I was floored when I read that a survey found 42 percent of men to have faked orgasms. Further research found several recent surveys with statistics around 20 to 25 percent. That number springs to 42 percent, according the U.K. daily The Mirror, when examining the 18 to 34 year-old age group (listen up, Duke girls). You can Google this yourself. Just be careful what you type into the search bar and do not, as I learned the hard way, hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button.
While I was mostly amused by such a statistic, it did get me thinking about other ways that traditional gender roles are changing. As women come closer to achieving equality, many of them are pushing for more than a 50-50 split of power. Consequently, men of today are becoming the women of yesteryear. The faking of orgasms is the least of the problems. Simply put, more men are being personally dominated by women in relationship dynamics.
The theoretical aspect is nothing new. Any mathematician will tell you that a 50-50 split only exists in theory; in practice nothing can be split exactly in half. So it goes with power. Someone has to have more-one person has to be on top, even if it is by the smallest of margins.
What is surprising is that women are increasingly the ones doing the mounting. But in all honesty, can anyone blame them? Men dominated and subjugated women for thousands of years, as they still do in some parts of the world. What is the harm in finally getting some payback?
The problem is that this takeover is packaged under the guise of "feminism." However, once the bra-burning fires of the 1970s were out and the smoke cleared, it became obvious that many of them kept taking even after reaching the halfway point.
In some areas, women are still far from equality. Even today, they earn less than men and domestic abuse continues to be a problem. In terms of relationships, however, the women of today have men whipped. Men of today are so thoroughly house-broken that they make the housewives of the fifties look like crotch-grabbing lumberjacks.
If it was wrong for wives to report to their husbands in the 1950s, isn't it just as wrong that so many men have to report to their wives today? All those house-broken husbands who have to clear it with their wives before going out for a beer or a round of golf-isn't this oppression?
Oh, but women are doing this for men's own good-research shows that married men are healthier and they live longer. Yes, but as a friend of mine says, an indoor cat also lives longer. The fact that it's just a windowsill-sitting fur ball stripped of its claws and testicles is somehow irrelevant.
This is how we have arrived in a gender culture where men increasingly have to apologize for their obsession with sports while women gloat about their obsession with shoes. A culture where, after a fight, the man is the one who ends up sleeping on the couch. If most relationships today come equipped with a doghouse, shouldn't we also add a bitchhouse? It's only fair. Equal treatment-isn't that what feminists wanted all along?
It's human nature to want power, and once you have it, why would you give it up for something unrealistically altruistic-like the silly concept of "sharing?" Feminists are right in claiming that men didn't give women equality, but rather that the women struggled for it and took it. What they don't mention is the fact that women have no incentive to stop taking it even after they reach the midpoint.
It's a little ironic that a movement based on the notion of equality has no issues with inequality as long as it is getting a bigger piece of the power pie. Women are already exceeding men in college enrollment, completion and a variety of other indicators of success. In terms of relationship gender dynamics, their dominance over men is even greater. Yet, the sisterhood doesn't seem to notice that these things don't fit under their banner of "equality."
Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with this. If women are smarter and more capable than men, they should march ahead and take as much as they can get, professionally, educationally or romantically. Men certainly would-and have-done the same. However, it's a little unfair to call it a struggle for equality when it's really a struggle for dominance and power.
Emin Hadziosmanovic is a Trinity senior. His column runs every other Tuesday.
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