I have to laugh at the Chinese government pressuring unmarried women to get hitched. A little background: In 1979, the Chinese government instituted a one-child policy to curb the population. Because Chinese tradition dictates that the oldest son cares for the parents in old age — and we wouldn’t want to mess with tradition, now would we? — couples opted to abort girl babies or put them up for overseas adoption. Now the policy, which ended in 2015, has bitten the government in its considerable butt. The gender selection chicken has come home to roost as the fewer females of marriageable age have the pick of the crop.
Woe, however, to the lady who wants not only to have her own career and opinions but — heaven forfend — to “self-partner,” in the great turn of phrase of singleton Emma Watson when a pre-Meghan Prince Harry came calling.
And that is what men have wrought. Not all men, mind you, but those with the overweening pride and selfishness that have driven their monopoly on power. It is that hubris — which the ancient Greeks saw as the fatal human flaw — that has led Chinese President Xi Jinping to make a muddle of the coronavirus, imperiling not only lives but world markets. It is that arrogance that has Bernie Sanders positioning himself as the Democrats’ version of the “my way or the highway” candidate. It is that narcissism that has Trump setting himself up as a judge, jury, jailor — or get-of-jail-free card — for the fat cats, while the little people bake in cages at the southern border.
But nature has equipped women with a power of their own — the power of their beauty, the power of sex, the power to turn the tables on their objectification with their brains, talent, hard work, sisterliness, courage and integrity. China has merely underscored women’s ability to pick and choose.
Or, in the modern age, not to choose at all.