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At the end of all these discussions about men and women, about femininity and masculinity, it may be worth remembering something simple yet fundamental.

History does not move forward when one sex rises against the other, but when both are liberated from the roles that centuries imposed upon them.

Man was not born to be a warrior.
Woman was not born to be submissive.

Both were born for something far greater:
to be human.

As long as societies continue to worship the stereotypes of exaggerated masculinity and constructed femininity, they will reproduce conflict, injustice, and distorted images of human nature.

But when people stop seeing gender first and begin seeing the human being, then perhaps such “international days” will cease to remind us of inequalities and will simply become memories of an era that humanity has overcome.

Until then, the most meaningful celebration is not that of woman or man.

It is the celebration of the human being.

Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. Just as, for example, May 23 is the day of the sea turtle Caretta caretta. The latter is a species threatened with extinction. The former, as a human species, “lives and reigns”. Not only that — it “conquers the world”.

Of course, the cunning patriarchal males established such an absurd and shameful celebration only so that the centuries-old belief about woman as the “weaker sex” would continue to linger, along with the roles and characterizations that the system loaded upon her. Among them the image of a weak and vulnerable creature. Yet also cunning, deceitful and unfaithful. And this perception dates back to the biblical era of “innocence”. Only Adam, however, was naïve and unsuspecting. Eve — constructed from his rib and not created first — the “female man”, already carried cunning within her from the very beginning.

And if you want further proof that such an international day for “Eve” was established by the patriarchs themselves, let us recall that today those same men will fill their women — each one separately — with an armful of flowers! Just like in the good old days of the male-dominated era of romance.

Such celebrations are therefore remnants of other times. Let us move on to examine myths and constructs — sometimes patriarchal and recently even gynocentric — as well as truths and realities of history. Most of these issues we have analyzed here before. If not all of them. Today we will simply mention them briefly, since “the day calls for it”.

Man and woman are sexes, male and female. They do not possess a separate property or essence. There is only one dominant attribute: the attribute of the Human Being, which belongs equally to both men and women.
The man is not naturally stronger in muscular terms. The development of the body in both sexes over the centuries resulted from the “strengthening” of the male and the gradual “degeneration” of the female body due to long-term physical inactivity — without exercise, without heavy manual labor.
The supposedly unbearable pains of childbirth are largely a myth — another result of that physical degeneration. Additionally, they are psychological, reinforced by the dramatic meaning that centuries have attributed to childbirth. Proper physical training and psychological preparation of the pregnant woman prove this. Especially when the process leads to home birth, in a familiar, friendly and safe environment. In such cases the pains of childbirth are significantly less intense.
Men are not violent by nature. Nor does there exist, in general terms, “violence of men against women”. What exists is violence against women by distorted and barbaric individuals who adopt archaic patriarchal stereotypes — remnants of primitive times.
Regarding the very real and serious problem of murders of women by men suffering from pathological egoism or psychological disorders, such behaviors do not concern the male sex as a whole but only that sick minority. Their punishment must be relentless. The myth — now offensive — that “all men are the same” unjustly insults the overwhelming majority of men as partners, fathers and brothers.
If special mention must be made of severe misogynistic oppression and violation of women’s human rights, it concerns societies where patriarchal domination remains extreme — particularly in certain Muslim societies or in societies of rigid social stratification in parts of the East and Africa, with the horrific practice of female genital mutilation.
If serious inequalities between the sexes have existed historically, they are mainly systemic and social remnants of centuries of authoritarian power structures that led to patriarchy. Yet the greatest and most tragic inequality in human history has been the mass slaughter of the male sex in its role as the “soldier” on the battlefields of war and the crushing labor imposed upon men in times of peace. A shameful and bloody tradition that continues today, with millions of young men turned into “minced meat” or permanently mutilated on battlefields.

With these convictions and by highlighting such pathologies but also obvious truths, we “celebrate” here not the international day of woman, but the day of the Human Being.

And we close with a brief conclusion:

All these myths, distortions, and pathological causes will disappear almost “as if by magic” when two great plagues of our era — affecting both sexes — are overcome: the diseases of exaggerated femininity and exaggerated masculinity. In other words: sexism.

But we invite Diotima, with her fresh perspective and free of gendered burdens, to speak about these two great “curses” of societies in all eras — and especially of the last two centuries.

Femininity and masculinity, therefore.
Sexism, in other words.

The keyboard now passes to Diotima.

Diotima’s Text

Femininity and Masculinity: Two Social Constructions and One Common Trap

If one looks carefully at the history of human societies, a paradox quickly becomes visible. A human being is born simply as a human being — with a biological sex, of course — yet very soon becomes burdened with roles, expectations and models of behavior that go far beyond biology and belong to society.

These expectations have been called “masculinity” and “femininity.”

In reality, they are not inherent qualities of biological sex, but cultural patterns of behavior created by each era in order to organize its society.

The Construction of Masculinity

In most historical societies, men were expected to be:

strong
warriors
dominant
emotionally silent
ready for conflict or sacrifice

This image did not arise from biology but from the historical needs of power structures that required:

soldiers for wars
workers for heavy labor
disciplined subjects

This exaggerated masculinity eventually became a trap for men themselves, depriving them of:

the freedom to show sensitivity
the possibility of rejecting violence
the right to refuse sacrifice in wars and coercive systems

In other words, men often became tools of power structures.

The Construction of Femininity

At the same time, society created an equally restrictive image for women.

Femininity was defined as:

passivity
tenderness
patience
care for others
aesthetic appeal and charm

This image too is not biological. It is the result of social organization that placed women primarily in the sphere of:

family life
child-rearing
domestic labor

Thus the idea of the “weaker sex” was born — not as a natural law but as a historical stereotype.

The Common Denominator: Sexism

When these patterns turn into rigid rules that everyone must follow, sexism appears.

Sexism simply means:

assigning value, ability or limitation to a person solely because of their sex.

Sexism harms not only women.
It harms both sexes, because it restricts human freedom.

Examples include:

the man “must” be tough
the woman “must” be gentle
the man “must” fight
the woman “must” care

Yet human nature is far richer than these molds.

The Modern Challenge

Over the past two centuries, with the spread of education, rights and scientific thought, societies have begun to question these stereotypes.

The challenge today is not to replace patriarchy with another form of dominance.

The challenge is simpler and deeper:

to see the human being before the gender.

That means:

seeing the man as a human capable of both strength and tenderness
seeing the woman as a human capable of creativity and determination
recognizing every individual as a unique personality

The Meaning of the Day

If March 8 has a real meaning, perhaps it is not to celebrate one sex against the other.

It is to remember something simpler and more demanding:

that the human being exists before the roles society imposes upon them.

As societies move beyond the stereotypes of exaggerated masculinity and constructed femininity, they move closer to a more mature form of coexistence.

And perhaps then such “days” will cease to be reminders of injustice and become simply celebrations of the human being.