Free Essay Exampl - Tradition Is Not Always Right

Tradition dictates what most of us follow and is a rubric that most people and cultures use to lead their lives. From the beginning, we are told how to pray, how we are supposed to treat our neighbors, what and how we should eat. We are supposed to follow some set of rules from the moment we are born without deviation to preserve our tradition (Moghadam). In some cultures, people believe that deviation from tradition is a recipe for failure and wrong things to come. As such, going against tradition is not condoned, and, with it as our guide, there is no single way we can go wrong. However, I came to realize that tradition is not always right or the right thing to follow.

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I have grown up in a patriarchal society. As such, different things that only support men and their ideologies are always being reinforced. However, I attended a gender equality seminar a year before, where I met an expert who taught me many things on the subject. The expert hails from Iceland, a country where men get to experience the world's highest life expectancy. In the country, men live almost as long as women do. It is worth noting that, on average, women leave longer than men worldwide as they have a higher life expectancy. Tradition is more than one way that has shown not to be best when followed unknowingly.

During this encounter, I learned a correlation between male well-being and a country's gender equality. The tradition of male dominance has led to more harm than good in many societies to both men and women. Contrary to what many people think, or have always thought, the societies and countries where women and men are more genders equal are less likely to be depressed, get divorced, or lose their lives due to violence. The realization undercut some of the favorite men's rights activists' facts that since men die younger than women, there is no reason to embrace feminism. However, I was convinced that a world where feminism is not tolerated would lead to an increase in these problems and not necessarily reduce or solve it.

The patriarchal tradition that has dominated most world cultures even though it could be a reason to shorter life expectancy on men. The expert convinced men that feminism could cure a shorter life expectancy that befalls most men. According to him, some of the reasons women typically have longer lives than men include different biological advantages that allow them to have more stamina and resilience despite the stereotypical thought that they lack it. Other reasons are cultural and traditional aspects of life, such as men being more tolerated and likely to abuse alcohol, smoke, have work accidents, and take part in high-risk behaviors.

The World Health Organization stresses that the reasons men don't have longer lives are: the way they work as they are likely to endure more chemical and physical hazards, their discomfort with health practitioners where they are less likely to see doctors, and when they do, they tend not to report all the symptoms of illness or disease, and willingness of males to take risks and adventures. The expert narrated to me how he was surprised when he worked as a lifeguard as more than 75 percent of victims of drowning were men. Even though they might possess equal or more aquatic skills than women, they are less likely to use life jackets and sometimes even overestimate their swimming abilities and take more significant water risks.

It is a tradition that most male-dominated societies expect men to endure most of their problems without much complaints like females do. It is common to hear the phrase "be a man," "face it like a grown-up," "men don't do this," and others. In perspective, most of these perceptions are hurtful and make men more disadvantaged than they think. Also, some of these traditions are harmful to women as they tend not to have a voice in most things that directly affect them. It is fair to say that the expert enlightened men in many aspects that I did not know or had limited knowledge about.

Dismantling the ideal and traditional concepts of masculinity can be something that will be helpful, especially to men and the wider community. The traditions that condone certain behaviors on men and not on women, such as drinking and smoking, have proved not to be beneficial as one would think at first. However, everything needs to be taken with sobriety and logic as the violation of the idealized masculine codes can lead to more stress to men hence leading to more strains that they are already facing. Traditions are handed down through generations, often by tribal people that impose moral and survival lessons (Alagiri). Other aspects that reinforce tradition are religion and religious texts such as The Quran and New and Old Testaments. For instance, these spiritual scriptures stress so much on male dominance and rarely talk on women's importance in society. The talk made me realize that it is not always right to follow tradition as it is not always right.

Works Cited

Alagiri, Sasikala. Tradition And Modernity. Changing The Images Of Women In Selected Fiction By Manju Kapur And Anita Nair. Diploma Verlag, 2018.

Moghadam, Valentine M. From Patriarchy To Empowerment. Syracuse University Press, 2007.