【文稿在微信找】大男子主义盛行，剩女难嫁

Xiaohua: Recently, ABC Spanish Daily Newspaper publishes an article saying that in China, if a single woman is aged above 30, no matter how pretty or smart she is, it is very difficult for her to find a suitable marriage partner. John: I think this is funny, actually, because the age in China is usually 27. Xiaohua: The newspaper attributes the problem to male chauvinism in China. But before talking about whether this conclusion makes sense, I want to know what your definition of what male chauvinism is. John: Chauvinism is just basically the belief that you are better than others. We can use that in male chauvinism, certainly there is female chauvinism. There’s cultural chauvinism. It’s just an idea of superiority to a certain degree. I think the way it’s used in these days, especially in the Chinese cultural context, is a male with traditional ideas about general roles. The men should make more money; the man should spend more time outside the home, especially at work and the women should pop out babies and take care of them and do all the cooking and cleaning. Liuyan: Yeah, exactly. So men who always act like, “Don’t argue with me. You know nothing.” That type of man. Xiaohua: Yeah, I think the feeling of superiority is definitely there. John: Right, but again, they feel superior because they are MEN, not because they are a CEO or because they have a certain position. That’s why it’s MALE chauvinism. Xiaohua: Boo-hoo. John: There are women, even in our organization, that are female chauvinists. Xiaohua: Anyway, let’s talk about this Spanish newspaper’s report. Do you think that this is why there are a lot of single women above 30 here in China, that’s because male are too chauvinistic? Liuyan: I don’t think it’s entirely the reason. At least from where I can see, I think one big reason is that a lot of people are just considering if I’m getting married, finally getting married, I would want someone who is younger, so that I can have better offspring. John: Yeah, you have to remember this comes to do the sexual selection strategies of men and women and how they are different. I think it is impossible to blame men for being chauvinistic. Certainly, we do find that Chinese men can be, some but not all, a bit too traditional in their thinking about gender roles, but I think that’s changing fairly rapidly especially among younger, more educated urban people. I’m not sure about how big of an issue that really is. I think a lot of it has to do with sexual mating strategies. So, again, as I said before, women operate on hypergamy, they want to, in general, again some but not all, women are looking to marry up. Whereas men, they are looking for someone to provide offspring, someone who can physically care and actually give birth to their children. In that sense, I think that both parties are to blame, if we have to blame anyone. If you’re a successful woman at 30, in China right now, it is going to be difficult to find a man who is older and more successful than you are OR someone who can necessarily accept you are an independent woman because this is a very new thing. Most people, women and men, are not used to this happening. Men usually like to marry, or at least mate with, women younger women as well. So it’s a bit of a catch 22 for the successful woman, but it can be a catch 22 for the successful man as well. Xiaohua: Yeah, I think it is true. Yeah. Liuyan: Also, I have to say that I don’t necessarily agree with this ABC Spanish daily newspaper article. I recently read a book called Dataclysm and the writer of that book is one of the cofounders of OKCupid.com and he uses data collected from his own website and also eHarmony.com and things like that. He reaches the conclusion that men, as long as no one is looking, they will always pick women who are around the age of 20 to 21. John: You’re right, I know exactly what you’re talking about, but that information is based solely on looks. So solely on looks, men are attracted almost exclusively to women in range of 20 to about 24 no matter what the man’s age is. But women, the age of men they are attracted to goes up as they go up.