Ominous Rise of a Bachelor Generation
Here’s an article I was sent by a friend which I think is interesting in terms of gender, culture, and global future:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/20110307/ts_dailybeast/12761_worldwidegendergapmeansmorebachelorsinasia
Thoughts?
April 11th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
HI Sami, thanks for this. Ferguson’s a little late in the game on bringing this crucial issue up, as he points out to some extent by citing Armatya Sen’s work from the 1990s. Feminists in particular have pointed to the ways in which reproductive technologies have produced a swell of male births in some countries, with feticide performed if the fetus isn’t male. One of my students last year, Nandini Shroff, wrote a wonderful thesis on just this topic in India. Female infanticide is also a practice in some countries that prefer male children. I find his lock up your daughters line to be part of the problem rather than a thoughtful response to the issue, which has historically been detrimental to women in ways that he highlights. The complex issue needs a less alarmist tone and reductive kind of description than he gives here.