And boys and girls?
Men historically have defined the sexual parameters of society, from the Puritans to the Taliban.
Not out of protection, but out of fear of competition. Virgins are prized not for 'purity', but because they won't be able to make comparisons. Remarks like "Boys like sex and girls don't need it" have ancient roots, and they are NOT because women are on a pedestal.
Quite the opposite.
Yet the messages we women get from birth until death are "Like sex, hate sex, stay pure, be a slut, use sex to get things".
Either you protect children (yes children, boys and girls) equally, or you look deep inside yourself and see what you fear.
Is this why ugly women always seem so angry? :-)
Children...protect them all, equally. Teenage years are when the differences emerge and the legitimate double standard exists.
Yes, men have always been in charge. Always will be unless you want to move to a basket case of a country like Sweden where masculinity has all but evaporated.
Sure there WAS the taliban, and thanks to REAL men like GWB and our soldiers, they live in caves only beating their own wives and not the population at large.
Sure there was the Puritans, and thanks to REAL men like John Adams and Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson this country was founded on much more enlightened principles.
So yes, men have been the definers. But men created the mess called radical Islam and men created the Catholic Church, the greatest institution in history. Men created the witch burnings, and men created the Renaissance.
Some men beat their wives and other men beat the shit out those who beat their wives.