The main takeaway from Alderman’s novel is there will always be consequences to inequality no matter who is greater than who. In one of the closing chapters in the book a minor character states, “Gender is a shell game. What is a man? Whatever a woman isn't. What is a woman? What a man is not. Tap on it and it's hollow. Look under the shells: It's not there.” The point being that inequality is a terrible thing no matter who is in charge, in this case no matter if men or women are in charge. The brutal imbalance of power that many of us suffer under cannot be solved through a simple reversal. Putting women in charge might make things better for a while (a very short while in Alderman's fiction) but ultimately, someone will always suffer until everyone is valued as equal.
IMAGE: Jean-François Martin for TIME, https://time.com/6124390/suffering-make-you-stronger/
This post really made me think, and I agree that there will always be inequalities no matter the current circumstances we're in. Saying that "someone will always suffer" is such a true point, because you can see that if someone is in charge they can't always please everyone and someone will always will be unhappy. Also someone will also suffer whenever someone is in charge because someone is always overlooked. I had never thought of gender as a shell game, because it is just the outside of you, and what people see when they look at you. Gender is definitely a game, but to think of it as a "shell" game was captivating and this sounds like a very interesting book!
ReplyDeleteI like the claim that there are always consequences to inequality. I do think someone will always suffer because there are always going to be a hierarchical structure - where someone will be on the top and someone will be on the bottom and then the rest in the middle. But I also do not think there is a point where anyone will think that they are equal. I think achieving equality is harder than just accepting your given place in life. But it is interesting thinking about how the reversal of genders in power would play out. Due to our biological and sociological difference, could society benefit better from women being in charge? I mean we are the people who keep the world in motion
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ReplyDeleteWow! I think that is such an important take away that we all have to learn early in life. It's so true that there will alway be consequences to inequality !! We live in a society where there's lots of pressure on certain ideals and I find it very ironic how we all desire what we don't have or what we see as lacking in ourselves. Inequality seems as if it's inevitable but we should all still continue to strive for it as seen in your description of the book I think it's cool how in the book they put women in charge even if it's for a while because it's just another example of how everyone should have a fair chance to lead and that equality in leadership /etc is not impossible it just needs to be strived for. This book sounds like such a good read:)