be lost.